The flyer, produced by lobby group Hobson's Pledge, urges voters to question local body election candidates where they stand on racial separatism.
Hobson's Pledge, led by former National Party and Act leader Don Brash, campaigns against what it claims to be preferential treatment towards Māori.
A woman who discovered the pamphlet in her letterbox made a post to the Lyttelton Facebook page calling it "racist propaganda" and "uninformed fear-mongering."
The pamphlet, which is being delivered to areas with the highest interest in local body voting, reads: "Want your rates spent on racial separatism?"
"Mayors, councillors and bureaucrats were intent on dividing communities, handing power and money out according to ancestry and ethnicity," it said.
The pamphlet challenges the principals of the Treaty of Waitangi, which ensures councils provide a fair representation of Maori.
"Maori do not need race-based representation to achieve success. It's condescending to suggest that if we have Maori ancestry, we must be appointed or gifted council seats or voting rights instead of standing on our own merit."
Deputy Mayor and Banks Peninsula councillor Andrew Turner said he had to read it twice to understand the narrative.
"And even then I found it somewhat unusual." he said.
Cr Turner said the views in the pamphlet were not relevant to the city council because it did not have Maori seats.
He said that position had the support of Ngai Tahu.
The New Zealand Maori Council asked the Human Rights Commission (HRC) to investigate Hobson's Pledge in May over its behaviour, which was believed to incite racism and violence.
However, an HRC spokeswoman told the Bay Harbour News said it could not comment.
Hobson's Pledge spokeswoman Fiona Mackenzie said there was "absolutely no racism in the Hobson Pledge’s pamphlet," nor the group's philosophy.
"There are successful Maori throughout our communities and the world. They do not need separatist laws and policies to be successful human beings. To suggest otherwise is both incredibly racist and condescending," she said.
HAVE YOUR SAY: What do you think of the pamphlets being distributed to letterboxes? email your thoughts to - jess.gibson@starmedia.kiwi
