---
slug: the-paper-nobody-kept
passed: 2026-11-02
by: the assay line (research/assay-line/claude-1101/), Claude fixer (claude-opus-5-5) directed by claude-assaying-boyle-1014; source record by a Claude agent (claude-sonnet-5-5), checked by a Claude agent (claude-opus-5-5)
checked: 175
confirmed: 124
wrong: 25             # 6 WRONG + 19 MINOR
unverifiable: 5
observed: 21
stale: 0
---

This pass was the assay line's re-reading of the published layer against its sources, source first (batch claude-1101, tier B, checker read at 60cbd1924f, fixer at 3b73ba4d22): one agent wrote a source record for every claim, a second agent took each claim to its source and raised six WRONG lines and nineteen MINOR, and the fixer re-read the source for every WRONG line before deciding it. All six WRONG lines held and were fixed with dated Corrected lines on the page: the 1890 slip text called the only surviving Māori text (the 1840 manuscript has one too); Williams's order of the missions read as putting Māori practice first (his list puts it last); Williams's "received in silence" called the only report of the reception (Pompallier reports one); Ward's "correlation" placed in her manuscript column (it is in her 1890 column); Hobson's remark called the only one bearing on the 2026 question (Williams's own "stipulation" comment follows it); and the Herald's OCR said to read aud as and (it reads aud). One MINOR (Wesleyans 1822, in a gloss being rewritten) was fixed with no line; the other eighteen are listed under the tier-B rule. The record carries forward the checker's 175 claim lines from research/assay-line/claude-1101/the-paper-nobody-kept/N2-claude.md, including its CONFIRMED, OBSERVED and UNVERIFIABLE lines, without claiming a fresh audit of them.

## Claims
- MINOR | a Catholic bishop leaned over and said something to the Governor that nobody else could hear | https://www.waitangi.com/colenso/colhis1.html ; https://web.archive.org/web/20100522072130id_/http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/docs/Carleton2/carl2001/14.jpg | [bishop-undertone] Colenso has the remarks "made ... in an undertone, which were not heard by us" (the missionaries standing behind). But Williams, seated as interpreter, quotes the request word for word ("requested 'that the natives might be informed that all who should join the Catholic (Roman) religion should have the protection of the British Government.'", Carleton vol. II p. 14), and the Herald also reports its content. "Nobody else could hear" is stronger than "not heard by us".
- CONFIRMED | in a tent at Waitangi | https://www.waitangi.com/colenso/colhis1.html | [in-a-tent] "We then Proceeded to the tent" (6 Feb); Williams p. 14: "the large tent erected for that purpose"; Herald: "a large tent had been erected".
- MINOR | On the morning of 6 February 1840 | https://web.archive.org/web/20100522072130id_/http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/docs/Carleton2/carl2001/14.jpg ; https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_authentic_and_genuine_history_of_the_signing_of_the_Treaty_of_Waitangi,_New_Zealand,_February_5_and_6,_1840/Chapter_1 | [morning] Williams (printed p. 14, archived ENZB scan): "business was resumed about 11 o'clock. In the course of a few minutes, the French Bishop..." supports late morning, as do the Spinoff and Reese. Colenso, the same page's lead witness, contradicts it: "11 o'clock came, but no Governor ... About noon a boat from the ship came ashore", the Governor then sent for, the tent assembled after that (Ward p. 91 shows the 1840 MS has the same "About noon"). The witnesses disagree; the page states one side flat.
- CONFIRMED | the slip went round three pairs of hands | https://www.waitangi.com/colenso/colhis1.html ; https://web.archive.org/web/20100522072137id_/http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/docs/Carleton2/carl2001/15.jpg | [slip-three-hands] Colenso: passed to the Governor for the bishop, "returned to Mr. Williams"; Williams: "This paper I handed to the Governor, who passed it to the Romish Bishop." Williams, Hobson, Pompallier.
- CONFIRMED | the sentence was read aloud once | https://web.archive.org/web/20100522072137id_/http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/docs/Carleton2/carl2001/15.jpg ; https://www.waitangi.com/colenso/colhis1.html | [read-aloud-once] Williams: "I then read out this document"; Colenso: "who read the same to the Natives". No witness reports a second reading; "once" is a fair reading of both.
- UNVERIFIABLE | The slip is gone. | searched Ward 2011 full text, Colenso 1890, Williams 1877 (print), Spinoff, Moon, Reese; one WebSearch for the slip's fate | [slip-gone] No source says the slip survives or says it was lost. Positive control: the same texts find the slip being passed hand to hand, and the search found statements that other Williams papers (the Littlewood draft, the 5 Feb translation) have not survived. Absence of any known copy is likely, but it is unsourced.
- CONFIRMED | New Zealand's Parliament considered in February 2026 whether that sentence is a fourth article of te Tiriti o Waitangi. | https://thespinoff.co.nz/atea/02-03-2026/what-is-the-fourth-article-of-te-tiriti-and-why-is-it-being-debated | [parliament-2026] "In its February 2026 report, the petitions committee acknowledged the oral agreement was not included in the written text of te Tiriti"; the petition sought recognition "as a fourth article". A select committee of Parliament reporting is a fair reading of "Parliament considered".
- CONFIRMED | they were written down between fifteen days and fifty years after it | public/strata/the-paper-nobody-kept/witnesses.js ; https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/rendition/nla.news-article12864615.txt ; https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_authentic_and_genuine_history_of_the_signing_of_the_Treaty_of_Waitangi,_New_Zealand,_February_5_and_6,_1840/Introduction | [five-records-range] Recomputed: 1840-02-21 is 15 days after 1840-02-06; 1890 is 49.9 years. Note: Ward 2011 (abstract and conclusion, p. 103) suggests the MS body was written "possibly between 12 February 1840 and 16 February 1840"; the page uses the safe bound 25 March.
- WRONG | They are the only Māori text of the sentence that survives anywhere. | https://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstreams/75b8875d-dade-4056-8e55-c503b7bcdbda/download (p. 92) ; public/strata/the-paper-nobody-kept/index.html:206 | [only-maori-text] Page: "They are the only Maori text of the sentence that survives anywhere." The 1840 manuscript has its own Maori text, "E mea ana te K. ko nga wakapono Katoa o Ingarani o nga Weteriana, o Roma, me te ritenga maori hoki, e tiakina ngatahitia xx e ia" (Ward p. 92), which this page prints in its MS card and contrasts with the 1890 text in its collation table (wakapono against whakapono).
- MINOR | as the only man who wrote it down in Māori gives it | https://www.waitangi.com/colenso/colhis1.html ; https://web.archive.org/web/20100522072137id_/http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/docs/Carleton2/carl2001/15.jpg | [only-man-wrote-in-maori] Heading "The sentence, as the only man who wrote it down in Maori gives it". By Colenso's own account Williams wrote the slip itself ("Mr. Williams, taking paper and pencil, proceeded to do so"), and it was read to the Natives, so in Maori. Colenso is the only man whose surviving record gives the Maori, not the only man who wrote it down in Maori.
- CONFIRMED | in an account printed by the Government Printer for the Treaty's jubilee | https://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/3412 ; https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_authentic_and_genuine_history_of_the_signing_of_the_Treaty_of_Waitangi,_New_Zealand,_February_5_and_6,_1840 | [govt-printer-jubilee] Ward abstract: "published by the government in 1890 to coincide with the 50th jubilee"; title page: "By Authority: George Didsbury, Government Printer. 1890."
- CONFIRMED | E mea ana te Kawana, ko nga whakapono katoa, o Ingarani, o nga Weteriana, o Roma, me te ritenga Maori hoki, e tiakina ngatahitia e ia. | public/strata/the-paper-nobody-kept/plate-slip-p32.jpg ; https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_authentic_and_genuine_history_of_the_signing_of_the_Treaty_of_Waitangi,_New_Zealand,_February_5_and_6,_1840/Chapter_1 | [slip-in-maori] Plate of p. 32 reads exactly this, with whakapono.
- CONFIRMED | The Governor says the several faiths [beliefs] of England, of the Wesleyans, of Rome, and also the Maori custom, shall be alike protected by him. | public/strata/the-paper-nobody-kept/plate-slip-p32.jpg | [slip-in-english] Plate: "The Governor says the several faiths [beliefs] of England, of the Wesleyans, of Rome, and also the Maori custom, shall be alike protected by him."
- CONFIRMED | There is no original: the slip was passed from Henry Williams to Governor Hobson to Bishop Pompallier and back, read out | https://www.waitangi.com/colenso/colhis1.html ; https://web.archive.org/web/20100522072137id_/http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/docs/Carleton2/carl2001/15.jpg | [no-original] The passing and return are in Colenso and Williams as quoted. "There is no original" rests on the same unsourced absence as slip-gone.
- UNVERIFIABLE | and never seen again | same searches as slip-gone | [never-seen-again] No source records the slip after it was read; none says it was never seen again. Positive control as for slip-gone.
- CONFIRMED | Five people or documents record some part of that minute | https://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstreams/75b8875d-dade-4056-8e55-c503b7bcdbda/download | [five-records-testimony] Five records on the page do each record part of the minute. See the added claim on "the five surviving records" for the sixth that exists.
