'Bok tour ban sought
PA Palmerston North The Government had a responsibility to stop the Springbok tour, said the National Council of Churches yesterdoy, and called on it to do so. A delegation from the council’s executive would ask the Prime Minister .. (Mr Muldoon) to intervene and stop the tour. A motion to that effect was unanimously passed - at the N.C.C. annual meet- 2 ing in Palmerston North, . “mindful of the serious- - ness of the proposed ; tour,” and in light of the Gleneagles Agreement. “Just who is running 2 the country?” said the' mover, the Rev. W. A. 2 Best. “Is it the Rugby .. Union? Are they New Zea-. - land’s representatives 2 overseas?” Mr Best, executive sec- - retary of the Presbyterian 2 Church in New Zealand, said the Government must shoulder the responsibility . it took on itself with the signing of the Gleneagles ;; Agreement. The only action a responsible government could take, with the opposition throughout New Zealand so strong and clear, was to intervene, he said. “The Government must now act to cancel the tour before any further damage is done to New Zealand’s name in the international world,” he said. Three other resolutions were also passed about the tour. These were: —That the N.C.C. general meeting reaffirm its continued opposition; —That the meeting call on the churches, rugby authorities, and rugby ’ players, and all other New Zealanders to ask, the Government to’cancel the tour; and —That the N.C.C. publish the Church and Society Commission statement on possible action in expressing opposition. The commission, set up by the N.C.C. to investigate the tour, recommended to church members that they work between February and May on stopping the tour, and from June to September make their protests by opposing the matches. C.A.R.E. and HART plan to submit a challenge to the legality of the proposed Springbok tour to the Human Rights Commission, said the two organisations yesterday. These suggested that the Government was under a legal obligation to prevent the tour by denying entry to the Springbok team if necessary. ■
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Press, 11 February 1981, Page 1
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340'Bok tour ban sought Press, 11 February 1981, Page 1
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