Problems expected at Waitangi

Press, 24 December 1985, Page 14

Problems expected at Waitangi

PA Wellington Big problems were likely at Waitangi on February 6 whatever format a national commemoration took, the Government has been told. It is clear from documents obtained by Wellington’s “Evening Post” under the Official Information Act that the possibility of violent protest similar to that experienced at Waitangi in February this year and in 1984 was a key factor in the Government’s recently announced decision to move official observance of Waitangi Day from Waitangi to Wellington.

It is also revealed that the Minister of Lands and Maori Affairs, Mr Wetere, discussed the form of next

year’s Waitangi Day observance during a meeting with the then GovernorGeneral designate, Sir Paul Reeves, in August. “Personally, I believe it would be disastrous to return to the former pattern in the present climate,” the Director-General of Lands, Mr P. H. C. Lucas, told Mr Wetere, after this year’s scaled-down ceremony at Waitangi. • “The tension experienced by the Vice-Regal party at a morning function in broad daylight would surely be nothing compared with a function at the end of the day in the gathering darkness. . , .

“A return to heavy establishment participation and a consequent large and visible

police ■ presence would all heighten the potential for j much more serious trouble /, than occurred at Waitangi in 1985,” Mr Lucas said in a report dated February 27, 1985. “If it were decided retain the 1985 format, I see major problems,” he said. “The Vice-Regal party would- remain very yulner- -- able and a target for protest. I would expect those determined to protest being even better organised in future. “This year a major factor in the protesters being ‘outgunned’ was in the fact that official speakers had the use of an effective sound system; when that was cut off official speakers were no match,” said the report. ~h