The Declaration of independence involves with the Europeans and the Maoris, it started in the early 1830s and the Maoris wanted to declare to the french that they are also independent, the maoris also wanted formal protection from the french. in 1835 the Maoris wanted to sign the declaration of independence because they heard that they'll be people trying to take over there island so they didn't want chiefs to take over they also needed to have 52 by 1839 in 1835 they had 13 signatures signed by the Maori chiefs and then they also had 52 in the 1839 signatures by the Maoris chiefs and also some people that had been apart of the British government.