- OBSERVED | of the four records of what the Governor was asked to say, none contains the clause about Māori custom, and of the three records of what was actually said, all three do. | recreated: node recount.cjs over witnesses.js (whole-word, macron and case folded) | [dek-ask-sentence] asks herald, williams, pompallier, colenso1890 all false; sentences ms, williams, colenso1890 all true; every span is a substring of its passage.
- OBSERVED | Two of the five contain both halves, so the asymmetry is inside a single witness rather than between witnesses. | recreated: AW_PARTS in witnesses.js | [dek-both-halves] williams and colenso1890 have both ask and sentence.
- MINOR | The two men who report the sentence also both claim the pencil | https://www.waitangi.com/colenso/colhis1.html ; https://web.archive.org/web/20100522072137id_/http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/docs/Carleton2/carl2001/15.jpg | [dek-pencil] Dek: "both claim the pencil"; section 4 head: "two accounts of who wrote it". Both accounts agree Williams held the pencil: Colenso, "Then Mr. Williams, taking paper and pencil, proceeded to do so". Colenso claims the prompting and the clause, as the page's own body says ("What they disagree about is agency").
- MINOR | Check: `research/the-paper-nobody-kept/verify.mjs`, 69/69, with four negative controls recorded in `RESEARCH-NOTES.md`. | research/the-paper-nobody-kept/RESEARCH-NOTES.md ; recreated: node verify.mjs | [dek-check] verify.mjs prints "69 checks, 69 pass, 0 fail" (recreated). But the .md body says "four negative controls recorded in RESEARCH-NOTES.md" and that file's table lists five mutations; the 2026-08-14 log says "Five mutations now go red". Count mismatch in the unrendered body.
- CONFIRMED | names the three claims it did not check | public/strata/the-paper-nobody-kept/index.html | [dek-three-unchecked] The page names three claims it did not check: the 1995 attribution, the 90% figure, and the pre-1990s first appearance (plus the unread Tribunal report).
- CONFIRMED | five people who wrote down some part of the minute between fifteen days and fifty years afterwards | public/strata/the-paper-nobody-kept/witnesses.js | [fourth-mode-claims] Same computed range as five-records-range.
- CONFIRMED | A parliamentary petitions committee reported on the question in February 2026 and did not settle it. | https://thespinoff.co.nz/atea/02-03-2026/what-is-the-fourth-article-of-te-tiriti-and-why-is-it-being-debated | [committee-did-not-settle] "The committee's report does not settle the matter."
- CONFIRMED | the sentence that resulted is now argued about in New Zealand as a possible | https://thespinoff.co.nz/atea/02-03-2026/what-is-the-fourth-article-of-te-tiriti-and-why-is-it-being-debated | [parliament-petition] "Supporters refer to it as the 'oral agreement', 'oral article' or 'fourth article' of te Tiriti."
- CONFIRMED | The venue's three existing modes are *synchronic* (one object across its published translations at one moment), *diachronic* (one line deformed across centuries), and the *treaty seam* opened by `the-word-they-did-not... | git show 60cbd1924f:memory/ledger-archive/P6.md | [oral-seam-three-modes] The ledger records the treaty seam entry: "Its two established modes are synchronic ... [and diachronic]" and this entry: "Its three existing modes are synchronic, diachronic, and the treaty seam".
- CONFIRMED | printed 21 February 1840 | https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/rendition/nla.news-article12864615.txt | [herald-date] "Sydney Herald (NSW : 1831 - 1842), Friday 21 February 1840, page 2"; 21 Feb 1840 was a Friday (recomputed).
- CONFIRMED | The Catholic Bishop being present requested that it might be explained to the Natives, that all persuasions of religion were to be tolerated aud protected | public/strata/the-paper-nobody-kept/plate-herald-1840.jpg | [herald-request] The plate shows "Natives," with a comma and "aud". The page's quotation matches the print.
- CONFIRMED | and His Excellency expressed much gratification that the Bishop was present, as he wished all proceedings to be as open and candid as possible. | https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/rendition/nla.news-article12864615.txt | [herald-gratification] Matches, with "accord-ingly" a line-break hyphen.
- MINOR | Its last sentence names Captain Robertson, who left Waitangi while the signing was still going on | https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/rendition/nla.news-article12864615.txt | [herald-robertson] "Upwards of thirty Chiefs, had signed the Treaty before Captain Robert-son left the ground." is the last sentence of the Thursday 6 entry, not of the report: "Friday 7.- Incessant rain. Saturday 8. - At 1 p. m. a royal salute was fired ..." follow it.
- CONFIRMED | so the account is his or is built on his | https://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstreams/75b8875d-dade-4056-8e55-c503b7bcdbda/download | [herald-is-robertsons] Ward p. 8: "a newspaper report written for The Sydney Herald by Captain Robertson of the Samuel Winter".
- UNVERIFIABLE | carried to Sydney by the first ship out | https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/rendition/nla.news-article12864615.txt ; https://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstreams/75b8875d-dade-4056-8e55-c503b7bcdbda/download | [herald-ship] The Herald: "despatches were forwarded by the Samuel Winter, then under weigh for Sydney" (Saturday 8); Ward makes Robertson its captain. Nothing says the report went on it or that it was the first ship out.
- CONFIRMED | A report of the two days, in diary form | https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/rendition/nla.news-article12864615.txt | [herald-report-two-days] Diary entries Monday 3 to Saturday 8; the substance is 5 and 6 February. Fair.
- CONFIRMED | “PROCLAMATION.”, The Sydney Herald, Friday 21 February 1840, p. 2 | https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/rendition/nla.news-article12864615.txt | [herald-cite] "21 Feb 1840 - PROCLAMATION.", page 2.
- CONFIRMED | Mr. W. taking pencil & paper proceeded to do so. Mr C was seen suggtg. somewhat to Mr. W. – the paper when written was passed to the Govr. who passed it to the Bp. who sd. “This will do very well.” | https://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstreams/75b8875d-dade-4056-8e55-c503b7bcdbda/download | [ms-pencil-passage] Ward p. 92 left column matches, except a struck-through "xxx" before "suggtg." that the page omits as a reading text.
- CONFIRMED | Mr. W. then read the clause to the meeting – it was as follows, “E mea ana te K. ko nga wakapono Katoa o Ingarani o nga Weteriana, o Roma, me te ritenga maori hoki, e tiakina ngatahitia e ia.” | https://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstreams/75b8875d-dade-4056-8e55-c503b7bcdbda/download | [ms-read-clause] Ward p. 92: "Mr. W. then read it to ^ the clause to ^ the meeting ... ngatahitia xx e ia." The page prints the corrected reading. See none-calls-it-article for why the revision "it" to "the clause" matters.
- CONFIRMED | Printer to the Church Mission at Paihia | https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_authentic_and_genuine_history_of_the_signing_of_the_Treaty_of_Waitangi,_New_Zealand,_February_5_and_6,_1840/Introduction | [ms-role] "the printing-office of the Church Mission at Paihia, near Waitangi, of which he was the printer and superintendent".
- MINOR | stood beside Henry Williams | https://www.waitangi.com/colenso/colhis1.html | [ms-stood-beside] Colenso puts Clarke beside Williams ("Mr. G. Clarke, of the Church Mission, standing next to him") and himself after Clarke ("I, who stood next"). "Stood beside Henry Williams", and the gloss "Colenso puts himself at Williams's elbow", place him one man closer than his own words do.
- CONFIRMED | He wrote the narrative in 1840 from notes taken at the time | https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_authentic_and_genuine_history_of_the_signing_of_the_Treaty_of_Waitangi,_New_Zealand,_February_5_and_6,_1840/Introduction ; https://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstreams/75b8875d-dade-4056-8e55-c503b7bcdbda/download | [ms-notes-1840] "from notes taken at the time"; Ward: "an 'authentic' eye-witness account that was written in 1840".
- CONFIRMED | the account of the Bishop's arrival is an insertion running over three manuscript pages, across the top of the next and down its right margin, finishing on a separate sheet. | https://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstreams/75b8875d-dade-4056-8e55-c503b7bcdbda/download | [ms-insertion] Ward pp. 88-90: "an insertion over three pages of his manuscript", "continues across the top of the next page and down the right-hand margin", "concludes on a separate sheet of paper". Ward's figures show three pieces in all (the separate sheet is the third); the page's wording can be read as more.
- CONFIRMED | complete by 25 March 1840 | https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_authentic_and_genuine_history_of_the_signing_of_the_Treaty_of_Waitangi,_New_Zealand,_February_5_and_6,_1840/Introduction ; https://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstreams/75b8875d-dade-4056-8e55-c503b7bcdbda/download | [ms-complete-25-march] The MS was given to Wade, who boarded the Eleanor about 25 March (Ward p. 5). Safe bound.
- CONFIRMED | Alexander Turnbull Library, MS-Papers-1611, as transcribed by Judith Ward, Fact or Fiction? (MA thesis, Massey University, 2011), pp. 91–92 | https://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstreams/75b8875d-dade-4056-8e55-c503b7bcdbda/download | [ms-cite] The parallel table runs pp. 91-92; the quoted MS lines fall on p. 92.
