Treaty Website Hits Reach 150,000

Since its launch in mid 2004 a website offering fact-based information about the Treaty of Waitangi has had 154,000 unique visitors - of which around 80,000 were repeat visitors.

In addition nearly 400 people have subscribed to e-mail seminars offering topics such as Treaty history and New Zealand history in the last two months. And a set of five booklets based on the information on the website have been sent to over 125,000 people.

The website (www.treatyofwaitangi.govt.nz ) booklets and seminars are part of a Treaty Information Programme being run by the Treaty Information Unit of the State Services Commission. The programme also includes a touring Treaty exhibition which will hit the road in early January.

Programme Director Lisa Davies said she was delighted with the response to the programme's resources.

"We think that the response shows New Zealanders are intensely interested in the history of their nation, and in the Treaty as our founding document in particular.

"People are becoming more aware of the Treaty's importance and of their own need to understand more about it," she said.

Ms Davies said the high interest in the website and booklets was also likely to be reflected in visits to the exhibition.

"It's a very ambitious project - to load an exhibition onto a truck and drive it to over 35 different towns and cities throughout New Zealand. We are very pleased with the work Te Papa and their partners Archives New Zealand and National Library have put into this exhibition."

Called TREATY 2U the exhibition explores the period prior to and around the signing of the Treaty in 1840, the Treaty text (in English and Maori), why the various parties chose to (or chose not to) sign and what results the people of the time were hoping to gain from the Treaty. There is also some discussion of the relevance of the Treaty to society today.

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