Sir David asked to boycott Waitangi

Press, 5 February 1981, Page 18

Sir David asked to boycott Waitangi

PA Auckland The Governor-General (Sir David ■ Beattie) has been urged to reconsider his participation in the Waitangi Day celebrations. The. Auckland Committee on Racism and Discrimination has sent Sir David a telegram to this effect. It asked him to seek just solutions to legitimate Maori grievances instead. These grievances had arisen because of the Treaty of Waitangi and had been ignored over the last 141 years, Acord said. It said the second article of the Treaty — which was never quoted — said the Queen guaran-. teed to the Maoris that they would have the full, exclusive and undisturbed possession of their properties. , ; „ Governor Hobson s we are one people” statement was quoted, and it echoed “hollowly through the land.” , , Acord said, “The deeply embedded racism of white New Zealand society is typified by annual celebrations commemorating a

treaty that has never been honoured.” ' A' Roman Catholic Maori has taken issue with the Roman Catholic . Bishop of Auckland (the Most Rev. J. Mackey) and his comments about Waitangi Day. Mrs Jane Hotere, a member of the Catholic Maori Society and the Catholic Maori Welfare League, said the Bishop and the Church had “closed their eyes to reality.” She said many educated young Maori Catholics in Auckland disapproved that the’Church was not doing enough for Maori youth and the problems they faced. They felt that the Church should develop a ' “better understanding.” It was “narrow-minded” of the Bishop to support Waitangi Day when some other .Churches were beginning to understand .that. it : was a day New Zealanders should be ashamed of, Mrs Hotere said. Bishop Mackey was reported as saying he believed Churches. should be involved in the ceremony. Waitangi was a reality of ;

the New Zealand past, and like all historical events it had mixed attributes. “It had momentous effect on the life of New Zealand; We should build positively, on what it laid down,” he said. The Archbishop of New Zealand (the Most Rev. P. A. Reeves), who. was critical of the celebrations and called for a re-exam-ination, will be at Waitangi tomorrow but not at the celebrations. He will conduct a combined church service on the National Marae .—■ some distance from, where the celebrations will later take place — before the investiture of Sir Graham Latimer and Dame Whina Cooper in the morning. He will then depart from Waitangi. Archbishop Reeves said he had a prior engagement. But when asked if another reason for not attending the celebrations was his opposition to them, he replied, “No comment. I made a statement this morning and I do not want to make any advance on that.”