In the Treaty Williams has translated "all rights and powers of sovereignty" into "te kawanatanga katoa", the same in English from the Declaration of Independence however a different translation in Maori. All About the Treaty, published in 2005 where the author of the text declares "Some historians have suggested 'te tino rangatiratanga' or 'mana' were better approximations of sovereignty than 'kawanatanga', supports the claim of Williams mistranslating the treaty However the word mana in Maori is used between tribes to determine the pride or honour of that tribe, using the word mana in the Treaty would have resulted in a discount of signatures from Maori chiefs, note that the Declaration of Independence only 52 signed while the Treaty of Waitangi accumulated over 500 chiefs signatures. In Maori culture the Maori people value mana above all else, it is their 'chiefly authority' so to speak; Henry Williams knew that if he used the word mana in the treaty the Maori people would interpret that as handing over all their honour as chiefs to the Queen. Williams owned over 11,000 acres of New Zealand land and wanted to protect this land (Basset, Sinclair, Stenson - The Story of NZ, 1998) which could be a motive as to mistranslating the Treaty of Waitangi.
Many perspectives conclude that they do not believe the Maori knew to the full extent of what it was the treaty entailed as a result of Henry Williams removing the word mana, and so they did not comprehend the consequences of British sovereignty. Edward Wakefield, from the New Zealand company, was not in favour of the treaty. He was under the impression that many of the Maori population were in fact unaware of what the Treaty entitled for them. During the time of the Treaty Wakefield was settled in New Zealand and had strong opinions against the treaty, "Having not even the name of Governor or Government in their language, it may be supposed that the natives had no very precise or definite ideas of government; a thing unknown in fact to them and their ways.
