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Te Roopu o te Matakite between Whanganui and Bulls

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Description: This image, although not published, was taken on the 5th of October 1975 for a story that ran in The Manawatu Evening Standard the following day. The Pouwhenua is held by Cyril Chapman.

The Article reproduced below was written by ‘An Evening Standard Reporter’.

“Te Roopu Ote [sic] Matakite, the Maori land march on Parliament, arrives in Palmerston North today with a momentum that could prove unstoppable.

This is the impression gained after marching with them for the day yesterday.

Spirits were high today as the marchers, spurred on by groups of well-wishers and gifts of fruit from passing motorists, made their way to the city from Bulls.

Yesterday was a special day for Te Roopu Ote [sic] Matakite, ‘the group with perception’.

Their delegation had returned from Wellington with the news that everything has been arranged for their arrival. Fears of nowhere to stay were unfounded.

The city of Wellington has been thrown open to the marchers, with the Mayor to cancel all bookings for the Town Hall if the Maoris need it for accommodation.

And the Marine Department has declared an open season on all shellfish around Wellington so the members of Matakite can gather and feast.

The marchers talked of their plans and their aims with optimism.

In Palmerston North they expect to be joined by supporters from the east coast, who will march with them on Parliament.

They still want to speak to the full Parliament from the floor of the House, something the Prime Minister has said it’s impossible.

And until they are granted this meeting, they could camp on the grounds of Parliament, open a Maori Embassy, and wait it out.

The full claims of the marchers are written on the memorial, a scroll which as yet has remained secret to outsiders.

The march is not about land that has been already taken. It is to protect the remaining land that is in danger of being taken under new legislation.

The Maoris say 66 million acres of the land has been eaten into by legislation over a century until now there is less than three million.

The 1967 Maori Affairs Amendment Act, which some Maoris have labelled the land grab act, aimed for the final ‘integration’ of Maori land by 1973.

And while Maoris have been preoccupied with the Act, even gaining some changes to its legislation, other statutes have been put before the them to continue the process of alienation, the marchers say.

Statues like the Town and Country Planning Act, the Rating Act, and the Counties Amendment Act.

Their sacred march began at Te Hapua on September 14 and will end when their aims are achieved.

Confronting their column is a moving experience, and marching with it is an insight.

None of the passing motorists was irreverent. Sadness was obvious in the eyes of the older people who stood at their gates to watch Matakite pass.

The 200 marchers led by their flag, are bringing their problem out to the people, and ‘they will not fail’.”