The Constitution Act made an allowance, in Section 71, for some districts to be set aside where Māori laws, customs and ways of life were maintained "for the Government of themselves, in all their Relations and Dealings with each other", provided these were "not repugnant to general principles of humanity."

[5] The Treaty of Waitangi, in the second article, gave the Crown the pre-emptive right for all land purchases from Māori.

This was the chief source of income for the Crown, and later the Provinces, as they would pass on the land to the settlers with a significant margin.

The colony obtained much self-control from the Crown with the New Zealand Constitution Amendment Act, which was passed in 1857.

This transferred much decision making from Britain to the colony, and without this change, the Native Land Acts of 1862 and 1865 would not have been possible.

My dear Friend, I am not a fool nor attribute to political forms mysterious virtues, but I know all that the sitting in parliament brings in its train and I say that ignore tenure to land and ignore the sitting in parliament and all that belongs thereto and the alternative is war, extermination to the weaker race and financial disaster to the stronger.In his letter, FitzGerald was referring to the financial consequences of the land wars that were crippling the country.

[10] One of the strong underlying motives was to overcome the problem with land ownership, which prevented Māori from enrolling as electors, as alluded to in the preamble of the Act: Whereas owing to the peculiar nature of Māori land and to other causes the Native Aboriginal inhabitants of this Colony of New Zealand have heretofore with few exceptions been unable to become registered as electors or to vote at the election of members of the House of Representatives or of the Provincial Councils of the said Colony.

[12] It is important to note that male Māori, due to their practical exclusion from the political process, received universal suffrage twelve years before European men.

[15] It is difficult to imagine these days how radical it was back then to grant universal suffrage to Māori men.

When the returning officer asked for a show of hands, the outcome was 34 to 33 vote in favour of Moananui.

When Europeans contested elections, it was common for the trailing party to demand a poll at this point, but this did not happen.

[18] John Patterson, also known by his Māori name of Hone Paratene Tamanui a Rangi, was elected on 20 June in the Southern Maori electorate.

[26] At the nomination meeting in Wanganui, held at the Courthouse, Mete Kīngi Paetahi was the only candidate proposed.