LICENSING IN MAORI DISTRICTS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 178, 26 January 1912, Page 5

LICENSING IN MAORI DISTRICTS

ATTEMPT TO UPSET A POLL. ■ - By Telegraph—Press Association. • Gisborne, Last. Night. A petition has been filed by fifty odd Maori electors in the Horou Maori Council district at Port Awanui courthouse regarding the validity of the recent poll, •when voting was in favor that no liquor should be supplied to the natives. The principal grounds on which the petitioners base their objections to the poll are that the polling booth at Hick's Bay was never opened on the day of the poll, and a large number of electors were in consequence debarred from exercising their votes. Also that the polling booth at Maraenui was closed at 3 p.m., thus shutting out a number of voters. There are also one or two legal * questions. There is an objection raised that a majority of (electors who. were qualified to vote did hot carry the proposal that liquor should not be supplied to thej natives in the Horou Maori Council dis-1 trict, that a recommendation by the! Maori Council to the Governor to pro- ] claim the district was no,a valid recom-1 mendation. This ■ recommend'ation is the ground work of the election, and section 46 of ■ the ■ Licensing • Amendment Act, 1910, provides, "that the Governor may, on recommendation of- the Maori Council of any district under thei Maori Council's Act, 1900 ,proclaim such district as a district in which provision of section 46 of the Licensing Amendment Act, 1910, shall apply."