Matiu Rātana (16 December 1912 – 7 October 1949), son of Tahupotiki Wiremu Rātana, was a New Zealand politician and president of the

Rātana The Rātana movement ( mi, Te Haahi Rātana) is a church and pan-'' iwi'' political movement founded by Tahupōtiki Wiremu Rātana in early 20th-century New Zealand. The Rātana Church has its headquarters at the settlement of Rātana Pā near ...

Church.

Political career

A younger brother to Haami Tokouru Rātana he succeeded to the Church Presidency, and to the

Western Maori Western Maori was one of New Zealand's four original parliamentary Māori electorates established in 1868, along with Northern Maori, Eastern Maori and Southern Maori. In 1996, with the introduction of MMP, the Maori electorates were updated, ...

electorate (from 10 February 1945, after a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

) after his brother's death in 1944. Matiu Rātana died on 7 October 1949 in

Wanganui Whanganui (; ), also spelled Wanganui, is a city in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand. The city is located on the west coast of the North Island at the mouth of the Whanganui River, New Zealand's longest navigable waterway. Whang ...

Hospital after a car accident. He was succeeded by his wife

Iriaka Rātana Iriaka Matiu Rātana (née Te Rio; 25 February 1905 – 21 December 1981) was a New Zealand politician and Rātana morehu who won the Western Maori electorate for Labour in 1949. She succeeded her husband Matiu Rātana to become the first wo ...

as MP. She was the first female Māori MP.

Sources

* Henderson, James Mcleod (1963). ''Ratana The Man, The Church, The Movement'' (1st ed.) A.H & A.W. Reed Ltd .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ratana, Matiu 1914 births 1949 deaths New Zealand Labour Party MPs Rātana MPs Road incident deaths in New Zealand New Zealand Rātanas New Zealand MPs for Māori electorates Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives 20th-century New Zealand politicians