THE MAORI ELECTOR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22102, 4 November 1933, Page 10

THE MAORI ELECTOR

The introduction in the House of Representatives by Mr Tirikatene of a Bill to amend the Electoral Act will serve to remind the public of the peculiar conditions under which the elections of Maori members of Parliament are conducted. Maori voters are required to present themselves singly before the Returning Officer and, when they have answered his questions satisfactorily and provided the necessary particulars as to identity, these including information as to their tribe, hapu, and abode, they inform him of the name of the candidate for whom their votes are to be east. The Returning Officer writes this name on the voting paper, his deputy acting as a witness. Mr Tirikatene’s Bill would amend this procedure to permit of scrutineer’s being present when the votes are recorded. The object of this is to place a check upon the work of the electoral officials, but, apart from the question whether this is necessary, it would, as Sir Apirana Ngata observed yesterday, have the effect of making the voting even less secret than it now is. The principle of the democratic electoral system is that the voter’s ballot shall be cast in absolute secrecy,

and there scarcely appears to be sufficient reason why Maori electors should be longer excluded from the application of this principle. It may be understood that when the existing provision of law was originally framed the Maori population was largely illiterate, and that it was expedient on this account, if for no other reason, that Natives should indicate their preference among the parliamentary candidates by word

of Mouth For many years, however, the Maoris have had the benefits of free education, and many of them have proved themselves in competition with Europeans to be possessed of high mental attainment. The proportion of illiterate Maoris to-day. is probably small, and the general standard of intelligence among the race may be compared not altogether unfavourably with that of large numbers of the white community. Sir Apirana Ngata observed during the discussion of Mr Tirikatene’s Bill that the question of preparing Maori electoral rolls was considered some years ago, but that the idea was abandoned. He did not explain why it was abandoned, but, it may be suggested that such difficulties as may have presented themselves are not insuperable, particularly as the proportion of illiterate Maoris must be decreasing annually even as the Native population increases. It is matter for satisfaction that Sir Apirana Ngata himself expressed the view—-which members for European constituencies would hesitate to express —that sooner or later separate Maori representation in Parliament will be discontinued. It is certaiply anomalous, conflicting with the whole principle of representation on the basis of population, that fewer than 1000 electors in the Southern Maori constituency should have the right* of electing a member of Parliament. In the meantime, the Government would do well to give fresh consideration to the desirability of preparing Maori electoral rolls and ensuring the Native electors the same degree of secrecy'at the ballot box as every adult pakeha enjoys.