CANDIDATES' PROFILES Four Contesting Southern Maori

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30288, 14 November 1963, Page 8

CANDIDATES' PROFILES Four Contesting Southern Maori

The four candidates standing for the Southern Maori electorate are: Sir Eruera Tirikatene, the sitting member (Labour), Mr M. B. Couch (National), Mr R. Bristowe (Young Maori Party) and Mr M. E. T. Nia Nia (Social Credit). Results at the last General Election were:— Nia Nia (Social Credit) 474 Tirikatene (Labour) .. 5132 Tutaki (National) .. 1185 Informal .135 Total ..6826 There were then 9319 electors on the roll. Sir Eruera Tirikatene first stood for Parliament in 1928 as an independent Ratana Candidate for the Southern Maori seat. He failed to secure election on the casting vote of the returning officer. He was successful in 1932 and was re-elected as an independent Labour candidate in 1935. He then joined the Labour Party and has been the official and successful Labour candidate for Southern Maori at each election since 1938. Sir Eruera Tirikatene was born at Kaiapoi in 1895, was educated at the Kaiapoi District High School and took up farming. He is a registered minister of the Ratana Church. His father was a Cornishman, Mr J. D. Tregerthen. As a young man Sir Eruera Tirikatene was a successful athelte and Rugby player, and was noted for his horse riding, swimming, sculling and motor-boat racing. From 1921 to 1926, Sir Eruera Tirikatene ran a ferry business from Port Levy to

Lyttelton. He had a dairy farm at Port Levy. During his service with the Maori Battalion in France in World War I he qualified as a chiropodist and worked in the New Zealand Medical Corps. In 1943, Sir Eruera Tirikatene was appointed to the Labour Cabinet and waa representative of the Maori race on the Executive Council. In the 1957 Labour Government, he was Minister of Forests and Associate Minister of Maori Affairs. Mr Couch is a building and shearing contractor at Pirinoa in the South Wairarapa. He was born at Lyttelton, went to the Sydenham primary school, the Otaki Maori Boys’ College and the Christchurch Technical College. He joined the R.AF. in 1944 and trained as a pilot. Mr Couch had a successful Rugby career, playing in 92 firstclass matches and for New Zealand in 1947 and 1949. He played in 20 matches for the New Zealand Maori team. He is sole selector for the Wairarapa Rugby Union.

He is chairman of the Pirinoa tribal committee and of the Pirinoa school committee and chairman of the Southern Maori branch of the National Party. Mr Couch is a member of the Wairarapa Maori executive committee and is an honorary welfare officer and elder of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints. He is a district welfare officer and probation officer. Mr Couch is married and has two daughters and three sons. Mr Bristowe is 29, is married and has two children. He has been a member of the Labour Party and a branch secretary, but will be standing on behalf of the Young Maori Movement which grew out of the Old Boys’ Association of Te Aute College where he was educated. The movement was the result of the efforts of Sir Apirana Ngata, Sir Peter Buck, Sir James Carrell and Sir Maui Pomare. Mr Bristowe now works in the legal branch of the Ministry of Works in Wellington, but is a licensed interpreter

and, between 1958 and 1960, was Maori tutor at the University of Otago. He has been a successful debater and his sporting record includes Rugby, tennis, boxing and golf.