THE MAORI VOTER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23364, 2 December 1937, Page 10

THE MAORI VOTER

The provisions in the Electoral Bill revising the method of voting in Parliamentary elections by members of the Native race are to be commended in the respect that they afford due recognition of the equal citizenship of the Maoris and the white population of New Zealand. Up to the present time Maori elections have been conducted under a system of open voting. It has been suggested that the system opens the way to personation and other unsatisfactory practices, and almost certainly it has tended to give the Native voter a feeling of inferiority. Under the proposed amendment of the law his vote will be recorded by secret ballot in exactly the same manner as that of the pakeha elector, except that the voting paper will be issued after he has answered certain specified questions which will constitute a test of his bona fldes. It cannot be pretended that the procedure which is to be adopted is wholly free from features that invite criticism. A disadvantage in connection with it will be the obvious one that identification of the applicant for a ballot paper cannot be assured any more than it could be under the present system, especially as duplications of names amongst Maoris are not infrequent. Thus, the door may still be open for the practice of abuses by unscrupulous persons. The risk of this would, of course, be diminished if the same electoral law were in operation thi'oughout the Dominion and if rolls were prepared of Maoris who are qualified to vote. It is perfectly understandable, however, that the compilation of rolls of Maori electors would be a matter of so much difficulty as to be scarcely practicable. Eventually, no doubt, provision for the registration of Maori electors will be made. In the meantime the main ground for any complaint of discrimination in electoral practice as between Natives and Europeans is to be re-

moved, and the Maori will be enabled to record his vote at the polls with the same confidence in the secrecy of the ballot as is enjoyed by voters in European electorates.