Maori support for tour disputed

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33048, 16 October 1972, Page 2

Maori support for tour disputed

(New Zealand Pref Association)

AUCKLAND, October 15.

The Maori Council decided by a majority vote on Saturday to support the 1973 Springbok Rugby tour ; but today Mr M. Rata, M.P. for Northern Maori, challenged a claim that the council’s vote represented a decision by the Maori people as a whole.

The claim was made by the chairman, Dr P. Te H. Jones, in a statement after the council meeting, at which voting was six to three in favour of the tour.

Mr Rata said today that the three district councils which had voted against the tour — Auckland, WaikatoManiapoto, and Wellington—represented a majority of the Maori population. “The Auckland district alone contains some 80,000 Maoris, or 35 per cent of the Maori population,’’ he said. “I therefore challenge Dr Jones’s view that the council’s decision represents the view of the Maori people as a whole.” Mr Rata also accused the council of adopting “double standards" by supporting the tour, while at the same time calling for renewed efforts to

make the Springbok team multi-racial. "This decision is disheartening, and a total sell-out of the dignity of the Maori people, not to mention what the world will think of us,” he declared. “The council’s action will not only give comfort to those who practise racialism in sport, it will also divide the Maori people and lead to a decline of confidence, particularly among young Maoris, in the ability of the council to foster our interests,” Mr Rata said.

The council yesterday voted unanimously that it was totally opposed to apartheid. The council also urged the South African Rugby Board to continue to press for fair multi-racial trials, and asked the Prime Minister (Mr Marshall) to keep trying to get mixed trials.

The areas which voted for the tour were Ikaroa (Manawatu and Hawke’s Bay),

Aotea (Wanganui, Taranaki and South King Country), Tai Tokerau (North Auckland), Tairawhiti (East Coast, Gisborne), Waiariki (Bay of Plenty, Rotorua) and Wai Pounamu (South Island).