Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(N.Z.) a semi-derog. term for a Maori.

1947		D. Davin For the Rest of Our Lives 331: You’ve gone as brown as a regular Hori.
1959		G. Slatter Gun in My Hand 98: The Detective: I’d like to talk to you outside, Hori.
1965		F.J. Hardy Yarns of Billy Borker 113: If you call a Maori Hori it’s just like calling an American negro Sambo, or an Australian aboriginal Jacky. The white man who says it means well, but its patronising.
1971		N. Armfelt Catching Up 200: This husky great Hori started tumbling me about a fair treat.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 58/2: hori mildly derogatory term for a Maori, usually a male one; literally Maori transcription of ‘George’, one of a number of excuses offered a few years ago to explain the use of the word in Parliament, without however cutting any ice.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].