Maori land march head attacks critics

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 34037, 29 December 1975, Page 14

Maori land march head attacks critics

(A z. press Association} AUCKLAND. December 28. The president of Te .Matakite 0 Aoteaioa, Mrs Whina Cooper, of Orakei, has bitterly attacked critics of her telegram to the Prime .Minister (Mr Muldoon) advising him to remove remaining protesters from Parliament grounds. In another development, representatives of conservative Maori land protesters will today meet spokesmen for the group responsible for ■the Maori “embassy”'in Wellington. i Mrs Cooper, who is 84, {said that is was necessary to ■remove the campers to pave the way for a delegation from Matakite to meet the new 1 Minister of Maori Affairs (Mr I Maclntyre ) to discuss the Maori land issue. She said that the Prime Minister had written to her >on December 16 saying that a delegation from Matakite would be welcome in the New Year. “How can you negotiate with these people sitting on the steps of Parliament?’’ she asked “It’s obvious these

(people are trying to acquire ( power for themselves and get I on the band-waggon.” Mrs Cooper said that she I did not want any more splinj ter radical groups coming in ‘again and spoiling things. “It’s so important, not only for us but for the pakeha looking on that we stand together as a group.” Mrs Cooper said she had to do something to get the protesters clear. “We didn’t ask them to sit on the steps—that was never in Matakite’s policy. They think I am getting power, but II am not after power, I am I just after rights of the land. ■ I have got enough decorations.” j Mrs Cooper said that the (apparent split within Mata(kite had been the work of a J small group, and this had ibeen been a worrying time for her. At the last national (conference of Matakite in (Auckland in November she had offered to resign, but the (people “wouldn’t hear of it.” i “You feel like giving up ■ the whole show, but it’s not right that 1 give up.” She believed that part of the reason for the apparent dissent was that many ‘Maoris were annoyed that Labour lost the election. —

“But for me, I still have to go on, even with a different person at the head of Government,” she said. “Do I have to cry because Labour is out? No. I still have to go on — that is why I was asked to lead by the people.”

Te Matakite O Aotearoa) representatives will meet I members of Te Roopu Otel Matakite. a society recently' incorporated in Wellington, which was connected with; the Maori “embassy,” at a • gathering in Mangere today, i : A burning topic expected) Ito be discussed is. the ex-) I change of telegrams between; (Mrs Cooper, and the Prime Minister, .about the "embassy.” Mrs Titewhai Harawira, Wellington and South Island organiser for the land march and a spokesman for Te Roopu Ote Matakite. will be at the meeting. Shortly after addressing a meeting in Albert Park, Auckland, today, Mrs Harawira, said unity and opposition to what she called the Prime Minister’s “manipulation” of Maori protest groups would be discussed. She denied the meeting would be a confrontation between conservatives and radicals.