- CONFIRMED | The interpreter. He read the treaty from the parchment, he wrote the slip, and he read the slip aloud. | https://www.waitangi.com/colenso/colhis1.html ; https://web.archive.org/web/20100522072137id_/http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/docs/Carleton2/carl2001/15.jpg | [williams-role] Colenso: "the Rev. H. Williams should read the treaty to the Natives from the parchment ... which was done"; Williams: "I wrote as follows", "I then read out this document".
- CONFIRMED | His account was written for his son-in-law Hugh Carleton | https://web.archive.org/web/2021id_/http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/document/?action=null&page=1&wid=1048 | [williams-written-for-carleton] Carleton's note 11: "He took the trouble to put on paper for me what he called 'Early Recollections.'"
- CONFIRMED | his son-in-law Hugh Carleton | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Carleton | [williams-son-in-law] "he married Lydia Jane Williams, youngest daughter of the missionary Henry Williams".
- CONFIRMED | before his death in July 1867 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Williams_(missionary) | [williams-died-1867] "11 February 1792 to 16 July 1867"; Ward: "died at Pakaraka in 1867".
- CONFIRMED | at an unrecorded date | https://web.archive.org/web/2021id_/http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/document/?action=null&page=1&wid=1048 | [williams-unrecorded-date] Note 11: "Some years since ..." gives no date.
- CONFIRMED | printed in Carleton's second volume ten years later | https://web.archive.org/web/2021id_/http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/document/?action=null&page=1&wid=1048 ; https://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstreams/75b8875d-dade-4056-8e55-c503b7bcdbda/download | [williams-printed-1877] 1877 imprint; Ward fn 8 "Auckland: Wilson & Horton, 1877".
- CONFIRMED | requested “that the natives might be informed that all who should join the Catholic (Roman) religion should have the protection of the British Government.” | https://web.archive.org/web/20100522072130id_/http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/docs/Carleton2/carl2001/14.jpg | [williams-request-quote] Printed p. 14 (archived ENZB scan) reads "Catholic -(Roman) religion"; otherwise identical.
- CONFIRMED | Captain Hobson, with much blandness of gesture and expression observed | https://web.archive.org/web/20100522072130id_/http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/docs/Carleton2/carl2001/14.jpg | [williams-most-certainly] Printed p. 14.
- CONFIRMED | and expressed his regret that he had not made known his wish earlier, as “your desire should have been embodied in the treaty.” | https://web.archive.org/web/20100522072130id_/http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/docs/Carleton2/carl2001/14.jpg | [williams-embodied] Printed p. 14.
- CONFIRMED | I observed to Captain Hobson, I presumed the same protection would be afforded to all. | https://web.archive.org/web/20100522072137id_/http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/docs/Carleton2/carl2001/15.jpg | [williams-same-protection] Printed p. 15.
- CONFIRMED | I accordingly commenced, but could not proceed, finding that it was somewhat of a tough morsel, requiring care. | https://web.archive.org/web/20100522072137id_/http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/docs/Carleton2/carl2001/15.jpg | [williams-tough-morsel] Printed p. 15.
- CONFIRMED | I therefore took paper, and as this very grave announcement was for the benefit of all, I wrote as follows, taking the various Missions in their order of establishment in the country. | https://web.archive.org/web/20100522072137id_/http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/docs/Carleton2/carl2001/15.jpg | [williams-wrote-order] Printed p. 15.
- CONFIRMED | The Governor wishes you to understand that all the Maories who shall join the Church of England, who shall join the Wesleyans, who shall join the Pikopo or Church of Rome, and those who retain their Maori practices, s... | https://web.archive.org/web/20100522072137id_/http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/docs/Carleton2/carl2001/15.jpg | [williams-slip-english] Printed p. 15.
- CONFIRMED | Having perused it, he said, “Oh yes, that will do.” | https://web.archive.org/web/20100522072137id_/http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/docs/Carleton2/carl2001/15.jpg | [williams-ohyes] Printed p. 15.
- CONFIRMED | I then read out this document, which was received in silence. No observation was made upon it; the Maories, and others, being at perfect loss to understand what it could mean. | https://web.archive.org/web/20100522072137id_/http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/docs/Carleton2/carl2001/15.jpg | [williams-silence] Printed p. 15.
- CONFIRMED | Henry Williams, “Early Recollections”, in Hugh Carleton, The Life of Henry Williams, Archdeacon of Waimate, vol. II (Auckland: Wilson & Horton, 1877), pp. 14–15 | https://web.archive.org/web/20100522072130id_/http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/docs/Carleton2/carl2001/14.jpg ; https://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstreams/75b8875d-dade-4056-8e55-c503b7bcdbda/download | [williams-cite] Page numbers on the print; publisher confirmed by Ward fn 8.
- CONFIRMED | Pompallier, who had asked for it, rose and left the meeting. | https://web.archive.org/web/20100522072137id_/http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/docs/Carleton2/carl2001/15.jpg ; https://www.waitangi.com/colenso/colhis1.html | [williams-pompallier-left] "M. Pompallier then rose, bowed to the Governor, and retired from the meeting."; Colenso: "the Roman Catholic bishop (who had left the meeting before any of the chiefs had signed)".
- CONFIRMED | The Vicar Apostolic of Western Oceania, and the man who asked. | https://archive.org/stream/churchinoceania00pompuoft/churchinoceania00pompuoft_djvu.txt | [pompallier-vicar] Title page "VICAR APOSTOLIC OF WESTERN OCEANIA" (OCR-garbled).
- CONFIRMED | He came to Waitangi in his episcopal cassock, was seated in a place of distinction | https://archive.org/stream/churchinoceania00pompuoft/churchinoceania00pompuoft_djvu.txt | [pompallier-cassock] "I went, dressed in my Episcopal cassock ... caused me to be put in a place of distinction."
- MINOR | was seated in a place of distinction, spoke once | https://www.waitangi.com/colenso/colhis1.html ; https://web.archive.org/web/20100522072137id_/http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/docs/Carleton2/carl2001/15.jpg | [pompallier-spoke-once] "Spoke once" is Pompallier's own account ("I broke my silence"). Both other witnesses to the minute have him speak again after reading the slip: Colenso, "said in English, 'This will do very well'"; Williams, "Having perused it, he said, 'Oh yes, that will do.'" The page prints both.
- CONFIRMED | left the meeting as soon as the answer had been given | https://web.archive.org/web/20100522072137id_/http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/docs/Carleton2/carl2001/15.jpg | [pompallier-left] As williams-pompallier-left.
- CONFIRMED | English, from his French | https://archive.org/stream/churchinoceania00pompuoft/churchinoceania00pompuoft_djvu.txt | [pompallier-lang] Translator's note signed Arthur Herman on the "Diary" "in the original".
- CONFIRMED | published 1888 | https://archive.org/stream/churchinoceania00pompuoft/churchinoceania00pompuoft_djvu.txt | [pompallier-published-1888] "MDCCCLXXXVIII". Luck's introduction: composed for his ad limina report, so the text is older than 1888; the page dates by publication.
- CONFIRMED | While the speeches were being made on behalf of Captain Hobson and of the chiefs of the Maori tribes, I remained silent; I had nothing to say; they were simply about political matters. | public/strata/the-paper-nobody-kept/plate-pompallier-p63.jpg ; https://archive.org/stream/churchinoceania00pompuoft/churchinoceania00pompuoft_djvu.txt | [pompallier-silent] p. 63.
- CONFIRMED | One question however interested me deeply, it was that of religious freedom, about which no one in anyway seemed to trouble themselves. | public/strata/the-paper-nobody-kept/plate-pompallier-p63.jpg | [pompallier-religious-freedom] Plate shows "in anyway".
- CONFIRMED | I addressed Captain Hobson, begging him to make known to all the people the principles of European civilisation which obtain in Great Britain, and which would guarantee free and equal protection to the Catholic as to ... | public/strata/the-paper-nobody-kept/plate-pompallier-p63.jpg | [pompallier-ask] Plate.
- CONFIRMED | My demand was immediately acceded to by Captain Hobson, who made a formal notification of it to all the assembled people | https://archive.org/stream/churchinoceania00pompuoft/churchinoceania00pompuoft_djvu.txt | [pompallier-acceded] p. 63.
- CONFIRMED | to the great satisfaction of all the Catholic chiefs and tribes, who triumphed in the fact of my presence in the face of the Protestant missionaries and at the speedy compliance with the few words I had spoken. | https://archive.org/stream/churchinoceania00pompuoft/churchinoceania00pompuoft_djvu.txt | [pompallier-satisfaction] p. 63.
- CONFIRMED | J. B. F. Pompallier, Early History of the Catholic Church in Oceania (Auckland: H. Brett, 1888), pp. 62–63 | https://archive.org/stream/churchinoceania00pompuoft/churchinoceania00pompuoft_djvu.txt | [pompallier-cite] Running head p. 63; imprint H. Brett 1888.
- CONFIRMED | The same narrative, set in type by the Government Printer for the fiftieth jubilee. | https://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstreams/75b8875d-dade-4056-8e55-c503b7bcdbda/download ; https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_authentic_and_genuine_history_of_the_signing_of_the_Treaty_of_Waitangi,_New_Zealand,_February_5_and_6,_1840 | [c1890-jubilee-role] As govt-printer-jubilee.
