‘Double standards’ of Waitangi Day

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32524, 6 February 1971, Page 2

‘Double standards’ of Waitangi Day

(New Zealand Press Association) NELSON, February 5. Many Maoris did not want observance of Waitangi Day so much as observance of the Treaty of Waitangi, said the chairman of the Nelson Maori Committee (Mr J. T. Hippolite) today.

Most Europeans paid lip-service to the treaty, he said, but few were aware that it had never been ratified by Parliament, and that Maoris had no recourse to the treaty in law to protect the rights it was intended to give them.

The Nelson Maori Committee agreed with an Auckland Maori youth group, the Tamatoa Council, that double standards were associated with the Waitangi Day festivities. “Many Maoris feel that Waitangi Day should be honoured as a national day,” said the Tamatoa Council. “Another large„ section of Maoridom feels that we should not settle for anything less than ratification of the treaty, and that Waitangi Day should be declared a national day of mourning. “The pakeha is quick to celebrate Waitangi Day as being nothing more than a pantomime of token gestures, with their words getting more and more hollow as each year goes by.” The group said that mans

Maoris boycotted Waitangi Day for one or more of these reasons, and the majority did not observe it. Case prepared Mr Hippolite said that a Maori solicitor in Christchurch, Mr A. F. A. Orme, had prepared a case for ratification of the Treaty of Waitangi and this would be presented to a Minister of the Crown during the Waitangi observances. “The treaty was signed by British men of high principles who intended it to become law. Their word was their bond and they were trusted by the Maori,” said Mr Hippolite. “But today, men of a very different kind are not honouring the spirit of the treaty. “Rights lost” “Every week there are tases of Maoris losing their

rights to ownership of land under the present law of New Zealand, and they have no redress.” For years, he said, special provision for education of young Maoris had been spoken about, but little had been done. For some time there was even indecision as to whether Maori education should be administered by the physical education branch or the arts and crafts branch of the Education Department. The Maori people wanted some action and fewer fine words, he said.