CHALLENGED VOTES

Evening Star, Issue 26081, 21 April 1947, Page 6

CHALLENGED VOTES

ELECTORS OF MAORI OLOOD —— f HEARING ENTERS SECOND WEEK (P.A.) HAMILTON, April 21. A family tree tracing the ancestry of each voter challenged as being of Maori blood, would be presented to the court, not as evidence in itself, but to clarify the evidence of lineage which would be given from the witness box, said Mr W. J. Sim, K.C., senior counsel for the petitioner, when the. Electoral Court determining the outcome of the Raglan election to-day entered its second week. • The.'Chief Justice, Sir Humphrey O’Leary, and the senior puisne judge, Sir Archibald Blair, are on the Bench. The first case heard was that of Tui. Mona Mason, of Horotiu, spinster. Evidence was given by William Kohi, the girl’s father, that he was a threequarter Maori, and that lie believed his wife, Ngairupa Kohi, was a fullblooded Maori. His daughter, who'was 24 years old, was adopted when three months’ old by the Mason family, and lived with them until their; death five years ago. Mason had ho Maori blood, but Mrs Mason did, being related to witness’s own wife. Kohi couldnot say if the adoption was legalised, but the arrangement was that the Masons should bring her up as their own daughter. He considered ' his daughter should not have voted as a European. She knew who her true parents were, although she had visited them only once. The services of an interpreter were hurriedly sought when the next witness —Tui Mason’s maternal grandmother —was called. She was given the oath in the ordinary way before a daughter who accompanied her told the clerk of the court: “ She doesn’t understand a word you say.” Her evidence was then given through an interpreter. Witness said that, although she had a small percentage of European blood, she had always regarded herself as a full Maori. ~ Tui Mona Mason said she enrolled at Horotiu when a man called there taking enrolments. As far as she knew the Masohs were her parents. They brought'her up to understand this. The’Kohis had jokingly told her last jear that they were her parents, but she did not believe them. She had never seen any documentary evidence ocneerning her birth Or parentage. Te Waimoana Pakihi, a married woman, of Huntly, another voter, said that, although she was a full-blooded Maori, she thought she was entitled to the same privileges as her husband, who was a half-caste, and was on the concerning her birth or parentage.