MAORIS AND SPRINGBOKS

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 255, 24 July 1936, Page 10

MAORIS AND SPRINGBOKS

One of the uglier sides of Imperial sport is brought uppermost by the memorial which the Arawa Maoris have addressed to the New Zealand Rugby Football Union. The Maori people feel they were offensively treated by some members of the 1921 Springboks;, and the Arawa tribe asks to be allowed to stand aloof from contact, on the field or off, with the 1937 Springboks. It is contended that the New Zealand Rugby Union, by including no Maori player in the All Black party which toured South Africa in 1928, virtually , supported the attitude of the South Africans whose conduct gave offence in 1921. That is not quite fair. There was some trouble in 1921, caused wholly by South African inability to understand the full and equal citizenship of Maori and pakeha in every field of New Zealand activity. The sympathy of the New Zealand public was never in doubt: it was all with the. Maoris. But the Springboks were our guests, and one of our duties as host was to try to make allowances for their different way of looking at things, however bitterly we resented reflections upon our Maori fellow-countrymen. In 1928 the positions were reversed: we were the guests; and, whether or not Maori players were deliberately excluded from the All Blacks we were paying our first Rugby visit to South Africa, and were anxious to do nothing that might embarrass our hosts. Paying .first calls, either of us may have been unduly sensitive or excessively polite. Now that our countries and our footballers know each other better, the New Zealand Rugby Union ought to be prepared to state a principle and stand by it. The principle is simple: In international Rugby there are neither Maoris nor pakehas, only New Zealanders. Much as we look forward to the second visit of the Springboks, we should say once and for all that a Rugby rival which wishes to distinguish between our two races need not trouble to come to New Zealand. That will not offend the South Africans; it will simply let them know where we stand. They will come just the same, because above all else they are good sportsmen; but it is. advisable that they should know in advance this one condition of their coming. And since the members of the great Arawa tribe, too, are sportsmen, with a high admiration for the heroes of South African history, there is every hope that they may be persuaded to modify their present attitude, and to join enthusiastically not only in welcoming the Springboks but also in playing them.