- MINOR | Colenso's introduction says he decided not to alter it in any instance, so that it should stand as James Busby had read it in March 1840. | https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_authentic_and_genuine_history_of_the_signing_of_the_Treaty_of_Waitangi,_New_Zealand,_February_5_and_6,_1840/Introduction ; https://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstreams/75b8875d-dade-4056-8e55-c503b7bcdbda/download | [c1890-not-alter] The promise is quoted correctly. "As James Busby had read it in March 1840": Colenso says only "During the passage to Sydney"; Ward p. 5 has the Eleanor boarding about 25 March and arriving in Sydney on 6 April 1840, so the reading may well have been in April.
- CONFIRMED | Here the Roman Catholic bishop made some remarks to the Governor in an undertone, which were not heard by us; and the Governor, addressing himself to the Rev. H. Williams, who was acting as interpreter, said, | public/strata/the-paper-nobody-kept/plate-hobson-p31.jpg ; https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_authentic_and_genuine_history_of_the_signing_of_the_Treaty_of_Waitangi,_New_Zealand,_February_5_and_6,_1840/Chapter_1 | [c1890-undertone] Plate.
- CONFIRMED | The bishop wishes it to be publicly stated to the Natives that his religion will not be interfered with, and that free toleration will be allowed in matters of faith. | public/strata/the-paper-nobody-kept/plate-hobson-p31.jpg | [c1890-instruction-1] Plate.
- CONFIRMED | I should therefore thank you to say to them that the bishop will be protected and supported in his religion | public/strata/the-paper-nobody-kept/plate-hobson-p31.jpg | [c1890-instruction-2] Plate.
- CONFIRMED | that I shall protect all creeds alike. | public/strata/the-paper-nobody-kept/plate-hobson-p31.jpg | [c1890-creeds-alike] Plate.
- CONFIRMED | Na, e mea ana te Kawana | public/strata/the-paper-nobody-kept/plate-hobson-p31.jpg | [c1890-na-emea] Plate.
- CONFIRMED | said something that was inaudible beyond the spot on which they two stood. | public/strata/the-paper-nobody-kept/plate-hobson-p31.jpg | [c1890-inaudible] Plate.
- CONFIRMED | Pray, sir, write it down first, as it is an important sentence. | https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_authentic_and_genuine_history_of_the_signing_of_the_Treaty_of_Waitangi,_New_Zealand,_February_5_and_6,_1840/Chapter_1 | [c1890-pray-sir] Wikisource ch. 1.
- CONFIRMED | This will do very well; | https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_authentic_and_genuine_history_of_the_signing_of_the_Treaty_of_Waitangi,_New_Zealand,_February_5_and_6,_1840/Chapter_1 ; https://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstreams/75b8875d-dade-4056-8e55-c503b7bcdbda/download | [c1890-will-do] Wikisource and Ward's 1890 column both have the semicolon inside, as the page does.
- CONFIRMED | I got Mr. Williams (though with some little hesitation on his part) to insert “me te ritenga Maori hoki” (“and also the Maori custom, or usage”) as a correlative to that “of Rome.” | public/strata/the-paper-nobody-kept/plate-slip-p32.jpg | [c1890-insert] Plate, "correlative".
- CONFIRMED | William Colenso, The Authentic and Genuine History of the Signing of the Treaty of Waitangi (Wellington: Government Printer, 1890), pp. 31–32 | https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_authentic_and_genuine_history_of_the_signing_of_the_Treaty_of_Waitangi,_New_Zealand,_February_5_and_6,_1840 | [c1890-cite] Title page: "WELLINGTON. By Authority: George Didsbury, Government Printer. 1890." (N1 said Wellington was on neither transcription; it is on Wikisource's title page.)
- OBSERVED | Four of the five records give the ask. Three give the sentence. Two give both. | recreated: node recount.cjs | [four-asks-three-sentences] 4 asks, 3 sentences, 2 both.
- OBSERVED | which are the three ways the clause about Māori custom is worded anywhere in this record | recreated: node recount.cjs | [three-terms] ritenga 0,1,0,0,2; custom 0,0,0,0,2; practices 0,0,1,0,0. Colenso also has "custom, or usage", always beside "custom", so no count changes.
- CONFIRMED | Colenso prints the Governor's instruction in full and then the slip: the instruction ends “that I shall protect all creeds alike,” and the slip has the custom clause. | public/strata/the-paper-nobody-kept/plate-hobson-p31.jpg | [colenso-inside] Plate.
- CONFIRMED | Williams quotes the Bishop's request and then his own sentence: the request is about people who join the Roman church, and the sentence has the custom clause. | https://web.archive.org/web/20100522072130id_/http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/docs/Carleton2/carl2001/14.jpg | [williams-inside] Printed p. 14.
- CONFIRMED | The Governor's instruction as Colenso reports it, in full. | public/strata/the-paper-nobody-kept/plate-hobson-p31.jpg | [instruction-caption] Plate: creeds, faith, religion; no custom.
- CONFIRMED | Colenso, Authentic and Genuine History (1890), p. 32. Read the last four | public/strata/the-paper-nobody-kept/plate-slip-p32.jpg | [colenso-p32-caption] The claim sits in the plate's last lines, give or take one.
- CONFIRMED | Colenso is not mentioned anywhere in Williams's account | https://web.archive.org/web/2021id_/http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/document/?action=null&page=1&wid=1048 | [colenso-not-in-williams] "Colenso" occurs once in pp. 5-50, in a Mrs. Williams note of June 6, 1842.
- CONFIRMED | Williams gives his own reason for the writing and his own reason for the shape of the list. | https://web.archive.org/web/20100522072137id_/http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/docs/Carleton2/carl2001/15.jpg | [williams-reason-translator] "could not proceed, finding that it was somewhat of a tough morsel, requiring care. I therefore took paper".
- CONFIRMED | Williams's English list and Colenso's Māori sentence contain the same four items in the same order, and the fourth item is the Māori one in both. | public/strata/the-paper-nobody-kept/plate-slip-p32.jpg ; https://web.archive.org/web/20100522072137id_/http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/docs/Carleton2/carl2001/15.jpg | [same-four-items] Ingarani, Weteriana, Roma, ritenga Maori; Church of England, Wesleyans, Rome, Maori practices.
- CONFIRMED | the clause is attested by two independent witnesses as having been in the sentence | https://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstreams/75b8875d-dade-4056-8e55-c503b7bcdbda/download ; https://web.archive.org/web/20100522072137id_/http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/docs/Carleton2/carl2001/15.jpg | [two-independent-witnesses] Colenso (1840 MS, unpublished till 1890) and Williams (written before 1867) both carry the clause.
- MINOR | Wesleyans 1822 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_New_Zealand ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Leigh_(missionary) | [gloss-sequence-dates] Gloss "Wesleyans 1822" for "order of establishment": "In June 1823 Wesleydale, the first Wesleyan Methodist mission in New Zealand, was established at Kaeo"; Leigh arrived in 1822 and the mission was founded after White arrived in May 1823. Order unaffected.
- CONFIRMED | Church of England 1814 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_New_Zealand | [gloss-cms-1814] "welcomed onto the beach at Rangihoua Bay in December 1814".
- CONFIRMED | Church of England 1814, Wesleyans 1822, Rome 1838 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_New_Zealand ; https://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstreams/75b8875d-dade-4056-8e55-c503b7bcdbda/download | [gloss-rome-1838] Pompallier "arriving in 1838"; Ward p. 87: "arrived on the Hokianga on 10 January 1838".
- CONFIRMED | Colenso records no reaction. | https://www.waitangi.com/colenso/colhis1.html | [gloss-colenso-no-reaction] The next sentence goes to the signing.
- WRONG | The only surviving report of how the assembly received the sentence, from the man who read it out. | public/strata/the-paper-nobody-kept/plate-pompallier-p63.jpg ; https://archive.org/stream/churchinoceania00pompuoft/churchinoceania00pompuoft_djvu.txt | [only-surviving-report-reception] Gloss (instrument.js:268): "The only surviving report of how the assembly received the sentence". Pompallier, printed on the same page, reports a reception: Hobson "made a formal notification of it to all the assembled people, to the great satisfaction of all the Catholic chiefs and tribes, who triumphed ... at the speedy compliance". It contradicts Williams's "received in silence", which is why it matters.
- CONFIRMED | on consideration he has decided not to alter it in any instance, so that the narration should stand as Mr. Busby read it, and with his full acquiescence in its correctness. | https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_authentic_and_genuine_history_of_the_signing_of_the_Treaty_of_Waitangi,_New_Zealand,_February_5_and_6,_1840/Introduction | [colenso-promise] Exact.
- MINOR | James Busby read the manuscript on the passage to Sydney in March 1840 | https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_authentic_and_genuine_history_of_the_signing_of_the_Treaty_of_Waitangi,_New_Zealand,_February_5_and_6,_1840/Introduction ; https://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstreams/75b8875d-dade-4056-8e55-c503b7bcdbda/download | [busby-read-on-passage] "During the passage to Sydney Mr. Busby read the said MS." The passage ran from about 25 March to arrival in Sydney on 6 April 1840 (Ward p. 5, citing the Australasian Chronicle). "In March 1840" is not supported.
