25 March In Protest

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31989, 16 May 1969, Page 12

25 March In Protest

Protests against most things demonstrators protest against today were aired in a march in Christchurch yesterday. The 25 demonstrators, most of them young, posed the question, “Are you completely satisfied with what your Government is doing for you?” in a leaflet setting out 11 points about which they were protesting. These included Vietnam, foreign military installations, unemployment, the Rugby tour of South Africa, and' milk in schools.

The march was sponsored by the Christchurch Progressive Youth Movement. Planing to begin at 5 p.m., it started about 5.15 p.m, after a youth tentatively raised a banner reading, “We will not be conscripted into an aggressor army.” Behind a black

flag, the 25, bearing placards of protest marched from the steps of the Civic Theatre along Worcester Street, round Cathedral Square, and along Colombo Street to Victoria Square. Passers-by took little or no notice of the marchers, who were followed by policemen in uniform and in plain clothes.

After speeches in Victoria Square—one of the speakers congratulated the group on not having obtained a permit from the City Council to hold the demonstration—the group marched off. Before the march started the Town Clerk (Mr M. B. Hayes) told a reporter that the council administration contended that the group had to have a permit for the demonstration. However, no application for a permit had been made.