Act Repealed Latest version as at 04 August 1908 (as enacted) | 1908 No 193

Tohunga Suppression Act 1908

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Contents

Preamble

Short Title.

Penalty on person practising as a tohunga.

Regulations.

Schedule Enactments consolidated.

Tohunga Suppression Act 1908

Public Act		1908 No 193
Date of assent		4 August 1908

	Title
	Preamble
1	Short Title.
2	Penalty on person practising as a tohunga.
3	Regulations.
	Schedule Enactments consolidated.

An Act to consolidate certain Enactments of the General Assembly relating to Tohungas.

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.

(1.)

The Short Title of this Act is “The Tohunga Suppression Act, 1908.”

Enactments consolidated.

(2.)

This Act is a consolidation of the enactments mentioned in the Schedule hereto, and with respect to those enactments the following provisions shall apply:—

Savings.

(a.)

All Orders in Council, orders, regulations, warrants, instruments, and generally all acts of authority which originated under those enactments, and are subsisting or in force on the coming into operation of this Act, shall enure for the purposes of this Act as fully and effectually as if they had originated under the corresponding provisions of this Act, and accordingly shall, where necessary, be deemed to have so originated.

(b.)

All matters and proceedings commenced under those enactments, and pending or in progress on the coming into operation of this Act, may be continued, completed, and enforced under this Act.

2 Penalty on person practising as a tohunga.

1907, No. 13, sec. 2

(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 any term not exceeding six months in the case of a first offence, or to imprisonment for any term 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.

Ibid, sec. 3

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.

Schedule Enactments consolidated.

1907, No. 13.—“The Tohunga Suppression Act, 1907.”

Tohunga Suppression Act 1908