RACIAL PROBLEM “Not Solved, But Simply Ignored”

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30452, 28 May 1964, Page 3

RACIAL PROBLEM “Not Solved, But Simply Ignored”

(New Zealand Press Association'

WELLINGTON, May 27.

New Zealanders simply tolerated the Maori—the general attitude toward him being that as long as he did not worry them, they would not worry’ him, a businessman , said in Wellington today.

New Zealand had not solved the racial problem but simply ignored it, Mr Harold Innes, chairman of Innes Industries Ltd., told the Alligators’ Club.

New Zealanders seemed to accept the idea that religion anfl politics were kept out of sport. “In fact, we are keeping sport above religion and politics,” Mr Innes said. The welcome extended to two New Zealand Rugby

players by the South African Minister of Justice had been appalling and nauseating, Mr Innes said. The two Maoris were' welcomed, but what was not said was that if they had been politicians or “had had their collars turned around the other way,” they would have been sent on their way. Mr Innes described New Zealand as “an affluent desert,” and accused New Zealanders of being “mirages with blunted sensibilities.” Affluence had come too quickly and their lack of maturity had reduced New Zealanders to the insensible tyranny of possessions, he said. “To cure the effects of affluence we have got to use the therapy of helping others,” he said.