“Apartheid” in Maori seats
Proposals to increase the number of Maori seats in Parliament smacked of “gerrymandering” and “apartheid,” the annual conference of the Canterbury-Westland division of the National Party was told at the weekend.
“We are all New Zealand- n ers, and should all be on a r common electoral roll,” the v division’s chairman (Mr M. F. J Hunter) said. t “I believe the time is long I past for separate seats, yet r the Labour Party proposes to 1 increase the number of Maori seats to seven. “If this were done, the average number of votes cast in each of these seven electorates would be less than 6000, based on the average of 10,000 for the present four. The votes cast in Euro- ( pean electorates are between S 16,000 and 18,000. t “Thus, a Maori vote would a be worth three European c votes,” Mr Hunter said. v “The Americans have an J interesting word for this sort [ of thing — they call it gerrymandering,” he said. c “We find a Maori Christchurch city councillor, a v
member of the Labour Party, returning from overseas advocating 17, or was it 19, Maori seats by the 19905. Is this some new form of apartheid, or separate development, that they propose?” Mr Hunter said.
“Apartheid” in Maori seats
Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33230, 21 May 1973, Page 14
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