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Acts Affecting Native Lands, Etc. (In English and Maori), Passed by the General Assembly, Session 1892, 1893, 1897, 1898, 1899.

Part V. — Maori Representation

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Part V.
Maori Representation.

148.

In this Part of this Act—

"Maori" means an aboriginal inhabitant of New Zealand, and includes half-castes and their descendants by Natives.
149. In addition to the number of members of which by any law for the time being in force it may be provided that the House of Representatives shall consist, there shall be four members of the said House who shall be elected under the provisions of this Part of this Act to represent therein the inhabitants of the colony of the Maori race.
150. Such members shall be chosen respectively from amongst and by the votes of the Maoris inhabiting each of the several Maori electoral districts hereinafter mentioned, who shall not at any time theretofore have been attainted or convicted of any treason, felony, or any offence punishable by penal servitude or imprisonment with hard labour for three years or upwards, and shall be otherwise qualified as hereinafter provided.
151.

Every Maori, as defined in section one hundred and forty-eight of this Act (not being registered under Part II. of this Act), who is twenty-one years of age and upwards, and who is not disqualified under some provisions of this Act or any other Act, is entitled, subject to the provisions of this Act, to vote as an elector at any election of a member of the House of Representatives for the Maori electoral district which he inhabits; and Every male elector under this Part of this Act is qualified to be a member of the House of Representatives for any Maori electoral district of the colony.
152.

No member elected under the provisions of this Part of this Act to serve in the House of Representatives, and no Maori member who shall be summoned to the Legislative Council, shall be capable of being appointed to any office of emolument under the General Government of the colony so long as he may be a member of the General Assembly. If any such member of either branch of the Legislature shall at the time of his being summoned or elected hold any such office of emolument as aforesaid, the salary or emolument of such office shall neither be increased nor diminished during such time as he may be a member of the General Assembly.

The provisions of this section shall not, however, apply to the holding a seat in the Executive Council, or holding an appointment as adviser or assessor of or in connection with the Executive Council, and receiving salary only in respect of such seat or such appointment, such seat or appointment being held on the ordinary tenure of responsible government.
153.

For the purpose of the election of the aforesaid Maori members of the said House, the colony shaft be divided into four Maori electoral districts.

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The names of such electoral districts and the numbers of the members to be returned by each such district respectively shall be as follow:—

The Northern Maori Electoral District—One member.

The Eastern Maori Electoral District—One member.

The Western Maori Electoral District—One member.

The Southern Maori Electoral District—One member.
154. The several Maori electoral districts constituted under "The Maori Representation Act, 1867," as the same existed at the time of the commencement of this Act, shall be deemed to be constituted and shall be the Maori electoral districts under this Act; but the Governor, by Proclamation published in the New Zealand Gazette, may at any time as occasion may require redefine and declare, and from time to time alter and vary, the boundaries of the said several Maori electoral districts; and such boundaries so from time to time redefined and declared shall be taken and deemed to be the boundaries of the said Maori electoral districts as fully as if the same had been set forth in this Part of this Act.
155. The person who at the time of the making and publication of any Proclamation altering the boundaries of any Maori electoral district is the member of the House of Representatives for such district, shall (if in all other respects duly qualified) be and be deemed to be the member for such one of the Maori electoral districts affected by such alteration as the Governor shall in and by any such Proclamation appoint, as if such member had been originally elected for such electoral district so altered as aforesaid.
156. The elections, whether general or particular, of all Maori members shall be conducted according to the following regulations:—
(1.) There shall be one Returning Officer for each electoral district, to be appointed by the Governor, and the said Returning Officer shall have power to appoint, on the occasion of any election, such Deputy Returning Officers as he may deem necessary; and if, owing to illness or other misadventure, such officer shall be unable personally to attend on such occasion, he shall be empowered to appoint a substitute to act in his stead.
(2.) Every Returning Officer and Deputy Returning Officer, and every substitute appointed hereunder, shall, before acting in his office, make and subscribe before a Justice of the Peace the declaration set forth in Form A in the Nineteenth Schedule hereto, and such Justice of the Peace shall transmit a record of the same to the Colonial Secretary.
(3.) Polling-places shall be appointed in each electoral district by the Governor, and notice of the places appointed shall be published in the Kahiti and New Zealand Gazette for at least eight days previous to the day of nomination.
(4.) The Governor shall issue a writ in the Form B in the Nineteenth Schedule hereto, speeifying the day and place of nomination, and the day on which the poll, if necessary, shall take place.page 4
(5.) The above writ shall be forwarded to each Returning Officer, and a copy thereof shall be published in the Kahiti and New Zealand Gazette, and posted in such public places as shall be thought desirable by the Returning Officer.
(6.) On the day of nomination, so to be fixed as aforesaid, the Returning Officer shall preside at a meeting to be held at noon at the appointed place, and shall declare the purpose for which the meeting is held. It shall be competent to the Returning Officer to declare the meeting adjourned from day to day till the election is completed.
(7.) Every candidate shall be proposed by one and seconded by another elector, who shall each previously obtain from the Returning Officer a certificate that he is qualified to vote at the election; and, if no more than one candidate shall be so proposed and seconded, the Returning Officer shall declare such candidate duly elected, and will make his return accordingly.
(8.) In the event of there being more candidates than one proposed and seconded, the Returning Officer shall call for a show of hands, separately, in favour of each candidate, and after such show shall declare the person in whose favour the show of hands shall appear to have been largest; and if thereupon a poll be not demanded by one of the candidates, or by some elector, duly certified as such, on his behalf, the Returning Officer shall declare such person to be duly elected.
(9.) The name of the person so declared to be elected shall be indorsed on the writ by the Returning Officer as the person duly elected in pursuance thereof, and the writ shall be returned by him to the Governor forthwith, who shall transmit the same to the Clerk of the Writs, to be by him forwarded to the Speaker of the House of Representatives. The Returning Officer shall forthwith publish a notice of the result of the poll in the Kahiti.
(10.) If a poll be demanded as aforesaid, the Returning Officer shall then declare the day on which the same shall be taken, being the day fixed by the writ as aforesaid, and on that day the poll shall be taken, at the places appointed as aforesaid, and shall commence at nine o'clock in the forenoon of the day appointed and shall close at four o'clock in the afternoon of the same day, unless otherwise ordered by the Returning Officer.
(11.)

