RIGBY TOUR PETITION

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29068, 3 December 1959, Page 16

RIGBY TOUR PETITION

Signatures Total 60,000 So Far

(New Zealand Preu Auocumon? WELLINGTON, December 2. Sixty thousand signatures, protesting at the New Zealand Rugby Union’s decision to exclude Maoris from the 1960 All Black team to tour South Africa, are to hand in the first returns to the national headquarters of the Citizens’ All Black Tour Association.

“This is but the first progress return,” said Mr Rolland O’Regan, the association’s chairman, tonight. “It indicates that New Zealanders have signed the petition at an average rate of about 10,000 a week since it was launched—with the rate now building up. This, in spite of the fact that’the petition has not yet been circulated in many parts of the country—and no area has yet been fully canvassed. “There are now 20 branches of the association and a number of less formal petition committees in smaller centres. In addition, another 10 branches are in the process of formation.

“Progress reports from branches indicate that given the opportunity the majority of people sign,” said Mr O’Regan. “The association is completely dependent on voluntary assistance in the circulation of the petition, and, apart from local committees, is indebted, in the main, to- the churches and the trade union movement, which have given the petition their full backing.”