The first Member of Parliament for Eastern Maori was Tareha Te Moananui, elected in 1868; he was the first Māori MP to speak in Parliament, and he retired in 1870.
James Carroll represented the electorate from 1887 to 1893, but in 1893 he changed to the Waiapu electorate and was replaced by Wi Pere who Carroll had defeated in 1887.
In the 1963 election, Puti Tipene Watene was elected. He was a Mormon and was the first non-Ratana to win a Maori seat since 1938.
With MMP Eastern Maori was replaced by the Te Tai Rawhiti electorate in 1996. Peter Tapsell, who had represented Eastern Maori since 1981 was defeated when he stood in the new electorate.
Members of Parliament
The Eastern Maori electorate was represented by ten Members of Parliament:[2]
^"The General Election, 1899". Wellington: Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives. 19 June 1900. p. 3. Retrieved 13 March 2014.
^"Untitled". Poverty Bay Herald. Vol. XXIV, no. 7816. 4 January 1897. p. 2. Retrieved 16 January 2014.
References
Norton, Clifford (1988). New Zealand Parliamentary Election Results 1946–1987: Occasional Publications No 1, Department of Political Science. Wellington: Victoria University of Wellington. ISBN0-475-11200-8.