Waitangi Day pledge

Press, 3 February 1982, Page 3

Waitangi Day pledge

PA Whangarei Law and order will, be maintained on Waitangi Day, according to the commanderin charge of Saturday’s police contingent, Chief Inspector B. A. J. Rowe. The police would have “sufficient force" at Waitangi to control the situation, he said yesterday. “I hope the public will not be deterred by the protesters' comments in the press and will come to see the celebrations.” The protesters had nothing to fear from the police if they kept their protest within the law. “We only react to situations,” he said. He wanted to sit down and talk to the protesters about

Waitangi “so we understand each other.” No protesters had approached him so he hoped to visit them while they were in Whangarei. Talk of a blue squad was “utter nonsense,” Mr Rowe said. “There is no such thing.” The squad had not existed since September last year. The police going to Waitangi were the normal support staff, he said. Although there might be some who had served in the squad, they would only be a “small percentage,” A spokeswoman for the Waitangi protest marchers, Ms Hilda Halkyard, said that the group wanted the public to boycott the celebrations. “But if they do come they

can come and watch us being beaten up by the blue squad — that will be symbolic of the true meaning of the celebrations,” she said. The 30 marchers represented every tribe in NewZealand. They would be representing the tribes at Waitangi and the Government’s “repressions of the Maori people would be represented by the blue squad.” The marchers stayed at the Takahiwai marae, near Whangarei, on Monday night and left for Whangarei about 9 a.m. They were marching in two relays, each team covering about half the distance. Ms Halkyard said the marchers would distribute pamphlets in the city and educate the people about the “fraud” of the treaty. ' Several speakers were to address a meeting in the city last evening.