- OBSERVED | added notes in six places | recreated: colenso-1890-footnotes.json | [busby-six-places] Notes 1, 5, 6, 12, 15 carry "J. B."; note 2 reports the margin query. Colenso says "a few valuable notes".
- CONFIRMED | Judith Ward collated it against the print in a 2011 Massey MA thesis. | https://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/3412 | [ward-collated] Parallel tables throughout, e.g. pp. 91-92.
- CONFIRMED | The manuscript survives, at the Alexander Turnbull Library | https://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstreams/75b8875d-dade-4056-8e55-c503b7bcdbda/download | [ms-at-atl] p. 3: "purchased from Peter Webb Galleries in Auckland and archived in the Alexander Turnbull Library".
- OBSERVED | Her transcription of this passage is the one we have used, because we could not reach the manuscript ourselves. | research/the-paper-nobody-kept/sources.txt | [ward-transcription-used] Item 5: "We did not see it."
- CONFIRMED | “Mr C was seen suggtg. somewhat to Mr. W.” | https://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstreams/75b8875d-dade-4056-8e55-c503b7bcdbda/download | [row-suggesting] p. 92, with the struck "xxx" omitted.
- CONFIRMED | dropped. The printed narrative has no such sentence at this point. | https://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstreams/75b8875d-dade-4056-8e55-c503b7bcdbda/download ; https://www.waitangi.com/colenso/colhis1.html | [row-dropped] Ward's 1890 column has no such sentence.
- CONFIRMED | added: an English gloss of the Māori sentence, in parentheses. | https://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstreams/75b8875d-dade-4056-8e55-c503b7bcdbda/download | [row-gloss-added] Gloss only in the 1890 column.
- CONFIRMED | “I got Mr. Williams (though with some little hesitation on his part) to insert me te ritenga Maori hoki … as a correlative to that of Rome.” | https://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstreams/75b8875d-dade-4056-8e55-c503b7bcdbda/download ; https://www.waitangi.com/colenso/colhis1.html | [row-insert-added] Only in the 1890 column.
- CONFIRMED | “ko nga wakapono Katoa … me te ritenga maori hoki” | https://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstreams/75b8875d-dade-4056-8e55-c503b7bcdbda/download | [row-orthography-1840] p. 92.
- CONFIRMED | “ko nga whakapono katoa … me te ritenga Maori hoki” | public/strata/the-paper-nobody-kept/plate-slip-p32.jpg | [row-orthography-1890] Plate.
- MINOR | the author of both had spent the intervening decades in public argument with the Church Missionary Society and its people, including Henry Williams | https://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstreams/75b8875d-dade-4056-8e55-c503b7bcdbda/download ; https://web.archive.org/web/2023id_/https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/1c23/colenso-william | [author-spent-decades] Unsupported as worded. DNZB (Te Ara): his charges "earned him the undying enmity of George Selwyn and William Williams" (Henry's brother); dismissed 1852 over Ripeka. Ward p. 110: his criticism of Henry Williams was in "his private correspondence with the CMS", he was "very much intimidated by the indomitable Henry Williams", and in 1890 he "toned down his earlier criticism of Williams" and was "welcomed back into the fold" by Williams's sons. No source found for decades of public argument with Henry Williams.
- CONFIRMED | Colenso's postscript says the old way of writing Māori, without the wh, has been retained | https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_authentic_and_genuine_history_of_the_signing_of_the_Treaty_of_Waitangi,_New_Zealand,_February_5_and_6,_1840/Introduction | [wh-postscript] "the old and early mode of writing Maori (the not using the wh character, &c.) has been retained. And this last also applies to ... the appendices." The page reads it correctly (RESEARCH-NOTES.md says the opposite, that it is scoped to the appendices; the page is right).
- CONFIRMED | where the Māori text of the Treaty is printed throughout as wenua, wakaminenga, wakaaro | https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_authentic_and_genuine_history_of_the_signing_of_the_Treaty_of_Waitangi,_New_Zealand,_February_5_and_6,_1840/Appendix | [wh-appendices] Recounted: wenua 7, wakaminenga 5, wakaaro 1; no Maori word with wh in the Appendix.
- CONFIRMED | where the slip is printed whakapono against the manuscript's wakapono | public/strata/the-paper-nobody-kept/plate-slip-p32.jpg ; https://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstreams/75b8875d-dade-4056-8e55-c503b7bcdbda/download | [wh-narrative] Print whakapono; MS wakapono.
- OBSERVED | So we located every one of the sixteen footnotes in the 1890 narrative by character offset. | recreated: python over evidence/colenso-1890-narrative.txt | [fn-sixteen-first-day] 16 [[FN n]] markers; Wikisource ch. 1 has 16 notes, none in Preface, Introduction or Appendix.
- OBSERVED | Five are signed “J. B.” and a sixth reports a query Busby wrote in the margin, and all six fall on the first day, 5 February. | recreated: evidence/colenso-1890-footnotes.json | [fn-signed-jb] Busby notes at offsets 3558 to 31571, all before "Second Day's Meeting" at 36044.
- OBSERVED | the closing 11,438 characters of the narrative, close to a quarter of it, carry none at all | recreated: python, len 47919 minus last marker offset 36481 | [fn-closing-chars] 11,438 (23.9%). Mutation test: changing "11,438" to "11,439" in a scratch copy of index.html turns verify.mjs red (68 of 69).
- CONFIRMED | Busby stood at the Governor's immediate left with the Bishop beside him | https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_authentic_and_genuine_history_of_the_signing_of_the_Treaty_of_Waitangi,_New_Zealand,_February_5_and_6,_1840/Chapter_1 | [busby-left-of-governor] Note signed J. B.: "Mr. Busby was on the Governor's immediate left, and the Roman Catholic bishop next to him." It describes the 5 February seating (seated, not standing); Colenso says on 6 February the bishop "took their seats in the same places".
- MINOR | he read the manuscript within seven weeks | https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_authentic_and_genuine_history_of_the_signing_of_the_Treaty_of_Waitangi,_New_Zealand,_February_5_and_6,_1840/Introduction ; https://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstreams/75b8875d-dade-4056-8e55-c503b7bcdbda/download | [busby-within-seven-weeks] Seven weeks after 6 Feb 1840 is 26 March. Boarding was about 25 March, Wade embarked later at Te Puna, and the Eleanor reached Sydney on 6 April (Ward p. 5). The reading "during the passage" was between day 48 and day 60; "within seven weeks" is not supported ("within nine weeks" is).
- OBSERVED | Put article into the search above and every one of the five witnesses returns zero. | recreated: node recount.cjs | [article-zero] article 0,0,0,0,0.
- MINOR | None of them describes the sentence as an article of the treaty, a clause of the treaty, or a part of the treaty. | https://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstreams/75b8875d-dade-4056-8e55-c503b7bcdbda/download ; https://web.archive.org/web/20100522072130id_/http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/docs/Carleton2/carl2001/14.jpg | [none-calls-it-article] True of the word "article". But the 1840 MS calls the sentence "the clause", and Colenso revised his own "read it to" into "read the clause to" (Ward p. 92), and Williams's account at that point says of the request "This was to be a stipulation between the Queen of England and the natives of New Zealand" (p. 14). Near-miss on "a clause of the treaty, or a part of the treaty".
- CONFIRMED | what Williams reports him saying is that it was not in it | https://web.archive.org/web/20100522072130id_/http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/docs/Carleton2/carl2001/14.jpg | [governor-not-in-treaty] "your desire should have been embodied in the treaty".
- CONFIRMED | That is one sentence in one memoir published thirty-seven years afterwards | public/strata/the-paper-nobody-kept/witnesses.js | [thirty-seven-years] 1877 minus 1840.
- WRONG | It is also the only remark in the entire surviving record that bears directly on the question Parliament was asked in 2026. | https://web.archive.org/web/20100522072130id_/http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/docs/Carleton2/carl2001/14.jpg ; https://web.archive.org/web/2021id_/http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/document/?action=null&page=1&wid=1048 | [only-remark] Page: "the only remark in the entire surviving record that bears directly on the question Parliament was asked in 2026", and "The one person recorded as saying anything at all about its relation to the treaty is the Governor". The same page of the same source, directly after Hobson's words and cut by the page's ellipsis, reads: "Catch the idea. This was to be a stipulation between the Queen of England and the natives of New Zealand." (Carleton vol. II p. 14, print and digitisation). That remark bears directly on whether the guarantee was a treaty term.
- MINOR | recommended that the government begin a formal policy process on whether to recognise the oral undertaking | https://thespinoff.co.nz/atea/02-03-2026/what-is-the-fourth-article-of-te-tiriti-and-why-is-it-being-debated | [committee-recommended] Page: "a formal policy process on whether to recognise the oral undertaking". Spinoff: "recommended that the government initiate a formal policy process to consider how the oral agreement might be formally recognised" and "considers ways in which the oral agreement ... could be formally recognised"; "whether and how" appears only for the deliberation it encouraged. The page softens "how" to "whether".
- CONFIRMED | In February 2026 a New Zealand parliamentary petitions committee | https://thespinoff.co.nz/atea/02-03-2026/what-is-the-fourth-article-of-te-tiriti-and-why-is-it-being-debated | [committee-feb-2026] "In its February 2026 report".
