The Southern Maori by-election of 1922 was 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 ...

during the 20th New Zealand Parliament. It was held on 25 January 1922, i.e. before the 1922 general election, which was held on 7 December. The seat of

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

became vacant following the death of the sitting member John Hopere Wharewiti Uru on 29 November 1921. Four candidates contested the seat, which was won by the younger brother of the deceased member, Henry Whakatau Uru, known as Harry. He was a native agent, 49 years old, and born in

Kaiapoi Kaiapoi is a town in the Waimakariri District of the Canterbury region, in the South Island of New Zealand. The town is located approximately 17 kilometres north of central Christchurch, close to the mouth of the Waimakariri River. It is cons ...

. According to the local Christchurch newspaper, ''

The Press ''The Press'' is a daily newspaper published in Christchurch, New Zealand owned by media business Stuff Ltd. First published in 1861, the newspaper is the largest circulating daily in the South Island and publishes Monday to Saturday. One comm ...

'' of Thursday, 26 January 1922 (page 6), the new member was a supporter of the Reform government led by

William Massey William Ferguson Massey (26 March 1856 – 10 May 1925), commonly known as Bill Massey, was a politician who served as the 19th prime minister of New Zealand from May 1912 to May 1925. He was the founding leader of the Reform Party, New Zea ...

, not an Independent as it had stated the day before, when Teone Erihana was described as a 'Government' candidate and all the others as 'Independent'. The election result given by ''The Press'' was two votes higher than the official result published in the ''New Zealand Gazette'' of 9 February (page 440) i.e. 814 not 812, with Uru as 365 not 364 and Pitama as 109 not 108. Although electoral rolls of eligible voters were not published for Maori seats, ''The Press'' said that proportion voting was higher than in European seats, as the number on the roll was just over 1000.

Results

The following table gives the election results:

Notes

References

* Southern Maori 1922 1922 elections in New Zealand Māori politics {{NewZealand-election-stub