COLOUR BAR IN N.Z. DENIED

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28714, 11 October 1958, Page 11

COLOUR BAR IN N.Z. DENIED

Minister’s Visit To Northland

(New Zealand Press Association) WHANGAREI, October 10.

There was no sign of any colour bar in Northland (which has a high density of Maori population), nor was there in New Zealand cities, said the Minister of Education (Mr Skoglund) in Whangarei this afternoon.

The Minister had just completed a five-day tour of Northland, much of it visiting Maori schools.

There was segregation in that Maori schools were under the Education Department, but there were many schools with both Maori and pakeha children in the same classrooms, he said. Their parents were on the same school committees, and they lived and worked happily together without strife.

To compare the situation in New Zealand with that in the Deep South of America was fatuous, he said. He felt that the full integration of Maori and pakeha would take several generations. It must be done slowly, and each step taken must be well consolidated. The point would eventually be reached where there were just New Zealanders, he said.

In the cities, he felt, there was an awareness of colour differences, but no colour bar. He agreed that there was a social differentiation made by some—“there are always people who think they are wonderful and superior”—but that differentiation applied equally to pakeha and Maori. The schools he had seen in his Northland tour, he said, were some of the cleanest in New Zealand. Floors were polished by the pupils, and some schools even had a rule of “shoes off” before entering.