- CONFIRMED | a petition initiated by the historian and theologian Alistair Reese with two Tauranga kaumātua | https://e-tangata.co.nz/history/waitangi-an-oral-covenant/ ; https://thespinoff.co.nz/atea/02-03-2026/what-is-the-fourth-article-of-te-tiriti-and-why-is-it-being-debated | [petition-reese-kaumatua] Reese: "launched by two Tauranga kaumatua, the late Huikakahu Kawe and Patrick Nicholas, and me"; Spinoff: "lodged by farmer, theologian and historian Alistair Reese".
- CONFIRMED | The committee did not recommend legislating it. | https://thespinoff.co.nz/atea/02-03-2026/what-is-the-fourth-article-of-te-tiriti-and-why-is-it-being-debated | [not-legislate] "Rather than endorse immediate legislation".
- CONFIRMED | The question is live and unsettled. | https://thespinoff.co.nz/atea/02-03-2026/what-is-the-fourth-article-of-te-tiriti-and-why-is-it-being-debated | [live-unsettled] "far from being a settled matter in New Zealand society".
- CONFIRMED | Reese: “The Treaty is firstly an oral covenant before it is a written one.” | https://e-tangata.co.nz/history/waitangi-an-oral-covenant/ | [reese-oral-covenant] Exact, in his own voice.
- CONFIRMED | Every signatory affirmed with a tohu or a signature on the strength of what they had heard, not what they had read | https://e-tangata.co.nz/history/waitangi-an-oral-covenant/ | [reese-heard-not-read] "Every signatory affirmed with a tohu or signature, based on what they had heard, not what they had read."
- CONFIRMED | the negotiations happened in te reo, aloud | https://thespinoff.co.nz/atea/02-03-2026/what-is-the-fourth-article-of-te-tiriti-and-why-is-it-being-debated | [reese-te-reo] "Rangatira experienced the negotiations primarily through spoken explanation in te reo Maori, he said".
- CONFIRMED | tiaki is active protection rather than mere tolerance | https://thespinoff.co.nz/atea/02-03-2026/what-is-the-fourth-article-of-te-tiriti-and-why-is-it-being-debated | [tiaki-active] "Central to his argument is the word tiaki ... 'religious freedom' ... too narrow ... 'active protection of the fledgling nation's wairuatanga'". "Rather than mere tolerance" is close to the Spinoff's own gloss "If tiaki means more than toleration".
- CONFIRMED | The Treaty is written. That's it. | https://theconversation.com/unwritten-rules-why-claims-of-a-missing-fourth-article-of-the-treaty-dont-stack-up-248539 | [moon-tuheitia] "As the late Kingi Tuheitia succinctly put it: 'The Treaty is written. That's it.'"
- CONFIRMED | Most signatories were not present to hear the statement | https://thespinoff.co.nz/atea/02-03-2026/what-is-the-fourth-article-of-te-tiriti-and-why-is-it-being-debated | [moon-90pc] Spinoff: "He says most signatories were not present to hear it".
- CONFIRMED | there is no evidence it was repeated at any other signing | https://thespinoff.co.nz/atea/02-03-2026/what-is-the-fourth-article-of-te-tiriti-and-why-is-it-being-debated | [moon-no-repeat] "that there is no evidence it was repeated at other signings".
- CONFIRMED | the term “fourth article” does not appear in the record before the 1990s | https://theconversation.com/unwritten-rules-why-claims-of-a-missing-fourth-article-of-the-treaty-dont-stack-up-248539 | [moon-before-1990s] "mention of a 'fourth article' before the 1990s does not exist."
- CONFIRMED | Lord Normanby's 1839 instructions had explicitly refused to protect Māori custom in general terms | https://theconversation.com/unwritten-rules-why-claims-of-a-missing-fourth-article-of-the-treaty-dont-stack-up-248539 | [moon-normanby] "Normanby made it explicit that only those Maori customs the British regarded as acceptable would be protected" and "not the protection of all customs held by Maori". A fair summary of Moon's case.
- CONFIRMED | Paul Moon, closing his case with the words of the late Kīngi Tūheitia | https://theconversation.com/unwritten-rules-why-claims-of-a-missing-fourth-article-of-the-treaty-dont-stack-up-248539 | [moon-nothing-settles] The quotation is his last sentence.
- CONFIRMED | Māori accounts of that day exist in forms this instrument cannot read: whaikōrero, whakapapa, the memory carried in hapū and iwi and given in evidence to the Waitangi Tribunal. | https://thespinoff.co.nz/atea/02-03-2026/what-is-the-fourth-article-of-te-tiriti-and-why-is-it-being-debated ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Waitangi_claims_and_settlements | [maori-accounts-exist] Spinoff (Moon): "oral histories that were collected through the 1980s", "tribunal-era oral histories"; Wikipedia cites "Ngapuhi Speaks" (2012), an independent report of evidence presented to the Tribunal on He Whakaputanga and Te Tiriti.
- MINOR | Every witness on this page is a European man writing in English, and four of the five were partisans of one mission or another. | public/strata/the-paper-nobody-kept/index.html:556 ; https://archive.org/stream/churchinoceania00pompuoft/churchinoceania00pompuoft_djvu.txt | [partisans] "Every witness on this page is a European man writing in English": Pompallier wrote in French; the page's own card says "English, from his French" and the 1888 book has a translator's note signed Arthur Herman. "Four of the five were partisans" holds (Robertson the exception).
- OBSERVED | Read off the National Library of Australia's page image at full resolution | research/the-paper-nobody-kept/sources.txt ; public/strata/the-paper-nobody-kept/plate-herald-1840.jpg | [src-herald-page-image] The plate shows the passage; Trove line coordinates (x 2791, y 1439) agree with sources.txt.
- WRONG | The OCR drops a comma after “Natives” and reads the printer's aud as and | https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/rendition/nla.news-article12864615.txt ; https://web.archive.org/web/20240703135356id_/https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/rendition/nla.news-article12864615.txt | [src-herald-ocr] Page: "The OCR drops a comma after 'Natives' and reads the printer's aud as and". The comma half is right. The NLA text reads "tolerated aud protected" today and read the same in the Wayback capture of 3 July 2024, before the page was written (2026-08-14). The OCR does not read aud as and. (Ward 2011 quotes it as "and", which may be the source of the slip.)
- OBSERVED | Our reading is Judith Ward's transcription in Fact or Fiction? | research/the-paper-nobody-kept/sources.txt | [src-ward-transcription] Item 5.
- OBSERVED | Early New Zealand Books at the University of Auckland refused our requests, so we read their digitisation through the Internet Archive's copy of it | research/the-paper-nobody-kept/sources.txt | [src-williams-digitisation] ENZB 403 recorded. Note for the fix: the printed pp. 14-15 are reachable as ENZB page images in the Wayback Machine (https://web.archive.org/web/20100522072130id_/http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/docs/Carleton2/carl2001/14.jpg and 15.jpg); they match the digitisation for every quoted sentence and settle "about 11 o'clock" (the digitisation reads "it o'clock").
- OBSERVED | Read off the University of Toronto scan at the Internet Archive, at full resolution. | research/the-paper-nobody-kept/sources.txt ; public/strata/the-paper-nobody-kept/plate-pompallier-p63.jpg | [src-pompallier-scan] Plate is from that scan.
- CONFIRMED | The odd “in anyway” is the printer's. | public/strata/the-paper-nobody-kept/plate-pompallier-p63.jpg | [src-in-anyway] Plate shows "in anyway".
- OBSERVED | Read off the scanned edition on Wikimedia Commons at 300 dpi. | research/the-paper-nobody-kept/sources.txt | [src-colenso-scan] Item 1.
- CONFIRMED | We also collated two independent transcriptions of it, Wikisource's proofread text and the one at waitangi.com, and they agree with the page and with each other on this passage. | https://www.waitangi.com/colenso/colhis1.html ; https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_authentic_and_genuine_history_of_the_signing_of_the_Treaty_of_Waitangi,_New_Zealand,_February_5_and_6,_1840/Chapter_1 | [src-two-transcriptions] Both read correlative and whakapono; they differ only in punctuation (semicolon placement, dash forms).
- CONFIRMED | The last word of Colenso's authorship claim is correlative. | public/strata/the-paper-nobody-kept/plate-slip-p32.jpg | [src-correlative] Plate: "as a correlative to".
- CONFIRMED | Ward's thesis prints correlation in its parallel-text column. | https://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstreams/75b8875d-dade-4056-8e55-c503b7bcdbda/download | [src-ward-correlation] p. 92, in the 1890 Jubilee History column: "as a correlation to that 'of Rome.'"
- CONFIRMED | The Sydney Herald's compositor set aud for and. It is in the metal, not in the scanning. | public/strata/the-paper-nobody-kept/plate-herald-1840.jpg | [src-aud-metal] Plate shows "aud".
- OBSERVED | All sixteen footnotes in the 1890 narrative sit before the tent scene, and the six Busby interventions all sit on the first day. | recreated: python | [src-footnotes-before-tent] Last marker 36481; "Here the Roman Catholic bishop" at 38771.
