Toko Ratana Labour Matiu Ratana Labour The Western Maori by-election 1945 was a by-election held in the Western Maori electorate during the 28th New Zealand Parliament, on 10 February 1945.

The by-election was caused by the death of incumbent MP Toko Ratana on 30 October 1944.

The challenger Pei te Hurinui Jones was supported by National and Kingitanga, the Maori King Movement.

Kaponga Erueti who had initially announced his intention to contest the election as an Independent Labour candidate later decided to withdraw from the contest, his withdrawal came late enough that his name still appeared on the ballot paper.

[1] The other six challengers all lost their deposits, although one motorist complainant was aggrieved that all the candidates got a petrol allocation of 250 gallons when the usual personal allocation was ten or fifteen gallons!