Comment From The Capital Towards Racial Unity In Law And Elections

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29953, 15 October 1962, Page 11

Comment From The Capital Towards Racial Unity In Law And Elections

(From Our Oum Reporter)

WELLINGTON, October 14. When the member for Western Maori, Mrs I. Ratana, speaks m Parliament she is accorded unusual hush and attention. .* not a forceful nor a fluent speaker, and her rare contributions are seldom charged with items of news value. Y*, with * ier halting and gentle manner, she endows her speeches with a compelling sincerity more professional orators might dearly love to acquire.

Last week in this way she related a simple and, perhaps unwittingly, aapposite story during the introduction of the Juries Amendment Bill The bill proposes the abolition of all-Maori juries and is from the programme of the Minister of Maori Affairs (Mr Hanan) to discard, with Maori approval, many legislated differences between Maori and European. A friend of hers, said Mrs Ratana, of half Maori blood, proud of her connexion with the race and a diligent worker on its behalf, recently told her she was now on the European electoral roll The choice, explained her friend, was because she no longer felt the force of tribal unity and thought the change best fitted the new way of life of herself and her family in the city.

It was just this issue, of the electoral rolls, and the eventual abolition of the Maori seats in Parliament conceived by those seeking full equality in law and politics, and the step-by-step removal of “legal differentials,” as they are called in the 1960 Report on Maori Affairs by the Secretary for Maori Affairs, Mr J. K. Hunn, that moved the Opposition to reservations about this latest bill concerning Maoris. The Jury Amendment Bill is the third equalising measure introduced by Mr Hanan. Last year. Parliament approved a procedural change on the registration of Maori births and deaths. A bill, already passed this session, provided for the transfer of jurisdiction over Maori adoptions from the Maori Land Court to the Magistrate's Court. Other Bills

Other bills are being prepared for this session. Family Protection. —An amendment to the Maori Affairs Act will propose that Maoris be subject to the law on family protection. It is a change to give Maori w'dows the right to challenge a husband's will, a right not now extended in law, or by old Maori tradition on succession, to women.

Land Surveys.—For many years, surveys have not been permitted on Maori land without the consent of the district’s chief surveyor. Historically, this may have been as much for the protection of the surveyors as of the Maori lands, but the Maori Affairs Department knows no reason why the distinction should continue today.

Land Proceeds. —Legislation will provide that money raised by the sale of land — willingly sold by its multiple owners—will no longer be protected from the claims of creditors and other obligations. It is considered that protection by the Maori Trustee of at least the proceeds against predatory Europeons is no longer needed. Public Compensation. A bill will provide that the assessment and award of compensation for Maori property taken for public works should be transferred from the Maori Land Court to the Land Valuation Court.

Tohungas.— The 1908 act. consolidating earlier laws, provided against "designing persons, commonly known as tohungas (who) practise on the superstition and credulity of the Maori people by pretending to possess supernatural powers in the treatmenl and cute of disease, the foretelling of future events, and otherwise, and thereby induce the Maoris to neglect their proper occupations and gather into meetings where their substance is consumed and their minds are unsettled, to the injury of themselves and to the evil example of the Maori people generally. With safeguards in other acts, the proposal is to repeal this law. Council Approval The Council of Tribal Executives, established last year as the voice of 450 tribal committees, recently approved all these changes. Although some Maori members ot Parliament view the council as a threat to their position, the Government, in the absence of Maori members in its own caucus, has used the council much as it uses, say, Federated Farmers, the New Zealand Alliance and other organisations to test sectional opinion. The Maori members are all on the Maori Affairs Committee and continue to perform their usual Parliamentary functions there and in the House. The council reserved other items, such as land title reform to prevent unnecessary fragmentation of properties for further consideration So far. it has considered only issues placed before it. But it is hoped that with this new. non-political machinery, desire for change will be expressed more clearly and swiftly by the Maoris themselves. especially when their representatives to Parliament are not Government members . M The Hunn Report listed 82 “differentials.” Not all require legislative changes. The life insurance companies. for example, have gone a tong way in eliminating premium loadings on Maori

lives, and have spread the risk of a shorter life expectancy over other business.

Items Reviewed

But for many months, the former district officer for Maori Affairs at Auckland, Mr A. E. Edwards, has been reviewing the items, ascertaining the origins of legal differences and reporting on the possible results of ending the discriminations. On these reports and on the council’s opinions the Minister largely bases his programme. Whether or not Parliamentarians want a change in the ultimate issue of electoral law its consideration will soon be forced upon them. The Electoral Act provides for tour Maori electorates, with boundaries fixed by regulation. Soon the upsurge in the Maori population will demand consideration of increasing the number of Maori seats if the present system is to continue.

One proposal towards putting the races on an equal footing is to begin by abolishing the Southern Maori electorate. Thus, four members could be elected by the greater number of Northern Maoris and the Southern Maoris, already more integrated into European society,

would enrol with Europeans. Members of both political parties will have reservations about distributing the Maori votes among their other seats. It has always been a fallacy to argue that Labour strength in the House has sometimes depended on the existence of the four Maori seats. Were the Labour votes in these redistributed among European electorates, the gain to Labour might be much greater than four seats. But the redrawing of boundaries might so dislodge other supporters that the result in practice is quite beyond speculation. Before his death in 1950, Sir Apirana Ngata, forecast that, with a decade, Maoris of more than half blood would have the option of rolls. That might be a first move to integration of the electoral system. Mrs Ratana’s story, confirmed by estimates that about 10,000 Maoris of half blood now exercise their choice to vote with Europeans, the fact that nearly 2000 Maoris a year move into the cities away from the closer ties with their fellows, and the increase in Maori population, all suggest that a change in the system may come sooner than most people expect.