MEMORIAL OF PROTEST

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 174, 24 July 1936, Page 8

MEMORIAL OF PROTEST

MAORIS AND SPRINGBOKS PRAYER TO THE RUGBY UNION “DO NOT PLAY US AGAINST SOUTH AFRICA” NO NATIVE CEREMONIAL. ( Ter Press Association. J ROTORUA, July 23. A memorial which is likely to present a difficult problem to the New Zealand Rugby Union in regard to the forthcoming Springbok tour, and which can be summarised as a definite and emphatic protest against some of the incidents which occurred during the last Springbok tour in New Zealand, was drawn up at a representative meeting of Aniwa Maoris held in the Tamatekapua meeting house, Ohinemutu, re- 1 cently, 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 resolu- j tions which were considered at. length and passed without dissent in the , Tamatekapua 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 ol the unpleasant incidents which occurred during the previous visit of the 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 which some.of < our womenfolk received during a i tribal reception tendered to them at s Tamatekapua meeting house, Ohine- • mutu. this meeting of Arawas ad- ’ dresses a respectful memorial to the ' chairman of the New Zealand Rugby ; Union requesting that no Maori be i called upon to play against the Springboks during their tour in 1937. and that no Maori representative match be staged to play them. "That the Maoris of New Zealand, mindful of their past services to sport in New Zealand and, in particular, to Rugby Union footoball, which is now a 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 lhe 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 disinguished 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 Wette, 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. .