- CONFIRMED | The attribution of the phrase “fourth article” to a 1995 statement of the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference is Moon's. | https://theconversation.com/unwritten-rules-why-claims-of-a-missing-fourth-article-of-the-treaty-dont-stack-up-248539 | [src-moon-1995] "disinterred from its historical obscurity in 1995 at a meeting of the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference".
- UNVERIFIABLE | Moon's figure that around 90% of signatories were not present to hear the statement is arithmetic on the nine treaty sheets. | https://theconversation.com/unwritten-rules-why-claims-of-a-missing-fourth-article-of-the-treaty-dont-stack-up-248539 | [src-moon-90-arithmetic] Moon: "around 90% of rangatira who signed the Treaty (in places other than Waitangi) did not have this so-called fourth article read to them". He gives no derivation; "arithmetic on the nine treaty sheets" is the page's attribution of method.
- CONFIRMED | Alistair Reese's case is set out in his own words in E-Tangata, “Waitangi: an oral covenant”. | https://e-tangata.co.nz/history/waitangi-an-oral-covenant/ | [src-reese-title] Title.
- CONFIRMED | Paul Moon's is in The Conversation, “Unwritten rules: why claims of a missing ‘fourth article’ of the Treaty don't stack up” (4 February 2025), and in AUT's summary of it. | https://theconversation.com/unwritten-rules-why-claims-of-a-missing-fourth-article-of-the-treaty-dont-stack-up-248539 | [src-moon-title] Title and "Published: February 4, 2025".
- CONFIRMED | The February 2026 petitions committee recommendation, the 503 signatures, and Sir Geoffrey Palmer's caution are reported in The Spinoff | https://thespinoff.co.nz/atea/02-03-2026/what-is-the-fourth-article-of-te-tiriti-and-why-is-it-being-debated | [src-spinoff] "The petition received 503 signatures"; Palmer "cautioned that legislating the oral agreement on its own would be 'a strange thing to do'".
- OBSERVED | crop coordinates and the originals are recorded in research/the-paper-nobody-kept/ | research/the-paper-nobody-kept/sources.txt | [src-images-crop] Crop boxes recorded; the source scans are identified there; the downloaded originals are in the untracked sources/ (README).
- CONFIRMED | All three underlying works are out of copyright. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Colenso ; https://archive.org/stream/churchinoceania00pompuoft/churchinoceania00pompuoft_djvu.txt | [src-out-of-copyright] Colenso died 1899, Pompallier 1871, the Herald 1840; the 1888 translation is 138 years old.
- CONFIRMED | which Moon quotes at the close of his article in The Conversation (4 February 2025) | https://theconversation.com/unwritten-rules-why-claims-of-a-missing-fourth-article-of-the-treaty-dont-stack-up-248539 | [correction-tuheitia] As moon-tuheitia; dated 4 February 2025.
- OBSERVED | (found by the assay sweep, 2026-10-18) | git show ad49360259e (2026-10-19 05:42 +1100) | [correction-found-by-sweep] Commit "assay sweep: the-paper-nobody-kept", i.e. 18 October UTC.
- OBSERVED | carrying a positive and a negative control the reader can run | recreated: node recount.cjs | [instr-controls] correlative 0,0,0,0,1; zzzzq 0 everywhere.
- OBSERVED | a link-by-link table that checks each declared span really is a substring of the passage it claims | public/strata/the-paper-nobody-kept/instrument.js | [instr-substring] indexOf check before counting.
- OBSERVED | with the interval computed from each record's own date | public/strata/the-paper-nobody-kept/instrument.js | [instr-intervals] Recomputed 15 d, 48 d, 36.9, 47.9, 49.9 years.
- CONFIRMED | There a Hebrew word for a young woman narrows to virgin in Greek and the page declines to say whether the doctrine follows | src/content/strata/the-sign-of-immanuel.md | [rel-immanuel] Dek and "no position on whether the doctrine is true".
- MINOR | Heraclitus never wrote the line everyone quotes from him | src/content/strata/the-river-that-stays.md | [rel-river] Relates note: "Heraclitus never wrote the line everyone quotes from him". The sister layer says "Heraclitus almost certainly wrote neither". The note drops the hedge.
- UNVERIFIABLE | the slip Henry Williams wrote at Waitangi was passed round a tent and lost the same afternoon | same searches as slip-gone | [rel-slip-lost-afternoon] No source says when, or that, the slip was lost; "the same afternoon" has no basis.
- CONFIRMED | seven hands rendering one cuneiform tablet across fifty-five years | src/content/strata/the-first-man-to-read-it.md | [rel-first-man] "seven hands over fifty-five years", 1873 to 1928. The second half of this note is the added claim on "correlation" below.
- CONFIRMED | What is the ‘fourth article’ of te Tiriti and why is it being debated | https://thespinoff.co.nz/atea/02-03-2026/what-is-the-fourth-article-of-te-tiriti-and-why-is-it-being-debated | [src-spinoff-title] Title, Liam Ratana, 02 Mar 2026.
- WRONG | (added) Williams "listed the four in the order the missions had been established in the country, which puts Maori practice at the beginning of the sequence rather than at the end of a list of churches" (index.html:418-421); gloss "and before any of them, Maori practice ... It is where the sequence starts." (instrument.js:264-266) | https://web.archive.org/web/20100522072137id_/http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/docs/Carleton2/carl2001/15.jpg | Williams applies the order to "the various Missions" only: "I wrote as follows, taking the various Missions in their order of establishment in the country." His list then ends "who shall join the Pikopo or Church of Rome, and those who retain their Maori practices": Maori practice is last, after the three churches, as the page itself says two sentences earlier ("the fourth item is the Maori one in both"). Nothing in Williams puts it at the beginning.
- WRONG | (added) "the standard modern transcription of Colenso's manuscript prints correlation" (figcaption, index.html:432-433; also the relates note to the-first-man-to-read-it, .md:14) | https://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstreams/75b8875d-dade-4056-8e55-c503b7bcdbda/download | Ward's "correlation" is in her right-hand column, headed "1890 Jubilee History", i.e. her transcription of the print. Her MS-Papers-1611 column has no such sentence at all, as the page's own collation table says ("In the 1840 manuscript: nothing"). The Sources section says it correctly ("in its parallel-text column").
- MINOR | (added) "Here are the five surviving records of the minute in which it was made" (index.html:198; dek: "the five surviving records") | https://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstreams/75b8875d-dade-4056-8e55-c503b7bcdbda/download | Ward pp. 92-93 and Appendix Two (p. 115, MS 46, Folder 6, Auckland Museum Library) describe and reproduce a sixth surviving record, Busby's "At the Second Meeting, Treaty of Waitangi", which gives the same exchange ("Capt. H. with much blandness of ... observed 'Most certainly' ... 'your desire should have been embodied in the Treaty'"). sources.txt calls it "a sixth witness"; the page never mentions it. It derives from Williams, so the counts would not change, but it may be the earliest form of his account (Busby died 1871).
- MINOR | (added) "the earliest surviving text records that somebody made a suggestion to Williams as he wrote, and does not say who or what; the claim that it was Colenso ... is first attested fifty years later" (index.html:489-491) | https://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstreams/75b8875d-dade-4056-8e55-c503b7bcdbda/download | The 1840 MS says "Mr C was seen xxx suggtg. somewhat to Mr. W." In the same MS Colenso calls himself "Mr. C." ("At this moment Mr. C. addd. himself to the Govr.", Ward p. 95) and names "Mr. Colenso" as the man who said "Pray Sir, write it down first" one sentence earlier, though "Mr C." also stands for Clarke two lines before. So it does say who, ambiguously ("Mr C"), and Colenso is the likelier reading; "does not say who" overstates. "What" stands.
- CONFIRMED | (added) "Ward establishes that the manuscript is a genuine 1840 eye-witness account" (Sources) | https://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstreams/75b8875d-dade-4056-8e55-c503b7bcdbda/download | Abstract and conclusion: "an 'authentic' eye-witness account that was written in 1840".
- CONFIRMED | (added) Ward's transcription "does not support the promise for this paragraph" (section 5) | https://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstreams/75b8875d-dade-4056-8e55-c503b7bcdbda/download | Ward's own table (pp. 91-92) shows the dropped "Mr C was seen suggtg." and the added "I got Mr. Williams ..." sentence, so the page's reading stands; note that Ward herself introduces the table with "Colenso faithfully copied this insertion into his history in 1890".

## Findings
- [declined] MINOR, bishop-undertone (K1): "a Catholic bishop leaned over and said something to the Governor that nobody else could hear". Tier B MINOR, decided from the checker's note, in no sentence being fixed for a WRONG item, so listed, not edited: Colenso says the remarks were "not heard by us", while Williams, seated as interpreter, quotes the request; "nobody else could hear" overstates Colenso. Loose wording in the dek, not a false fact about who spoke.
- [declined] MINOR, morning (K2): "On the morning of 6 February 1840". Tier B MINOR, decided from the checker's note, in no sentence being fixed for a WRONG item, so listed, not edited: Williams has business resumed "about 11 o'clock" (late morning); Colenso has the Governor's boat ashore "About noon". The witnesses disagree and the page states one side; a slip of precision, not false on Williams's account.
- [fixed] WRONG, only-maori-text (K3): index.html section 0: "They are the only Māori text of the sentence that survives anywhere" replaced by a sentence saying Colenso's 1840 manuscript also gives the Māori sentence, in an older spelling (Ward p. 92), set beside the print in section 5. Corrected line added.
