Rugby Union Said To Have Humiliated Maoris

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30220, 27 August 1963, Page 13

Rugby Union Said To Have Humiliated Maoris

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, August 26. A broadside at the New Zealand RugbyUnion for its action in sending teams to South Africa without Maori members is fired by the great Maori full-back of the 1924 All Blacks, George Nepia, in a book just published, “I George Nepia. In a chapter headed “Apartheid in Sport,” Nepia alleges that both he and the Maori half-back Jimmy Mill were omitted from the 1928 All Blacks to South Africa as a “deliberate and ooncil;atory act (to South Africa) by the New Zealand Rugby Union.” Nepia recalls the reaction and bitterness in the Maori race after the publication in New Zealand in 1921 of the -emarks of a South African journalist concerning the match of that year between ♦he Springboks and the Maoris. In his dispatch, the South African had said the Springboks had been disgusted at the sight of “thousands of Europeans frantically cheering on a band of coloured men to defeat members of their own race.” The bitterness lived on, says Nepia. Other similar conciliatory acts by the New Zealand union included the decision not to play a Maori team against the 1937 Springboks, not to include Maoris in the 1949 team to South Africa—“the Maori people, much influenced by their greatest player of the time, the superb mid-field back. J. B.

Smith, who agreed with the decision, said nothing”—and again in 1960. Touching on South African apartheid policy, Nepia says Maoris over the years disliked the treatment of the millions in South Africa whose skins were the same colour as their own. “Most of all, perhaps, we were saddened, disappointed, and humiliated by the attitude of the New Zealand Rugby Union, which purported to be our guide, philosopher, and friend.

“Willingly, consistently, and -with enthusiasm. the Maoris have given their loyalty to the game of Rugby and to the controlling authority of the game. “Loyalty begets loyalty, so they say. I wonder. “My charge is that the New Zealand union, at this vital hour of challenge (1960) sidestepped its obligations to us. the Maori people, for reasons that do not stand examination.

“There was a feeling of courtesy—which I would say was misplaced—towards the wishes of our South African hosts. There was the honouring of an obligation to the South African Rugby Board, which overlooked a much closer obligation, Maori Rugby and to the Maori race as a whole.

“And there was a fear of the consequences—internatonal, sporting, and financial —of a cessation of tours between Sotith Africa and New Zealand.” “In the final analysis, we Maoris, or very many of us, considered that the union had put aside the reciprocal loyalty they owed us for the sake of the’profits they could see forthcoming from the 1960 tour, and all subsequent tours between the two countries.” he says. Nepia considers that New Zealanders, as a people, will not permit the New Zealand

Rugby Union to maintain Rugby relationships with South Africa until, and unless, the South Africans accept New Zealanders—Maori and pakeha—as one people.