The Press THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 1961. Maori Electorates

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26513, 30 August 1951, Page 6

The Press THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 1961. Maori Electorates

Next Saturday’s General Election will mark a change from the longlanding practice of holding elections for the four Maori seats on the day before the European elections. Holding elections for all seats in the House of Representatives on the same day (provided for in amending legislation last year) will tend to minimise the undesirable separateness of the Maori elections. But there is little evidence that the wide gap between Maori and European

political philosophies, reasoning, and practices has narrowed. In 1946 and 1949 strong swings in the European vote were not reflected in the Maori vote. In fact, with the European seats evenly divided in 1946, the four Maori seats gave Labour its mandate to govern from 1946 to 1949. While Maori representation remained solidly Labour in 1949, the National Party increased its European representation by eight seats. Indeed, the 1949 poll for the four Maori seats was remarkable for its fidelity to the 1946 returns The aggregates of votes cast for the Labour and National Parties were almost the same; by a two to one majority the Maori electors in 1949, as they did in 1946, preferred the four Maoris standing in the interests of the Labour Party. Thus, the evidence of the last two elections gives no reason for believing that the Labour Party’s grip on the Maori electorates will be loosened next Saturday. Nor is there any evidence that Maori political thinking in the mass is nearer to dividing approximately equally between the

two main parties as the European ' vote does. There are two main ■ reasons. First, though the Maori vote is influenced in part by issues influencing Europeans, in greater part it is cast on issues of purely Maori interest. Second, in the Maori electorates influences controlled by a few persons can affect many votes; the Ratana Church guides the political opinions of many Maqris and the advice of influential elders influences many votes. ' Those observers of Maori polities who see the possibility of changes next Saturday include both reasons in their calculations. Issues of Maori interest that may have caused changes in Maori opinion include the Labour Party’s loss of Mr Fraser’s mana among the Maoris; the fact that the dire consequences feared—and predicted—if the National Party was returned to office in 1949 have not eventuated; the hurt to Maori pride and the loss of Maori influence in government affairs through having no Maori representative on the Government side of the House. A reason that may affect the vote in Northern Maori is the substantial number of Maoris working in the new Cargo Workers’ Union on the Auckland waterfront.

In each Maori electorate the present members have substantial majorities; but for the second of the reasons noted above, these may not be so important as they would be in a European electorate. The curious influence of the Ratana movement—a combination of the spiritual and the political—is a factor in Maori politics that Europeans find difficult to understand or assess. It was as strong as ever in 1949, Strong enough to dictate the selection of a candidate to stand in the Labour interest in Western Maori —against the wishes of the Labour Party. There were objections among Maoris to a woman standing as a Parliamentary candidate; Princess Te Puea was one Maori to express them. But Mrs Ratana polled nearly as many votes as her husband did in 1946; and there is no reason to think that her following in Western Maori will decline. Interest in the Ratana movement now turns not so much on the strength of its influence, but on the direction of it. While giving fulsome praise to the Labour Party at political meetings in the North Island. Mrs Ratana has cloaked in generalities hints of changes in thought; and in the minds of some observers these have aroused questions about the continued allegiance of the Ratana movement to the Labour Party if a National Party Government is returned again. However, for the purposes of Saturday’s election, the Ratana movement must be counted as on the Labour Party’s side. This will strengthen the party’s position in all electorates, and should be dominant in two electorates. There has been some talk that elements in the Ratana movement are dissatisfied in some respects with the present member for Southern Maori; but it is difficult to imagine a change In representation so soon after 1949, when Mr Tirikatene had a majority of 687 in a total poll bf 1253. The National Party is believed to have its best chance of loosening the Labour Party’s tight grip on Maori representation in Northern Maori, There, Mr Henare has to overtake Mr Paikea’s substantial 3029 majority in 1949.

It is regrettable that while the Maoris are an integral part of the nation, and while their parliamentary representation can be vastly important— as it was from 1946 to 1949—their politics make them largely a separate element. The National Party rightly avoids further complicating racial politics within the nation by working for the support of this or that Maori element and broadly makes the seme appeal to the Maoris that it makes to the European electors. Not only for reasons of party strength would the National Party eagerly welcome Maori representation on its side of the House Its wider reasons would be supported by thinking Europeans, who would welcome a Maori representation in Parliament more in keeping with the European representation. This would help to bridge the present toe-wide gap between Maori and ;Wa>iau fc&tic»