Royal rejection

Press, 1 May 1978, Page 1

Royal rejection

PA Auckland The Maori Queen, Dame Te Ata-i-Rangi Kaahu, has been asked to support the Bastion Point protesters, but instead has come down on the side of the opposing elders.

The Maori Queen visited Orakei on Saturday and, in deference to protocol, went on to the Orakei marae rather than the protest site.

The protesters were not represented at the meeting with the Maori Queen, although elders say they had been told that she was coming. The visit was made in response to a telegram to her asking "Please send some of our people urgently.” It was sent last week by Miss C. R. Kirkwood, national secretary of Te Matakite O Aotearoa, a group closely allied with the protesters.

When the Maori Queen visited the marae, elders of the tribes of Tamaki and Orakei, with whom the Queen has kinship, explained at length the events until now as' they saw them.

Thev say that a spokesman for the Queen then said: “Where you stand, we stand.”

The elders yesterday broke a long silence on the Bastion Point issue at the incictcnce of young supporters, who said they were tired of seeing the protesters “tiampling on the rights and mana of the elders."

Speaking to a reporter through an internreter. the Kaumatua (leading elder).

Mr Pateoro Maihi, said the Queen made a plea that the elders once again ask their “families” to come off the land.

The elders and supporters then went on to Bastion Point and denied a protesters’ claim that the Hawke and Rameka family were being excluded from the deal made with the Government.

Mr Maihi said the protesters were told they had affronted the Maori Queen by not being present at the meeting with her. “The protesters pointed out that they were unable to make an immediate decision to leave because they had other supporters they had to consider,” Mr Maihi said. He described many of those supporters as "professional protesters” who had nothing to do with Maoridom. Those who were Maori were acting contrary to kaupapa (principles) in opposing the settlement the elders had reached with the Government.

Many of the elders’ supporters were unionists and

“trade unions are not representing the views of those who they are supposed to represent.”

Mr Maihi said elders who sat through the recent Supreme Court hearing had said that Mr Justice Speight “leant over backwards” to be fair to Mr Joe Hawke and the other three defendants. The Clerical Workers’ Union yesterday denied a claim by Mr Hawke that the union had pledged support. The union’s secretary (Mr C. H. Jamieson) said that until the matter was discussed by the executive, the union was neutral.

The convener of the Presbvterian Church race relations committee (the Rev. Dr B. M. Hucker) has said that moral issues involved in disputes over Maori land cannot be glossed over by purely legal approaches. Dr Hucker urged Government restraint in enforcing the injunctions, and called for a more generous approach to the settlement of the Ngatiwhatua land claim.