Maori group ‘squats’ in House foyer

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33654, 2 October 1974, Page 1

Maori group ‘squats’ in House foyer

(Aew Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON. October 1. About 50 Maoris, representing various groups, marched on Parliament this evening demanding Government assistance to help find them permanent homes.

They were led by Mr D. O’Reilly, of the Tenants’ Protection Association, and squatted in the foyer of Parliament Buildings for about an hour, until the Minister of Maori Affairs (Mr Rata) persuaded them to leave. According to Mr O’Reilly, about 20 of them would be without homes tonight unless the Government acted. “We’ve come to where the buck stops,” he said. The House at the time was debating the Tourist Hotel Corporation Bill. Some members of the group, said Mr O’Reilly, had been evicted from a house which was due for demolition in Wellington earlier this evening. Mr Rata spoke with sev-

eral of the group for about five minutes, and then told reporters that they would wait at a nearby Maori club hall where a district welfare officer from the Department of Maori Affairs would see them. “What I have to look for is a permanent solution,” Mr Rata said. During the "squat,” police and Parliamentary messengers stood by, but took no action to evict the group. Many of the Maoris had blankets, mattresses, and pillows and were originally prepared to bed down in the marble foyer until they got satisfaction. The Minister had a meeting with a police inspector in the visitor’s lobby before going out to the foyer. One of the Maoris said there had been previous attempts to see Mr Rata, but he had not been available.

They had also written to the I late Mr Kirk. I “There are about 50 or 60 of us at any one time need1 ing somewhere to live,” one said. The Maoris, mostly teenagers, represented Nga Tamatoa. King Ngawari, Black Power, Mongrels, and the! T.P.A., but emphasised that! they were there as one group. Mr O’Reilly said that they 1 had tried to get accommodation with the City Council’s] emergency housing scheme and through the City Mission,. without success. A police spokesman said that the group was not allowed in the foyer — where the body of Mr Kirk lay in State a month ago — or to stay in Parliament grounds. The fact they were waiting to see Mr Rata stopped them from being told to leave. No photograph was allowed to be taken of the group in the foyer, nor of Mr Rata talking to them.