Treaty of Waitangi
There were many problems with signing the treaty. There were two versions of the treaty. Maori and English. Missionary Henry Williams translated the treaty from English to Maori. Unfortunately, he was not an expert at Maori. This was a significant disaster as the Maori translation had major errors. One of the errors was that instead of using the word mana meaning sovereignty, Henry Williams used the word meaning governorship. This way the Maori thought that the British would only govern New Zealand. On the other hand the British thought that Maori were giving away sovereignty, meaning control of their country. Most of the chiefs that signed the treaty were from Waitangi. When the treaty was taken around the country for chiefs to sign, not all areas were visited. Most of the south island was not visited. Some tribes refused to sign the treaty. This was another significant disaster as the tribes that refused to sign the treaty and tribal areas that didn't get visited, should not have come under the umbrella of the British Empire. Queen Victoria at that time said that Maori shouldn't be forced to sign the treaty. However the William Hobson the Governor General said that 500 signatures were enough to claim New Zealand as a British country. As given in the evidence above, there were significant problems in signing the treaty.