N.Z. on verge of ‘carnage’

Press, 27 July 1981, Page 6

N.Z. on verge of ‘carnage’

PA Wellington Saturday’s events in Hamilton showed that the country was on the “very threshold of carnage" and that the Government’s failure to act on the Springbok tour was an open invitation to disaster, said the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Rowling) yesterday. “The situation has become absolutely explosive and still the Government appears to be prepared to do nothing,” Mr Rowling said, in a telephoned statement. "Saturday's events revealed the country to be on the very threshold of carnage and already a kind of lynchlaw psychology has started to emerge at different parts of the country,” Mr Rowling said. '

“How far do we have to go before the Government accepts its responsiblity and exercises some real authoritv?”

'Mr Rowling, speaking from Richmond, said emotions had now reached a level where one more major confrontation had to lead to violence of unprecedented dimensions.

“The restraint shown by the bulk of people on both sides in Hamilton will not be repeated. One questions why

the Government does not disclose the advice given to it by the police on their further ability to contain the situation.”.

Mr Rowling said the conduct of the police so far had been of the highest order and the Commissioner of Police (Mr R. J.. Walton) was to be congratulated for the restraint and discipline shown by his men. “I come back to the fact that the Government’s lack of action in the first place has created this situation and I cannot escape the conclusion that it thinks it can gain some domestic political advantage by letting the situation run wild.

“No responsible government would allow the country to tear itself apart in the way that is happening right now.”

Labour’s Shadow Minister of Police, Mr M. A. Connelly, said in Christchurch that Saturday’s fracas at Hamilton would never have happened if the Government had honoured the Gleneagles Agreement.

Mr Connelly said that the Opposition’s view had been confirmed. The police lacked sufficient manpower to deal with the existing level of crime and violence, much less the demands of the tour.