Activist says he will charge Sir Keith

Press, 5 March 1980, Page 3

Activist says he will charge Sir Keith

“Everyone cares about women’s rights and racial tours overseas but when there’s a discussion about things really important to the Maori people, nobody wants to listen.”

The speaker was Te Riiiaa Manu (Dun) Mihaka, introduced as a “Maori activist,” who was addressing a lunch-time gathering at the Christchurch Teachers’ College yesterday. More than 100 people heard Mr Mihaka begin; about half of them left before the end of the lunch break. Amidst conversation and the clatter of cups and cutlery, Mr Mihaka outlined his version of the Waitangi Day skirmish. “Sir Keith Holyoake came forward like an All Black prop forward and tried to steamroll over the girl on my right. So I flung him back in the direction he had come,” he said.

Mr Mihaka announced at the meeting his intention to charge Sir Keith with assault, but not until the Gov-ernor-General had completed his term of office. “The king can do no wrong,” he said, “so I will have to subpoena him when he is a commoner.”

“People reacted to my actions by saying. ‘Oh, but he is an old man,’ but that has nothing to do with it. It is the office he represents,” Mr Mihaka said. “I defy the police to bring a charge against me. They will not, because it would give me the chance to cross-examine Sir Keith and enlighten the

people about his parasitic office.” Mr Mihaka said demonstrations against Waitangi Day would continue. The treaty was a device to dupe the “savages” into thinking they were engaging in a gentlemen’s agreement. It had benefited the Church, the Crown, and private enterprise, while the Maoris and the working-class Europeans had been pawns. To give the treaty ratification by making it an official holiday was a farce and a lie, Mr Mihaka said. The day.should be replaced by another which both Maoris and working-class New Zealanders could celebrate with pride and dignity: the anniversary of’ Hone Heke’s first cutting down of the flagpole in 1845. The emphasis of the Waitangi Day boycott, Mr Mihaka said, was on non-vio-lence. But a distinction should be made between a passive boycott and an active one, on the lines of a trade-union picket. In reply to a question from the floor, Mr Mihaka said that Maori elders deserved all the respect that their years warranted — until they did something that was wrong. “There is a kind of Maori that belongs in pre-European times,” he said. Mr Mihaka said that while it was good for the pakeha to attempt to get knowledge about the Maori, it was more important that they came to recognise him at a constitutional level. When this happened, Maori culture and language would become

an integral part of the education syllabus. No police action will be taken against protesters in the Waitangi Day jostling incident, reports the Press Association from Hamilton

The Deputy Commissioner of Police (Mr K, O. Thompson) said yesterday that it was Sir Keith’s express wish that there be no police action and, having regard to this and all other circumstances, the matter was now closed.

However, !the member of Parliament for Northern Maori (Mr M. Rata), who is chairman of the Waitangi national marae’s board of trustees, said he had been told that one of the protesters was considering legal action for assault against Sir Keith. Mr Rata said that after an expression of displeasure about the protest by members of the board, he had met some of the young people involved to find out what had happened. They had been "adamant” that Sir Keith had pushed them in trying to leave the marae, he said. Mr Rata said it was not for him to query the Queen’s representative but he would report his meeting with the young people to the board’s next meeting in a week or two.

The'young woman who alleges she was pushed over by Sir Keith could not be reached yesterday, but an Auckland Maori rights spokesman, Dr Sid Jackson, has said that an inquiry would be welcomed.