7 the rights of the child or in other respects will members be unjustly treated or excluded?  Another is whether the recognition of cultural difference will impair the development of national unity.  A third is whether the rights of peoples are political matters that are not justiciable.    Each is a particularly large topic that cannot be addressed in a few sentences but I suggest for now that each concern is exaggerated.    First, a significant reason for recognising a right is sometimes that it is immediately constrained as a result.  I refer to formal constraints like that in the New Zealand Constitution Act 1852 and the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990.  The former provided for the recognition of Maori customs and usages “so far as they are not repugnant to the general principles of humanity”.⁴  The latter effectively provides that rights may be limited where the limitation can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.⁵  In addition I refer to the Hohfeldian constraint that leads us to consider the duty that corresponds with the right conferred.  And finally, it is invariably the case that rights are not so fundamental in fact that they are incapable of falling foul of others.  It is then not beyond the wit of the courts to seek an appropriate balance, or to consider how the two may be harmonised.   Second, does recognition cause division?  I suggest that national tension is more likely to arise not from efforts to accommodate ethnic groups under the umbrella of the state but from the refusal to accommodate them.    Third, are these matters entirely political?  I think ‘entirely’ overstates the position.  I suggest that the New Zealand Wars of the 1860s to 1880s could have been avoided if instead of leaving matters to the discretion of the Governor, there had been a law to provide for the recognition of appropriate representatives for Maori tribal groups prior to the alienation of Maori land.  In other words, some things are political because we choose to let them be so and fail to see the rule of law issues that are involved.                                                   4 S 71 5 S 5