Act Repealed Latest version as at 24 September 1907 (as enacted) | 1907 No 13

Tohunga Suppression Act 1907

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Contents

Preamble.

Short Title.

Penalty on person practising as a tohunga.

Regulations.

Repeal.

Tohunga Suppression Act 1907

Public Act		1907 No 13
Date of assent		24 September 1907

	Title
	Preamble.
1	Short Title.
2	Penalty on person practising as a tohunga.
3	Regulations.
4	Repeal.

An Act to suppress Tohungas.

Preamble.

WHEREAS designing persons, commonly known as tohungas, practise on the superstition and credulity of the Maori people by pretending to possess supernatural powers in the treatment and cure of disease, the foretelling of future events, and otherwise, and thereby induce the Maoris to neglect their proper occupations and gather into meetings where their substance is consumed and their minds are unsettled, to the injury of themselves and to the evil example of the Maori people generally:

Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly of New Zealand in Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—

1 Short Title.

This Act may be cited as the Tohunga Suppression Act, 1907.

2 Penalty on person practising as a tohunga.

(1.)

Every person who gathers Maoris around him by practising on their superstition or credulity, or who misleads or attempts to mislead any Maori 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, is liable on summary conviction before a Magistrate to a fine not exceeding twenty-five pounds or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding six months in the case of a first offence, or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding twelve months in the case of a second or any subsequent offence against this Act.

(2.)

No prosecution for an offence against this Act shall be commenced without the consent of the Native Minister first had and obtained.

3 Regulations.

The Governor may from time to time, by Order in Council gazetted, make such regulations as he thinks fit to enable the intention of this Act to be carried out.

4 Repeal.

Subsection five of section sixteen of the Maori Councils Act, 1900, and all regulations made under that subsection, are hereby repealed.

Tohunga Suppression Act 1907