MAORI SAYS NO

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 255, 24 July 1936, Page 12

MAORI SAYS NO

Coming Rugby Tour of Springboks WILL NOT PARTICIPATE IN MATCHES Ban on Receptions Also UNFORGOTTEN INCIDENTS OF PREVIOUS VISIT Memorial to Rugby Union By Telegraph—Press Association. Rotorua, July 23. A memorial which is likely to present a difficult problem for the New Zealand Rugby Union in regard to the forthcoming Rugby tour of New Zealand by the South Africans, and which can be summarised as a definite and emphatic protest against some of the incidents which occurred during the last Springbok tour of New Zealand, was drawn up at a representative meeting of Arawa Maoris held in Tamate Kapua meeting-house, Ohinemutu, recently, and has been forwarded to the chairman of the New Zealand union.

The memorial, which is signed by Mr. H. Tai Mitchell, as chairman of the meeting, is as follows:— “I beg to transmit certain resolutions which were considered at length and passed without dissent in Tamate Kapua meeting-house. I was requested to convey these resolutions to your union with all the deference and respect which a delicate subject of this nature deserves. That is to say, to protect the Maori race from any possible recurrence of the unpleasant incidents which occurred during the previous visit of a South African Rugby football team, when members of the race had to endure on the field many epithets cast at them by some of the visitors, resulting in frayed tempers on both sides, together with the reported objectionable treatment some of our womenfolk received during the tribal reception tendered to them at Tamate Kapua meeting-house, Ohiuemutii, this meeting of Arawas addresses a respectful memorial to the chairman of the New Zealand Rugby Union requesting that no Maori be called upon to play against the Springboks during their tour in 1937, and that no Maori representative match be staged tq play them. ■

“That the Maoris of New Zealand, mindful of their past services to the sport in New Zealand and in particular to Rugby Union football, which is now the national game, and mindful of the fact that the attitude of the Springboks was virtually supported by the New Zealand Union in that no Maori player was selected in the New Zealand representative team which a few years later toured South Africa, and remembering that thus the Maori people suffered a further affront to their sporting instincts from within their own land, and that by that action was surrendered a definite principle in the democracy of sport, which recognises merit only regardless of race, creed, or colour, pray earnestly that a recurrence of the humiliating incidents due to racial antipathies'be guarded against, and are of opinion that that end can only be achieved by the prayer of the resolutions being acted on in full by the New Zealand union, and that for the same reasons the Maoris of New Zealand be not invited to give or take part in any official receptions to the Springboks when they come to New Zealand, as the last thing the Maoris in their code of hospitality to distinguished visitors would wish would be to hurt by their presence at such receptions the feelings and prejudices of an important section of the British Commonwealth of Nations for whom the Maori race entertains feelings of friendly interest because of those great Afrikanders of wide and wholesome vision—namely, Louis Botha. De Wet, Cronje, Smuts, and Hertzog.” The meeting further agreed that early consideration of the position should be made so that the necessary adjustments may be made well in advance of the arrival of the Springboks.