S.A. contact favoured

Press, 15 August 1984, Page 8

S.A. contact favoured

PA Timaru The Race Relations Conciliator, Mr Hiwi Tauroa, doubts that any good will come of the All Blacks not going to South Africa next year. Mr Tauroa said in an interview that he wished he could be sure that boycotts were the way to bring people together and achieve change in South Africa. “If we never meet, how are we going to solve anything?” he said. Commenting on the All Blacks’ planned tour next year, Mr Tauroa said, “The French have been, Wales has been, and Ireland is going. I don’t think New Zealand’s staying away would do any good.”

Mr Tauroa said another fear he had was that boy-

cotts made it appear that there were “good blacks and bad blacks.” Some black South Africans had supported the 1981 tour.

“Were they good blacks or bad blacks? It depends which side you are on.” More contact with South Africa, particularly through the churches and through youth, would be a better way to try to bring about change in the country’s apartheid laws, Mr Tauroa said.

The Afrikaans thinking was based on the teachings of the Dutch Reform Church. Other Christian churches could try to educate the Afrikaners that there was a better Christian way of solving their problems, Mr Tauroa said.