‘Go back to jungle’ advice to Africans

Press, 21 July 1976, Page 1

‘Go back to jungle’ advice to Africans

The sooner the black people of Africa went back to the jungle the better, as far as he was concerned, said Mr B. J. Drake at a meeting last evening of the management committee of the Canterbury Rugby Union.

Mr Drake, a Christchurch solicitor, expressed his opinion during a discussion on the merits of a New Zealand Maoris rugby team to South Africa next year.

A few minutes after Mr Drake had made the remark. Mr G. G. Don said he did not want to be a party to it, and he asked Mr Drake if he would withdraw it.

“Africans may have been happier 100 years ago in their natural habitat than they are now. I will not withdraw it,” was Mr Drake’s reply.

The wisdom of a Maori team’s going to South Africa was raised by Mr J. G. Mullins. He said there was no getting away from the fact that a Maori team was a racist one, and enough other countries were selecting racist teams without New Zealand’s doing so.

Mr Mullins said he did not believe Maori sides should be selected at all; nor did he believe there should be Maori seats in Parliament.

“Why not Dutch, or even Irish seats?” he asked. “If we are a truly integrated society how can we justify a New Zealand Maoris rugby teams, or Maori seats in Parliament?” Mr Mullins contended that there was much hypocrisy among people in high places, including

people in the Government, on the question of racism and sport. The New Zealand Rugby Union, he said, would do well to abandon the selecting of Maori sides. “This is our country, let us run it. What they do in South Africa and Nigeria is their pigeon,” he said. Mr Don said Maori

teams were never intended to be segregated teams as in other countries, and even the Maoris themselves seemed, divided on the merits of a team’s going to South Africa. However, he felt that Maori teams were a heritage of New Zealand rugby and that Maoris both enjoyed playing together and were very proud to become Maori All Blacks. Mr Drake entered the discussion by saying that for years New Zealand had fostered Maori rugby with tours overseas. What he found interesting now was the ambivalence of people on the question of a team’s going to South Africa. “If we had sent an allwhite team to South Africa this year there would have been an even bigger outcry. An all black team may be acceptable.

“But I suspect the hypocrisy (an apparent reference to the hypocrisy alleged by Mr Mullins) resides not in New Zealand, but more with our darkskinned friends on the African continent and the sooner they go back to the jungle the better as far as I am concerned.”