MAORI MEMBERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 285, 2 December 1931, Page 6

MAORI MEMBERS.

■'Beyond realising that all votes ,in the House are of equal value, and that a Maori member is therefore just as useful in a crisis as a European, New Zealanders take little interest in the Maori elections, and probably tli ere are a good many who think that separate Maori representation has outlived its usefulness. The least defensible portion of the system is the Southern. Maori electorate, in which less than a thousand votes were cast this week, against seven thousand in Sir Apirana Ngata's district. But the justification for separate representation goes back a-long while in our. history, and. is still strong'. When that very wise Native Minister Donald McLean introduced the necessary legislation in 1867 he explain d clearly why, as a taxpayer, the owner of much land and a former enemy, the Maori' should be given this representation. It was part of the policy of reconciliation and partnership, and it served its purpose well. The Maori has always known that his grievances and aspirations could be brought forward in Parliament and his interests watched there, by men of his own race who thought with his mind. Although the Maori is; now much more closely in contact with European civilisation than he was, it is Still desirable that he should feel that he has these special spokesmen where the laws are made.