[2][3][4] The Act was introduced in part to target Māori self-proclaimed prophet, faith healer and land rights activist Rua Kenana,[5][6] but it was never used against him.

[8][9] According to Willie Jackson, the prevailing concern raised by Ngata was the harm arising from improper medical practices, rather than the destruction of mātauranga Māori.

The second clause stated that "Every person who gathers Māori around him by practising on their superstition or credulity, or who misleads or attempts to mislead any Māori by professing or pretending to possess supernatural powers in the treatment or cure of any disease, or in the foretelling of future events, or otherwise" was liable for prosecution.

Members portrayed traditional practices in curing smallpox (and other introduced diseases) as ineffectual and sometimes dangerous.

[13] Speakers in favour of the Act referred to "Second-class Tohunga", who did not possess traditional knowledge or authority and just preyed on the superstition of local people.

[21] Whatever the overt intentions, there was a paradigm of the time amongst colonial administrators and the general non-Māori populace that Māori were a "lost race", the effect of banning the practices of spiritual and cultural leaders was that it hastened assimilation.