ELECTION PETITION

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, Issue 18063, 9 March 1923, Page 8

ELECTION PETITION

WESTERN MAORI SEAT-

THF LIQUOR ALLEGATIONS. j i‘RKSS ASSOCIATION TET.EGttAJI TA UR ANG A. Thnreday. . The bearing of the election petition against tihe return of Sir Maui "Pomare, ior the AYestcrii ]\l stori electoral district, was continued to-day. before Justices Hosking and Stringer. Air C. P. SkcrroU. K.C.. and Air f.ovi, Wellington, appear for the petitioner, Kauanu .Haornke. of Whangarei. and Ah- Al. Alyers. K.C., and Afr . O'Leary. Wellington, for Sir ALtn i .‘Poma re. Thirteen .specific cases of brioery, corruption. and -illegal practices are alleged, and irregularities, improprieties and failures to comply with the Legislature Act in the taking of the poll are also alleged. Rangi ATarumaru, who ■ was in the witness box when the hearing was adjourned on the previous (lav. was further cross-examinod .by Air Alyera concerning the grant of’£2 which witness stated lie had received in AVellington from. Sir Alain Pomare, and for which witness had given a receipt. I Witnc ss denied asking for money from Dr. Pomare. who then said that the. witness could have anything up to £‘2o., Witness did not agree with. Dr. Pomare’» native policy. Jlc then wrote and told him. that'he would not support Dr. Pomare, and told him to do mil at he liked with witness’s dishonoured cheques. Further evidence Avas also called regarding they re-employment of men *on railway works at Matapihi on. the lines cl the evidence given yesterday. Regarding; the charge that" natives were supplied with liquor during I)r. Pomare's meeting at Aluir’s gold'mine, near Te Puke, Tawhiwi Ngatai stated that he remembered the meeting;. When lie went to the kitchen of Muir's house about twenty men iveiv there. He Avas invited to have a drink, and had a whisky, Init a few minutes biter a. meeting Ava.s held outside. After speeches more Avhisky was supplied, and alien laite. who was not .sober, made a i speech, and said all present would sup- i port Dr. Pomare. As Dr. Pomare left I the natives danced a. haka, hut speak- I mg lor himself witnessed said he danced | as a, result of feeling happy from tho ’ whisky, not in honour of Dr. Pomare. Witness made a statcMiient later of the occurrence to one Winiata., when on holiday from Ai air’s, l.mt did not return to the job, fearing tho '“sack” ior making tho statement, but that tvas only his imagination. .1 era. Harawira gave. c.oroborntive eAudence.

Regarding the charge of drinkiim in the Star Hotel at laurauga on the day of the election, Tawhindii Ngat-ai said that lie had come in a motor car, and alter voting he and others had purchased drinks at the Star Hotel. They had had several drinks during the da.v. He tried other hotels Imt failed.' A Native woman testified that she save three Maori men corning out of the Star Hotel, and talked with two of them, who apparently had been drinkpng. Further evidence was adduced 're gardiug the bottles of hoer or stout taken to a Jiou.se at _ Matapihi, athere consumed. (bio Native' l> made a speech at Matapihi calli upon the lew present to vote for i • Pom arc and asked his hearers: ‘ If v could get a ten horse power and three at the same price which wo; you sooner have?’ Regarding the charge of bottled La 1 Buplied to* natives at Matapihi, I Myers called witnesses in rebuttal. One witness, Kohi Taukiwaho, swi that with one Pori he got two bottl of stout from a drunken pakeha on tl Tauranga beach, and took them aero; to the pa. . He was severely cross-examined b Mr Skerrott as to whether it was not'. lacb that lie purchased the stout himself in the hotel at Tauranga. This he denied. Regarding the general charges of irregularities' in the polling booths, Parao, a Native woman, Jiving at Ratana, gave evidence that there was no booth at Ratana, so she had voted at Turakina. Huku, a Native who was assisting in the booth, asked her to vote for Tuawhakaririka, but she said she would vote for Ratana. Kahuriki Eruera, another Native woman from Ratana, stated that about 120 Natives living there all had to vote at Tnrakina, the nearest booth which was .three miles distant. After the deputy returning officer had askea her the usual questions, Huka, the assistant in the booth, when ho heard that she was voting for Ratana, asked her in Maori “Why didn’t she vote for Poinarc?” She got angry, and replied, in English' that she was voting for • Ratana. i The Maori woman disclosed, during cross-examination, that Ratana received 320 votes at Tnrakina, 'Romans i four and the other two caiidiates, none. : The evidence of the proprietor ana the barman at- tbo Star Hotel was to . the effect ,that no Natives had been supplied with liquor in the hotel on polling clay. 3f the - Natives swore that they received it, it was false. Mr Myers applied to have Clause 4, regarding the supplying of a bottle of beer to one Teirikia, and Clause G, regarding treating at the Star Hotel struck ont, but the Bench ruled that as counsel for the petitioner had not intimated that evidence on these charges bad been exchanged they could not be struck out at the present stage, at auy rate.