Maori spy claim ‘drivel’

Press, 25 February 1989, Page 6

Maori spy claim ‘drivel’

PA Wellington A newsletter claiming fair-skinned Maoris were infiltrating the private and public sectors to spy for their tribes, was “unhelpful drivel,” the Opposition’s Maori Affairs spokesman, Winston Peters, said yesterday.

The “Dominion” newspaper says the national Maori newsletter is by a former New Zealand Army Major, Ross Himona, and it says there are “heaps of pale-com-plexioned Maori in the Public Service who are staunch warriors for their tribes and tribes should use these people overtly and covertly.” The newspaper quotes Mr Himona’s newsletter as saying that at least one iwi (tribal authority) has begun a programme to infiltrate local government using fair-skinned Maori to fool both voters and local bodies into taking their agents on board. “These are just a few of the ways the iwi can use their cunning part-pakeha people to help in the war of stealth against inequity and injustice. “When they pull off a victory, no matter how large or small, the victory

is sweet for there is nothing so sweet as using your opponent’s ‘ own ignorance to defeat him.” The paper also quotes the newsletter as saying an important role is played by sympathetic

pakehas "who move on the dinner party circuit and pick up all the racist after-dinner chatter then ■report it back chapter and verse.” “A pakeha in dinner garb is an excellent cover for a spy for Maoridom.” But Mr Peters said yesterday that he had read the full text Mr Himona wrote “and it’s the unhelpful drivel which is being encouraged in Maoridom.” Mr Peters said Mr Himona’s allegations about fair-skinned Maori were not true “and making the allegation will encourage suspicion between people where it should not exist.” If Mr Himona had a positive aim in publishing the material, “it’s beyond me,” Mr Peters said. “He doesn’t seem to have information to support what he’s saying. “It’s counter-produc-tive.”