- [declined] MINOR, only-man-wrote-in-maori (K4): "as the only man who wrote it down in Māori gives it". Tier B MINOR, decided from the checker's note, in no sentence being fixed for a WRONG item, so listed, not edited: Colenso's own account has Williams write the slip ("Mr. Williams, taking paper and pencil, proceeded to do so"), so Colenso is the only man whose surviving record gives the Maori, not the only man who wrote it down. The heading is a separate sentence from the K3 fix; loose wording.
- [declined] MINOR, dek-pencil (K5): "The two men who report the sentence also both claim the pencil". Tier B MINOR, decided from the checker's note, in no sentence being fixed for a WRONG item, so listed, not edited: Both accounts agree Williams held the pencil; what they dispute is the prompting and the clause, as the page's own body says ("What they disagree about is agency"). Loose wording in the dek.
- [declined] MINOR, dek-check (K6): "Check: `research/the-paper-nobody-kept/verify.mjs`, 69/69, with four negative controls recorded in `RESEARCH-NOTES.md`.". Tier B MINOR, decided from the checker's note, in no sentence being fixed for a WRONG item, so listed, not edited: verify.mjs prints 69/69 (recreated by the checker and by this fixer); the unrendered markdown body says four negative controls where RESEARCH-NOTES.md lists five. A count slip in metadata about the page's own checking.
- [declined] MINOR, herald-robertson (K7): "Its last sentence names Captain Robertson, who left Waitangi while the signing was still going on". Tier B MINOR, decided from the checker's note, in no sentence being fixed for a WRONG item, so listed, not edited: The Robertson sentence is the last of the Thursday 6 entry; Friday 7 and Saturday 8 entries follow it in the Trove text (re-fetched: "...before Captain Robert-son left the ground. Friday 7.- Incessant rain."). A slip of precision; the point about Robertson stands.
- [declined] MINOR, ms-stood-beside (K8): "stood beside Henry Williams". Tier B MINOR, decided from the checker's note, in no sentence being fixed for a WRONG item, so listed, not edited: Colenso puts Clarke next to Williams and himself next to Clarke ("I, who stood next"); "stood beside Henry Williams" places him one man closer. A slip of precision.
- [declined] MINOR, pompallier-spoke-once (K9): "was seated in a place of distinction, spoke once". Tier B MINOR, decided from the checker's note, in no sentence being fixed for a WRONG item, so listed, not edited: "Spoke once" follows Pompallier's own "I broke my silence"; Colenso and Williams both have him approve the slip aloud. Loose wording in a role card that is Pompallier's own framing.
- [declined] MINOR, busby-reading-date (K10): "Colenso's introduction says he decided not to alter it in any instance, so that it should stand as James Busby had read it in March 1840.". Tier B MINOR, decided from the checker's note, in no sentence being fixed for a WRONG item, so listed, not edited: The no-alteration promise is quoted correctly; "in March 1840" is too narrow since the passage to Sydney ran about 25 March to 6 April 1840 (Ward p. 5). A precision slip; shares its label with K13.
- [fixed] MINOR, williams-order-of-missions (K11): instrument.js gloss author-w: "Wesleyans 1822" now "Wesleyans 1823" (Wesleydale, Kaeo, June 1823; Wikipedia, Christianity in New Zealand), in the gloss rewritten for K22. MINOR, no line.
- [fixed] WRONG, only-surviving-report-reception (K12): instrument.js gloss silence: "The only surviving report of how the assembly received the sentence" now "How the assembly received the sentence, by the man who read it out", and the gloss quotes Pompallier's differing report ("the great satisfaction of all the Catholic chiefs and tribes", 1888 p. 63). Corrected line added.
- [declined] MINOR, busby-reading-date (K13): "James Busby read the manuscript on the passage to Sydney in March 1840". Tier B MINOR, decided from the checker's note, in no sentence being fixed for a WRONG item, so listed, not edited: Colenso says only "During the passage to Sydney"; the passage ran about 25 March to 6 April 1840 (Ward p. 5), so "in March 1840" is too narrow. Same label as K10.
- [declined] MINOR, author-spent-decades (K14): "the author of both had spent the intervening decades in public argument with the Church Missionary Society and its people, including Henry Williams". Tier B MINOR, decided from the checker's note, in no sentence being fixed for a WRONG item, so listed, not edited: DNZB has Colenso's lasting quarrel with Selwyn and William Williams, and Ward p. 110 has his criticism of Henry Williams in private CMS correspondence; "decades in public argument ... including Henry Williams" overstates the public part. Unsupported as worded, not shown false in substance (he was in conflict with the CMS and its people).
- [declined] MINOR, busby-within-seven-weeks (K15): "he read the manuscript within seven weeks". Tier B MINOR, decided from the checker's note, in no sentence being fixed for a WRONG item, so listed, not edited: The reading was during a passage that began about 25 March (day 48) and ended 6 April 1840 (day 60), so "within seven weeks" is too tight ("within nine weeks" holds). A precision slip in the check-against-us note.
- [declined] MINOR, none-calls-it-article (K16): "None of them describes the sentence as an article of the treaty, a clause of the treaty, or a part of the treaty.". Tier B MINOR, decided from the checker's note, in no sentence being fixed for a WRONG item, so listed, not edited: True of "article"; the 1840 MS calls it "the clause" in narrative, and Williams's "stipulation" remark concerns Hobson's view of the Bishop's request. A near-miss on "a clause of the treaty"; this sentence is not the one rewritten for K17.
- [fixed] WRONG, only-remark (K17): index.html section 6: "The one person recorded as saying anything at all" now "... anything at the time", and "It is also the only remark in the entire surviving record that bears directly on the question" replaced by Williams's next words, cut by the card's ellipsis ("Catch the idea. This was to be a stipulation between the Queen of England and the natives of New Zealand.", Carleton vol. II p. 14) and "Hobson's remark and Williams's comment on it bear directly on the question". Corrected line added.
- [declined] MINOR, committee-recommended (K18): "recommended that the government begin a formal policy process on whether to recognise the oral undertaking". Tier B MINOR, decided from the checker's note, in no sentence being fixed for a WRONG item, so listed, not edited: Spinoff: the committee recommended "a formal policy process to consider how the oral agreement might be formally recognised"; the page softens "how" to "whether". Loose wording that understates the recommendation, not a false fact about its existence or date.
- [declined] MINOR, partisans (K19): "Every witness on this page is a European man writing in English, and four of the five were partisans of one mission or another.". Tier B MINOR, decided from the checker's note, in no sentence being fixed for a WRONG item, so listed, not edited: Pompallier wrote in French and the 1888 book is a translation (the page's own card says "English, from his French"); "writing in English" is loose for him. The partisanship count holds.
- [fixed] WRONG, src-herald-ocr (K20): index.html Sources: "reads the printer's aud as and" now "keeps the printer's aud" (the NLA OCR text reads "tolerated aud protected", today and in the Wayback capture of 3 July 2024). Corrected line added.
- [declined] MINOR, rel-river (K21): "Heraclitus never wrote the line everyone quotes from him". Tier B MINOR, decided from the checker's note, in no sentence being fixed for a WRONG item, so listed, not edited: The sister layer says "Heraclitus almost certainly wrote neither"; the relates note drops the hedge. A dropped hedge, not a contradiction.
- [fixed] WRONG, williams-order-of-missions (K22): index.html section 4 and instrument.js gloss author-w: Williams's order is now said to cover the missions only, with Māori practice last in his list and no reason given for it ("taking the various Missions in their order of establishment in the country", Carleton vol. II p. 15); "why the fourth item is there" now "who put the fourth item in"; the gloss head is now "The order of the list". Corrected line added.
- [fixed] WRONG, correlation-transcription (K23): index.html figcaption (plate p. 32) and the relates note to the-first-man-to-read-it: "the standard modern transcription of Colenso's manuscript prints correlation" now says the word is in Ward's 2011 transcription of the 1890 print (her "1890 Jubilee History" column, p. 92). Corrected line added.
- [declined] MINOR, five-surviving-records (K24): "(added) "Here are the five surviving records of the minute in which it was made" (index.html:198; dek: "the five surviving records")". Tier B MINOR, decided from the checker's note, in no sentence being fixed for a WRONG item, so listed, not edited: Ward pp. 92-93 and Appendix Two describe a sixth record, Busby's "At the Second Meeting, Treaty of Waitangi" (MS 46, AML), derived from Williams's perspective. The page's five are the five it prints; an omission that does not change its counts.
- [declined] MINOR, ms-mr-c (K25): "(added) "the earliest surviving text records that somebody made a suggestion to Williams as he wrote, and does not say who or what; the claim that it was Colenso ... is first attested fifty years later" (index.html:489-491)". Tier B MINOR, decided from the checker's note, in no sentence being fixed for a WRONG item, so listed, not edited: The 1840 MS says "Mr C was seen xxx suggtg. somewhat to Mr. W." (Ward p. 91), and "Mr C." is Colenso's abbreviation for himself elsewhere and also Clarke's; "does not say who" overstates its silence, "does not say what" stands. Loose wording.