* Waitangi Day in New Zealand: February 6

* Waitangi Day, celebrates the founding of New Zealand in 1840.

* Waitangi Day

The date of the signing has been a national holiday, now called Waitangi Day, since 1974.

The anniversary of the signing of the Treaty is now a New Zealand public holiday, Waitangi Day, on 6 February.

The first Waitangi Day was not until 1947 ( although there were some commemorations before that ) and the day was not made a public holiday until 1974.

The English version of the Treaty appeared as a schedule to the Waitangi Day Act 1960, but this did not technically make it a part of statute law.

New Zealand marks two national days of remembrance, Waitangi Day and ANZAC Day, and also celebrates holidays during or close to the anniversaries of the founding dates of each province.

An example of this is the mass haka which takes place in Parliament Square in London every Waitangi Day.

The Tino Rangatiratanga flag flying alongside the Flag of New Zealand on the Auckland Harbour Bridge, Waitangi Day, 2012.

The group applied for the Tino Rangatiratanga Flag to fly on the Auckland Harbour Bridge on Waitangi Day.

On 14 December 2009, Prime Minister John Key and Māori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples announced that the Māori Tino Rangatiratanga flag was chosen to fly from the Auckland Harbour Bridge and other official buildings ( such as Premier House ) on Waitangi Day.

Waitangi Day () commemorates a significant day in the history of New Zealand.

This event is considered by some to be the first Waitangi Day, although celebrations were not yet held annually.

Many of these early features remain a part of Waitangi Day ceremonies, including a naval salute, the Māori cultural performance ( now usually a ceremonial welcome ), and speeches from a range of Māori and Pākehā dignitaries.

Waitangi Day was proposed as a public holiday by the New Zealand Labour Party in their 1957 party manifesto.

After Labour won the election they were reluctant to create a new public holiday, so the Waitangi Day Act was passed in 1960 making it possible for a locality to substitute Waitangi Day as an alternative to an existing public holiday.

In 1963, after a change in government, Waitangi Day was substituted for Auckland Anniversary Day as the provincial holiday in Northland.

In 1971 the Labour shadow minister of Māori Affairs, Matiu Rata, introduced a private member's bill to make Waitangi Day a national holiday, to be called New Zealand Day.

Wrights Hill Fortress is currently in the hands of a preservation society and can be visited, by the public, on Waitangi Day, ANZAC Day, the Queen's birthday, and Labour Day.

Conversely some legal documents such as the Treaty of Waitangi are internationally considered to be documents under domestic law.

In total there are nine copies of the Treaty of Waitangi including the original signed on 6 February 1840.

There are differences between the Māori and English language versions of the Treaty, and virtually since 1840 this has led to debate over exactly what was agreed to at Waitangi.

Celebrations at Waitangi often commence the previous day, 5 February, at the Ngapuhi Te Tii marae, where political dignitaries are welcomed onto the marae and hear speeches from the local iwi.

Te Tiriti ō Waitangi, Maori are represented in the PSA ( Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi ) through Te Rūnanga o Ngā Toa Āwhina – the national body representing the interests of Maori members.

Many of the arguments being used are outlined in Paul Moon's 2003 book Te Ara Ki Te Tiriti: The Path to the Treaty of Waitangi, which argued that not only did the Maori signatories have no intention of transferring sovereignty, but that at the time the British government and James Busby did not wish to acquire it and that the developments and justifications leading to the present state were later developments.

( Memorialised lands are lands owned, or formerly owned, by a State-owned enterprise or a tertiary institution, or former New Zealand Railways lands, that have a memorial ( or notation ) on their certificate of title advising that the Waitangi Tribunal may recommend that the land be returned to Māori ownership.

There are conflicting reports of when Heke signed the Treaty of Waitangi.

Two similar events are the Circle Line Pub Crawl involving London's Circle Line ( attracting expatriate New Zealanders on Waitangi Day ) and the Metro Pub Crawl from Birmingham to Wolverhampton on the Midland Metro.

The Waitangi Tribunal, in its 1996 report, Kaupapa Tuatahi, observed: " We are unaware of the evidence that the hapū agreed to this arrangement.

These claims are based around historical possession and the Treaty of Waitangi.

Plans are ongoing to plant a grove of pohutukawa and totara trees at the summit, but concerns by local iwi over Treaty of Waitangi claims have so far prevented any actual planting, though Council is growing a number of seedlings in the hopes of reinstating a grove as soon as the treaty claims are settled.

At his last Waitangi Day speech in 1972, Porritt caused more controversy by stating that: " Maori-Pakeha relationships are being dealt with adequately through the biological process of intermarriage ".

Many of the arguments being used are outlined in Paul Moon's 2002 book Te Ara Ki Te Tiriti: The Path to the Treaty of Waitangi, which argued that not only did the Māori signatories have no intention of transferring sovereignty, but that at the time the British government and James Busby did not wish to acquire it and that the developments and justifications leading to the present state were later developments.

: Articles about the initial stages of New Zealand and Maori-British conflicts are in: Category: Treaty of Waitangi.

Te Puke is in close proximity to Tauranga, Mount Maunganui, Papamoa, and Maketu, which are all coastal towns / cities, as well as the small townships of Waitangi, Manoeka, Pongakawa and Paengaroa.

However, under British and subsequent New Zealand law, typically an iwi forms itself into a legally recognised entity, and under the Treaty of Waitangi these entities are accorded special rights and obligations under New Zealand law ... when they are recognised as tangata whenua They must have a provable relationship with a specific area of geography, and if this is acknowledged by the national or local authority, they become the legal tangata whenua.

Tangata tiriti refers to non-indigenous New Zealanders, who are in the country by virtue of the Treaty of Waitangi.

In its 1996 report on Taranaki land confiscations, the Waitangi Tribunal noted that Bryce was a Taranaki war veteran who " clearly retained his relish of warfare ... on his own admission, he had always desired a march on Parihaka in order to destroy it.

The anniversary is officially commemorated at the Treaty house at Waitangi, where the Treaty was first signed.

In 2003 and 2004, the anniversary was again officially commemorated at the Treaty house at Waitangi.