Quiet watch on march

Press, 27 May 1978, Page 1

Quiet watch on march

Policemen kept a discreet watch last evening as several hundred protesters marched through central Christchurch chanting, “Bastion Point is Maori land.”

Motorists honked their car horns in support as the banner-waving demonstrators marched out of Cathedral Square and along Hereford Street to the Central Police Station. Latenight shoppers watched as signs were carried past, bearing messages such as “1978 Bastion Point: 1984 New Zealand?” and “Injury to one, injury to all.” After several speeches outside the police station, the demonstrators dispersed quietly. Some returned to the Square to place their placards on the War Memorial. 5 ’ Earlier, they had rallied toutside. Christchurch “Cathedral, where they were addressed by Mr

Grant Hawke, brother of the Bastion Point protest group leader. Mr Hawke told demonstrators that those arrested at Bastion Point on Thursday had recorded a new chapter in New Zealand’s history. “Although they were arrested they will go down in the history books not as law-breakers but as lawmakers," he said. The Ngati-Whatua people would reshuffle and reorganise so that Bastion Point could some day be regained, Mr Hawke said. Mr P- Baker, of the Bastion Point Supporters’ Group, said that Thursday had been a "day of infamy.” “Never again in this country shall we see what happened yesterday. It moved tjie people of New Zealand to a knowledge of what is happening to them,” he said.