Preserving the documents - Treaty of Waitangi

The Treaty of Waitangi is on permanent display in the Constitution Room at Archives New Zealand in Wellington. This climate-controlled space opened in 1990 when New Zealand marked the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty. The documents have not always been so secure.

The 19th century

Once the Treaty was signed on 6 February 1840, Lieutenant-Governor William Hobson sent four copies to his superiors. The copy actually signed at Waitangi (and other places) remained in New Zealand. The documents – two sheets of parchment and nine of paper – were kept in an iron box in government offices in Auckland.

Auckland was a small settlement in the early 1840s and the government offices were simply a wooden cottage in Official Bay. Fire destroyed the cottage in 1841, but government records clerk George Elliott rescued the box and the Treaty documents, as well as the Seal of the Colony. After the fire, the Treaty documents were fastened together and put in a safe in the Colonial Secretary's Office in Auckland. They were transferred to Wellington after it became the capital in 1865.

Discovery and preservation

The Treaty documents were hardly seen again until 1908. In that year, the historian Thomas Hocken found them in the basement of Government Buildings in Wellington. Water, time and rodents had taken a toll. Staff at the Dominion Museum tried to restore the documents, but getting suitable parchment was difficult. Using starch paste, they mounted the parchment on canvas and the paper on linen. This treatment caused more damage, including stains and hardening of the parchment. Security was better though; the documents were put in a tin case and kept in the strongroom at the Department of Internal Affairs in Wellington.

Over 50 years passed before further preservation. Leslie Lloyd, the Auckland City Art Gallery conservator, inspected the Treaty in 1966. He recommended that it 'should be treated as of first importance in conservation as it is unevenly attached to linen, is buckled and subjected to close fluorescent light and consequent fading'. More treatment was carried out from 1977 to 1978. The backing on the sheets of the Treaty was found to consist of a strong paper underneath buckram, a book cloth made from cotton or linen that is used in bookbinding and for stiffening garments. The buckram was removed, and the documents were humidified to moisten the paste before the paper lining was carefully peeled away. The paper sheets were immersed in water to soften the remaining adhesive, which was then removed. The documents were then dried and pressed.

Further restoration work was still needed. In 1979, bookbinder and restorer Sydney Cockerell suggested that the losses in the parchment sheets be filled in with handmade paper rather than vellum or parchment as new skin would cause cockling. Following Cockerell's advice, conservation treatment began in January 1980. The National Archives' Conservation Unit completed a thorough report on the Treaty in 1987. It repackaged the documents to minimise the risk of further physical damage.

On display

The Treaty first went on temporary public display in 1940 as part of the events marking the centenary of its signing. The Department of Internal Affairs, which looked after the Treaty, argued that further display and exposure to light of such important state documents would cause the writing to fade. In 1956, the Department of Internal Affairs recommended that the Treaty be placed in the care of the Alexander Turnbull Library. A special display case was designed, and the Treaty finally went on public display in 1961.

The Treaty returned to the care of the National Archives of the Department of Internal Affairs about 1978. Long-term security and display facilities were needed. While these were being constructed at Archives, the Treaty was deposited in a secure vault at the Reserve Bank in Wellington. A secure display area was completed at Archives House in 1991. The Constitution Room formally opened on 9 December in that year. The Treaty, along with other founding documents of New Zealand, has remained on public display ever since.