One reason that a treaty was needed was the lawless behaviour of some of the British Settlers like whalers. It matters because this poor behaviour of the whalers was having a negative effect on Maori. In Kororareka whalers would go out to sea and stay for months hunting sperm whales, then they came back to shore and caused a whole lot of drunken trouble. It all led to Prostitution and lots of fights between whalers and Maori. To sum it up the whalers came to shore after months at sea and caused a lot of trouble, which led to more problems.
Another reason that a treaty was needed was to protect Māori rights. One group that felt strongly about this was the missionaries. Missionaries felt that the Maori rights weren’t being protected. The missionaries and the Maori had a good relationship, missionaries also taught the Maori how to read and write. Missionaries were worried about people buying all the Maori land so they bought large quantities of land, sometimes as a type of trustee. To sum it up the missionaries wanted to protect the rights of Maori, so they did everything in their power to do so.