MAORI VOTERS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5521, 6 December 1878, Page 5

MAORI VOTERS.

(From tho Daily Telegraph, November 29.)

Speaking of the intelligence o£ the natives, and of their right to the franchise from their ability to conscientiously voto for candidates best able to represent them, Mr. Sheehan has often referred to the Maoris inhabiting the northern part of the Auckland provincial district. The natives of the Kodney electorate, and of the Bay of Islands, have been specially pointed oat as particularly worthy of all tho political privileges that are enjoyed by. the European colonist. Tho claims of these Maoris have been represented in such a light as to make it appear that it would be rank injustice to disfranchise them merely because the whole of their race is not so intelligent. The Bay of Islands electoral roll scandal was glossed over by the assertion of those claims, which, as we have said, are based on superior intelligence, and a general knowledge of tho wants and of tho politics of tho colony. It has even been said by tho Hon. Mr. Sheehan, in tho heat of debate, that the average Maori was better qualified to exercise the privilege of the franchise than tho average Englishman to bo found in Now Zealand. If this was not complimentary to tho British colonist it was at least a high tribute of praiso to tho aboriginal native, and sufficient to direct attention to those districts in which the Maori possesses and exercises bis electoral rights to a greater extent than is usually found to bo the case in less favored parts of tho country. Wo naturally turn then Co {he northern portion

of this island, to sea what has been done at the recent elections in the county of Holdanga. A correspondent writing to the Auckland Herald supplies ail the information we seek, and from his letter we learn the practical effect the admittance of Maoris to the rights of the franchise would have, as instanced in the county of Hokianga. The writer of the letter prefaces his remarks by stating that about eight-tenths of the amount levied by rates in the county are paid by Europeans, but _ that the Maoris and half-castes have the majority of the votes, as each of them pays from fid. to 2s. fid. rates, which entitles him to one vote. The result of allowing this free and enlightened population a voice in the management of the country is that the native electors have been banded together by an obscure character, a resident in the district, and have voted as one man against those candidates of any standing or worth, and have completely succeeded in electing a council such as I defy any other county in New Zealand to produce. The gentlemen who have been chosen to see to the well-being of the county, and spend the funds provided by the Europeans, are as follows :—Three white men, two halfcastes, and two Maoris. Of these I am happy to be able to state that three can read and write tho Queen’s English indifferently well, and of the remainder tho less said of their capabilities in this respect the better. I do not wish to affirm that because a man is unable to read and write English he is therefore unqualified to be a legislator, although my own ideas on the subject are unalterably fixed, but I think that when ths same individual is a Maori or a half-caste, it must be admitted that it is extremely problematical whether he will ever prove himself a Demosthenes. Now, if Maori votes may be manipulated in this manner by one member of society, if Maoris can be driven like a lot of sheep in one mob to vote as one individual may require them, an immense power is placed in the hands of any designing individual who chooses to ingratiate himself with thenatives with a view to engaging them in his interests. With the experience we have had of the peculiar system of administration adopted by the present Government, we cannot but think that the claims of the Maoris to electoral privileges were in the main advocated by the Slinistry because the native vote, generally speaking, it was well known, could be manipulated. What has been the consequence at Hokianga of the exercise by the Maoris of their electoral rights 1 We learn from the correspondent already quoted that a feeling of distrust has arisen among the property holders of the district. It is felt for the first time that race has been set against race; that Maoris are being led by pakeha loafers against Europeans who have something to lose. In other words, the bone and sinew of the country, the men who have a stake in the welfare and progress of the colony, feel that they have been put under the yoke of those who have nothing to lose. This is the real scheme underlying the whole policy of Sir George Grey’s Government, in the consummation of which he hopes for a long reign, supported in power by the overwhelming vote of the natives manipulated in each district by some degraded pakeha.