If a poll be demanded, the Returning Officer shall immediately make arrangements for the issue at each polling-place of voting-papers to electors, which shall be in the Form C in the Nineteenth Schedule hereto, and such papers may be issued at any time or times appointed by the Returning Officer until the close of the poll.

Before giving a voting-paper to any * half-caste, the Returning Officer shall put the following question to him.

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"Are you registered as an elector in respect of a qualification for any electoral district other than a Maori electoral district?" and, if such question is not answered in the negative, he shall not give the applicant a voting-paper.
(12.) On the day of the poll the electors shall enter one by one the polling-booth, and shall each present his voting-paper and, when requested to do so, shall state the name of the candidate for whom he intends to vote, and his own name. The Returning Officer or his Deputy shall there-upon write the name of such candidate on the voting-paper, and sign the same, and pass it to a Maori, to be appointed by him, to be associated with him for this purpose, who shall place his initials or name on such voting-paper as witness.
(13.) Each candidate may, by writing under his hand, appoint one scrutineer, who, if he chooses, may, after the closing of the poll, be present at the counting of the votes given to each candidate.
(14.) The Returning Officer shall, immediately after the closing of the poll, and in the presence of such scrutineers as choose to be present, ascertain the numbers polled for each candidate, and shall sign a notice and declaration stating the number of votes polled for each candidate, and declare the person found to have the greatest number of votes to be duly elected, and shall indorse, return, and forward the writ accordingly, and publish a notice of the result of the poll, as provided in subsection nine of this section.
(15.) If two or more candidates have received an equal number of votes the Returning Officer shall give a casting-vote.
(16.) The Returning Officer or his Deputy shall have power to appoint a sufficient number of officers to keep order, and to make and enforce such other regulations for insuring the orderly, effective, and impartial conduct of the election.
(17.) The provisions of this Act relating to notices by telegraph, mutatis mutandis, shall be deemed to be implied herein as fully and effectually as if they were expressly set forth.
(18.) Where by these regulations it is directed that any notice or copy of any instrument is to be published in the Kahiti, such publication shall be in the Maori language; and where by these regulations it is directed that any notice or copy of any instrument is to be published in the New Zealand Gazette, such publication shall be in the English language.
(19.) In any case not provided for in these regulations, the Returning Officer or his Deputy or substitute shall, as far as possible, be guided, mutatis mutandis, by the law and practice which obtains in relation to election of members for the House of Representatives for other electoral districts, and to the general law relating to Parliament.

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