FIRST VOTE ON LOCAL OPTION BY MAORIS.

Feilding Star, Volume VI, Issue 1675, 20 December 1911, Page 2

FIRST VOTE ON LOCAL OPTION BY MAORIS.

AVellington, December 19. For the first time the Maori electors of several health districts in New Zealand wero a bio to cast their votes to-day on tho liquor question. It -was within their xmwer to decide that liquor must not be supplied to _ a Native either by a hotel proprietor or ordinary citizen, the penalty being a fine not exceeding £100. The definition of "native" is a wide one, involving half-castes and all intermediates between that and pure blood. Tlie districts in which this law is applicable as a result of a Proclamation by the Governor are tho Takitimu, Horotua, and To Arama health districts, covering the country between AVairoa and Mohaka, Hawke's Bay and East Cape to Tauranga and Rotorua, also the Northern AVairoa, a small area around Dargaville. The results so far to hand are as follows: —

Takitimu.—Continuance carried by 590 votes to 233 polled for no liquor. Horotua. —No liquor carried by 527 votes to 315 for continuance.

Te Arama.—Continuance carried by 443 votes to. 131' for no liquor.

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