Before the Act was passed, the legal definition of ‘Maori” was by blood
quantum: “A person of the Maori race of New Zealand or a half-caste descendant
thereof.”
After panicked complaints from its Maori MPs that soon nobody would be able to
prove eligibility for the Maori Electoral Roll, Labour changed that definition
tor read: “A person of the Maori race of New Zealand or any descendant thereof.”
With the stroke of a pen, anyone with a fraction of Maori blood, such as the
1/16th Maori, Stephen [aka ‘Tipene’] O’Regan, could hang a big mutton bone
around his neck and identify himself as ‘Maori.’
