He said he understood the words of the Treaty to mean that "the shadow of the land was passing to the Queen, while the substance remained with Māori", a view he perceptively and presciently reversed a year later in light of increasingly bitter practical experience in subsequent dealings with Pākehā authorities, when he stated that he saw that the substance of the land had passed to the Queen and that the shadow had remained with Māori.

Puckey often referred to himself and his wife in his Journals as mere 'labourers in the vineyard', and though he was both modest and humble, the actual effect of his labours may have been under-rated, in his lifetime by Bishop Selwyn, who refused to consider him as a candidate for ordination, ostensibly because of his lack of Greek and Latin, (ignoring his well recognised ability to provide accurate translations of Māori), and by subsequent historians.

William Puckey senior had been a boat builder, mariner and carpenter in Cornwall, and probably made a significant contribution to the establishment of these skills in New Zealand, as a sawyer, carpenter, and boat builder, being involved in the selection of timbers, sawing of planks, and making of joinery for the Kemp House, and the building of the 55 foot schooner Herald for the CMS mission.

William Puckey junior helped build, then served as the mate of the Herald;[5] until the ship was wrecked in 1828 while trying to enter Hokianga Harbour.

Both his father William, and especially his mother Margery, succumbed to alcoholism[6] under the conditions of life in early New Zealand, and both died in 1827 after an extended bout of drinking following the marriage of their daughter, after they had returned to Sydney.

[7] William Gilbert Puckey joined the CMS mission in his own right in 1821, and after accompanying his father back to Sydney in 1826, returned to New Zealand in 1827, and stayed here for the rest of his life.

[8] On 11 October 1831, in the St. John the Baptist Church at Te Waimate mission, Puckey married Matilda Davis (who was then aged 17), second daughter of Rev.

In December 1834, not long after his arrival and settlement in Kaitaia, he travelled in the company of an older Chief, Paerata, (-translates as 'the pilot'), an early convert to Christianity.

They were questioned at Houhora as to their motives for wanting to travel to this most sacred place, and on their return were confronted by a large gathering of rangatira who were anxious that Puckey might be damaging the 'aka', the ladder down to the sea, whereby spirits were understood to depart for Hawaiiki.

As soon as he was loosed, in he ran to his father, trembling in every limb.”[10] Puckey is reported to have later saved the life of a young Māori boy slave who was to be thrown into a river.

The Waitangi Commission's 'Muriwhenua Land Report' rather condescendingly said - "William Puckey was an honest man, and a fluent Māori speaker, but he was more of a faithful artisan than a wordsmith.

Puckey recorded a letter he had received from a Māori correspondent in the 'Missionary Register' in 1836, that said "the Holy Spirit has begun to dig at the top of my heart, but works downward very slowly.