Tour woman resigns

Press, 14 May 1981, Page 3

Tour woman resigns

PA Wellington Mrs Paula Clark, the Samoan woman who sought to organise a pro-Springbok tour march in Porirua, yesterday withdrew her candidacy for the Pacific Island seat on the Labour Party's National Council. Mrs Clark announced her decision to withdraw to the Labour Party conference in Wellington. Her decision was clearly popular with the conference. In an interview after the conference she said that she was thinking of joining the National Party and had received an offer to visit South Africa. Mrs Clark said that she had expected to retain the

council seat which she won last year. One of her reasons for resigning had been the offer to visit South Africa. She would have been required to disassociate herself from the council position, she said. The offer, from a Wellington businessman, had been made so that she could see for herself conditions in South Africa. Mrs Clark said she thought there would be advantages for the “pro-tour people” if a Polynesian person were taken to South Africa on such a visit. “The belief of some people that those taking a pro-tour attitude were pro-apartheid was not really correct,” she said. “Many were genuinely

opposed to apartheid.” She said she would probably take up an offer to join the National Party. “I think the Labour Party has had it anyway,” she said. Shehad a feeling that the party was opposed to what she had done in organising a pro-tour march. “What I would like to let them know is that this is part of the freedom of the individual and of associations that we have in New Zealand,” she said. “The Labour Party seems to take that away from you.”. The conference later elected Mrs T. Cleverley, a Wellington City Councillor, as Pacific Islands representative on the National Council.