LM Law

Just a clarification please Chris Bullen. In your opinion piece, you said that in 1806 the Crown confiscated 181,000 hectares of land from the three major iwi in the district.

If that is correct, that is new information to me, as I thought the land confiscations took place in the 1860's from various killing rampages against not only unarmed settlers in and around Whakatāne and Ōpōtiki, but also Māori who were loyal to the colonial forces?

Also quoting that the Māori population is nearly 50 percent; why can’t they vote their candidates in under the general roll as they have the numbers?

Murupara/Galatea Ward election is an example where one Māori woman challenged the sitting candidate and would have won, but another Māori woman put her hand up also and split the Māori vote, allowing the sitting candidate to win by a few votes .