Southern Maori by-election 1922

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The Southern Maori by-election of 1922 was a by-election during the 20th New Zealand Parliament. The election was held on 25 January 1922, ie before the General Election of 1922 which was held on 7 December.

The seat was vacant after 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.

According to the local newspaper, the Christchurch Press of Thursday 26 January 1922 (page 6), the new member was a supporter of the Reform government led by William Massey, 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) ie 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.

	Name	Party	Votes	Percentage
	Henare Whakatau Uru	Reform Party	364	44.8%
	Teone Matapura Erihana	Independent?	250	30.8%
	Wereta Tainui Pitama	Independent	108	13.3%
	William Daniel Barrett	Independent	90	11.1%
	Total votes polled		812