MAORI REPRESENTATION.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 201, 23 August 1905, Page 3

MAORI REPRESENTATION.

i ' AN INTERESTING QUESTION. j (By Telegraph.—PArliatoenUry __-_>orter.> ; WELLINGTON, this day. j Mr. Taylor made a strong attack on i the system of Maori representation in ; the House yesterday. There were, he j said, four Maori seats, and several members had commented on >.he fact that Mr. Parata, the Northern Maori member, was returned on the votes of some I 343 Maoris, the total number cast at tbe | poll only just exceeding 600. Tbe other j Maori members arc much more represenj tative. Mr. Taylor took other ground. I He daimed __iat the Maori members took j little or no inlerest in any legislation j except that directly or exclusively con- | eerning the native race, yet they exercised their votes in the House on advanced legislation that affected Europeans. The block vote of these four j members, nearly always given for the Government, was a factor in the House that was out of all proportion to the representation beliind it. Mr. A. I_. D. Fr-aser. member of Napier, and a Government supporter, saiJ the native representatives had aiwaya , been as potters' clay in tbe hands of j each successive Government, bee-Use it i was to the Government alone they look- ! Ed for assistance. Mr. Fraser went on | to say tbat there should be no native j memben, namely, members elected sole- ! ly from Maori electorates. He affirmed j that voting for Maori members was | purely a farce. The Maoris did not i_j cognise the responsibility of the franchise. They rode from booth to booth, and recorded vote-, three or four times I over. There should be two rolls—a najtive and a European. Mr. Hone Heke objected to -latire members being called automatons because they supported the Government. : and asked where the detrimental effect in their doing so mentioned by Mr. Fraser I came in, seeing that he (Mr. Fraser) did the same thing. In the early days j the natives bad been given four seats in tbe House out of courtesy. Since that time G7 million acres in the hands of the Maoris had dwindled to four mil--ion, th* transfer having b—n lagaiiaed

by laws passed for the purpose of making possible this alienation of native lands. ?• « The Native Minister said he believed that tbe repeal of the Act giving special Maori representation by four members in the House would be a good thing. Tbe Maori race would be benefited. The sooner they put- the Maoris on tbe one common roll, with representation either by Maori or European members, tbe better. "Where there is special representation it must be of a restricted order," said Hr. Carroll, "but," he continued, "if there were Maoris on the general rolls, members of Parliament, knowing there was a large Maori vote which would be exercised, would pay special attention to native needs. Mr. McNab", in the course of a model speech, took the same view as the Native Minister, and quoted the Victorian railway engine drivers as an instance of strong" feeling against the epecial representation proposed for them as Civil servants by the Irvine Government. It was l«ette, to have 26 members all interested in Maori matters than four interested and the' rest apathetic.