QUIET CROWD AT EDEN PARK

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28057, 27 August 1956, Page 8

QUIET CROWD AT EDEN PARK

MAORIS’ SUPPORTERS BEWILDERED INTEREST DWINDLED AS GAME PROGRESSED (Netq Zenmnn Press Association) AUCKLAND. August 26. The Maori Rugby team got surprisingly little vocal encouragement yesterday from the thousands of Maoris at Eden park. The much-vaunted hakas. calculated to send chills uo the spines of the South Africans, did not eventuate to any great extent and no reason was given for this curtailment of what promised to be a highlight of the occasion. It was left to the Artillery Band to rouse the crowd before the game, with a lively selection of Maori airs. A concert party aopeared ready to go on to the field when the band finished, but the teams trotted out immediately after the National Anthem and the game stared Hundreds of Maori families camped outside the Dark on Friday night. They were joined at 4 a.m. yesterday bv more than 1000 young Maoris who left a dance at the Maori community centre in Freeman’s Bay and marched out to Eden Park. By match time, many Maori mothers had given up hope of seeing the game and with their infants had retired to the grass verges and hedgerows at the rear of the grandstands. Shoes off. foot-strain eased, they dozed and chatted in comfort. After the Maoris’ stunning defeat the men had little to say. They shook their heads in bewilderment, but freelv conceded that “the best team won.” Many Maoris were among those who. disappointed with the one-sided football, left the park long before the game ended. Scores of Maoris left Auckland by road lari night, but many others stayed and made a more leisurely return to their homfcs today.