five-yearly census and Māori Electoral Option determines the number of Māori electorates for the next one or two elections. Establishment The establishment of Māori electorates came about in 1867 during the term of the 4th Parliament with the Maori Representation Act, drafted by Napier member of parliament Donald McLean. Parliament passed the act only after lengthy debate, and during a period of warfare between the government and several North Island Māori hapū. It was seen as a way to reduce conflict between cultures. The act originally agreed to set up four electorates specially for Māori; three in the North Island and one covering the whole South Island. The four seats were a fairly modest concession on per capita basis at the time. Many conservative MPs, most of whom considered Māori "unfit" to participate in government, opposed Māori representation in Parliament, while some MPs from the other end of the spectrum (such as James FitzGerald, who had proposed allocating a third of Parliament to Māori) regarded the concessions given to Māori as insufficient. In the end the setting up of Māori electorates separate from existing electorates assuaged conservative opposition to the bill – conservatives had previously feared that Māori would gain the right to vote in general electorates, thereby forcing all MPs (rather than just four Māori MPs) to take notice of Māori opinion. Before this law came into effect, no direct prohibition on Māori voting existed, but other indirect prohibitions made it extremely difficult for Māori to exercise their theoretical electoral rights. The most significant problem involved the property qualification – to vote, one needed to possess a certain value of land. Māori owned a great deal of land, but they held it in common, not under individual title, and under the law, only land held under individual title could count towards the property qualification. Donald McLean explicitly intended his bill as a temporary measure, giving specific representation to Māori until they adopted European customs of land ownership. However, the Māori electorates lasted far longer than the intended five years, and remain in place today, despite the property qualification being removed in 1879. The first four Māori members of parliament, elected in 1868, were Tāreha Te Moananui (Eastern Maori), Frederick Nene Russell (Northern Maori) and John Patterson (Southern Maori), who all retired in 1870; and Mete Kīngi Te Rangi Paetahi (Western Maori) who was defeated in 1871. These four persons