REGISTRATION OF MAORI CLAIMS TO VOTE.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume I, Issue 58, 22 March 1873, Page 3

REGISTRATION OF MAORI CLAIMS TO VOTE.

TO TltK KOITOU. Sut,-—ln your last issue we are informed that souio person “is busily engaged in endeavouring to »w»mp the electoral roll by inducing large numbers ol Maoris to register their claims to “ Toady-lud or" imagines this to be Urn lirst attempt, ot the kind ho is mistaken. At the period tor regisi ration just, previous to the lasi, general elect ton-—a;., fur the Superintendeuuv, 1 ruvineial U'ltineii,, and (leuoral Assembly soino hundreds of Maori claims were forwarded for registration. .But Urn pill was too largo for the hegistraijun Ollicer to swallow, and, us Uu-y were nearly all Idled up and signed bv the same' hand, S.’ wy -.? r f- r< ‘ uil K T‘ utod save «N»ut a dtv.cn. Wow. i «.r Editor, 1 think the Taimuigu constituency sluuad oc ai quaint.od with the object of those who are so dosu-ous of placing so many dark gentlemen on L:e roll. 1 will give my view of the mutter, and should I be wrong in toy inferences, some of the parties implicated are on the spot, who will doiuiUeaa contradict me—if they can. Mr James Mackav , at t.ue elections I have referred to, look a most prominent- pari,, especially at t.Jmt tor the ou per i n ten dent, and dul wonders for Ins candidate. There was no lack of pi-ohed uddres.-.-.i from Mac any to the Maori" at I anranga on Shat occasion, and refreshments wvro n--t forgotten. Now, it is a notable fact that Air Mackay’s most active agents at this election »= d sho-c vdm Lm! U;orrd to enroll the Maori claim* itleutiwl. Pu this and that together, and i think the vf.h'-t may bo inferred. tS he eleel.io u f o r ocunbc; M the House, Mr Maekay was hhu.-cif a candidate for tins district. He im, however, beaten bv mug ondr, notwithril.imuMix flargo number of voters brought from nuekbimt and the Thames (nl, no little cost) to vote for him. Jhit, where won hi ho have been, or. ratlu-p, where would Kelly have been, had tho claims of the Utile hatch of our dusky friends been recognised ? arid where. O yo_ quamlum let Waikato* of Tai and Opotild, would have been your thousand feet of Umber ? Mr Maekay was, and is, desirous t ,f etandin,. MM r McLean’s shoos. Fancy Stafford i’rime alim.-.t ‘rami Maekay Minister for Defence 1 and such waa the state of parties last session iluit, it xh more than probable such would have been hue ones. Again, Maekay ia now mentioned an a probable candidate for tho iduperint-endency. 30f.) Maori votes from our district would be a lift. Ait-airs. p