The Rugby Tour

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29177, 11 April 1960, Page 3

The Rugby Tour

Sir,—l would like to comment on the Rugby tour of Africa. It is no good blaming the Prime Minister or any Minister. The public should not stand in queues

to buy tickets or go to the football matches, and it is nice to see the public standing up for the Maoris. I don’t believe in the colour bar.—Yours, etc., A. SMITH. April 8, 1960.

Sir, —If the Government consistently sat on the fence on moral issues there would be no control of gambling, alcohol, and drugs, and no banned books. An earlier moral stand might have prevented Africa’s tragedy. But Mr Nash has given his lip service to racial equality and gone his way, after, probably, his last “goodbye.” During the last war. when strikes, riots and massacres were commonplace, a Maori in our unit was accepted everywhere by the South Africans, who believed, erroneously of course, that Polynesians are superior to Africans. I am sure that the only thing now that can save a New Zealand team from the consequences of the hatred of 8 million people is the inclusion of Maoris. Such a gesture might help the white South Africans, too, to check their headlong rush into a hopeless plight. —Yours, etc., VARIAN J. WILSON.