1970 All Black tour – Ne Exeat Regno
There was significant pressure from various quarters within New Zealand to stop the tour. David provides background of several internal political and local events in New Zealand –that most South Africans were not even aware off- that almost stopped the tour.
Here, a march against the 1970 All Black tour to South Africa leaves Victoria University in Wellington.
The resistance against rugby tours to South Africa gained momentum in the early 1960’s when the NZ Rugby Union capitulated to send an “all white” team to South Africa. The 1960 tour was approved by a small minority of board members and there was an unspoken agreement between council members on the NZ Rugby Board that the 1960 team would be the last all white team that New Zealand will send to the republic.
In 1965, Danie Craven and other SA rugby board members left the impression in NZ that the next invitation for a New Zealand rugby team to visit SA will contain no race specifications.
This was received with much hope and anticipation in New Zealand as David explains: It was a period of great hope and expectation. Until that climatic morning on Monday 6 September 1965, when the South African Prime Minister and the Minister of Interior announced that Maori would not be welcomed in 1967.
The invitation for the All Blacks to South Africa was received in mid-February 1966. On 25 February the NZRFU reacted by stating that the New Zealand Rugby Football Union could not under the terms of the invitation, see its way clear to send an All Black side in 1967.
This resulted in a year of much speculation and hopeful expectation that things will be sorted and that the South African government wil reverse its stance and reword the terms of the invitation. In April 1968 it was announced that the All Blacks were invited for a tour to South Africa without any race specifications. David put it as follows: The news was released to the world and everyone rejoiced”. The tour had the support of the NZRFU but the New Zealand’s announcement of acceptance gave rise to a sequence of incidents, actions and demonstrations which left no doubt that not everyone in NZ were happy with proceedings.
The global sports boycott against South Africa started to get international stature and momentum in the early 60’s and was beginning to show its teeth at this stage; various action groups against race segregation began to appear in NZ and jumped on the global sport boycott wagon. Associations or action groups that specifically sprung to life as a result of the envisaged tour were associations like CARE (Citizens Association for Racial Equality) and HART (Halt All Racist Tours Association) and a youth movement among the students called Pym (The Progressive Youth Movement).
The Pym held a big conference in Hamilton early in February of 1969. A manifesto to stop the tour was released; included in that document was a plan to campaign the country for signatures in support of a petition to parliament. The aim was to sample at least 100 000 signatures of support against the tour. In the end they got only 19 609 signatures.
Within this time, Christchurch also submitted a bid to house the 1974 Commonwealth Games and there was consternation in NZ, when some of the black African countries indicated they will oppose the bid if the Rugby tour were to proceed. The chairman of the Christchurch Commonwealth Games bid, however, took a stand and made it clear he and his committee felt the tour should proceed even if that should have a negative impact on Christchurch’s chance to get the vote.
Shortly after, this the powerful Federation of Labour entered the battle and made it clear that they will withdraw all services, including aircraft maintenance and refuelling, if the All Black tour were to proceed. In David’s words: This was the week where even the most ardent rugby men became apprehensive about the tour. The crisis was, however, overcome when a rift threatened to developed within the labour union circles if the union went through with the resolution. The Federation of Labour subsequently withdrew their resolution and announced that no action would be taken against the tour.
Respect and support for the anti-tour movement received a major blow when a bomb was thrown through a window and exploded on May 25, 1968 in the Auckland rugby clubhouse. A wave of anger and disillusionment swept through the country as a result of that and the tour gained much support and the general feeling was that the tour was now a definite reality.
There were a few demonstrations at the All Black trials but mostly there were more policemen than protesters and the trials went smoothly and without any noteworthy incidents. The anti-tour movement did receive some further support when Ken Gray an All Black prop announced he had retired from the game because he always had moral reservations about touring to South Africa.
Then came a masterful move by a bookseller in Wellington by the name of Roy Parsons. Parson summoned a court order against the All Black captain, coach and team management under an ancient law “Ne Exeat Regno”. The writ sought to restrain them from leaving the jurisdiction of the country on the grounds that it would be detriment to the country. David put it as follows: It was a masterly piece of legal intricacy, indeed a noble last-minute effort to stop the tour. One could only admire the Ingenuity of it all. The writ invoked the 14th century law of “ne exeat regno” (not leaving the realm).
The case was heard in the Supreme court in Wellington on 8 June. The hearing lasted for nearly 6 hours and the lay mind boggled at the involved argument, not to mention the 37 law books of impressive size and importance that covered the tables of the two counsels. The request was denied after many debate on grounds of absence of clear authority or precedent. It was the last legal obstruction to the tour.
Approximately 300 demonstrators arrived at the airport on the day the plane left, and there were fears of a bomb in the aircraft but the AB’s boarded the plane in spite of this scary threat and there were no problems with the takeoff and flight.
Next week more on the arrival in SA and the first tour match.
Four Maori’s who went on the 1970 All Black tour to South Africa.
Coutesy of McLook
McLook runs a blog on News24
Super, Thank very much for this bit of rugby history. It brought back memories. I was only 15 at the time.
Looking forward to reading the next chapter.
I was a bit late , the 2nd part is out already, but i think we must run it every Tuesday. Will sort it out with GBS.
Super, Was good reading that. Look forward to the next part.
Super, Looking at that photo, if anyone at the time told me those players were Maori I would never have believed them. They just don’t look Maori to me. I know they are though. Maybe cause of the huge influx of PI’s that went to live in NZ in 1965 (a kiwi told me on Voldy that) so maybe their genes are coming through now. They just look different.
Really interesting superBul……
What changes your country has been through in our lifetime…….
The owner of McLook, is a blogger here… joined just the other day….
Nice fella!
GBS, I love history one of my favourites and especially rugby history. So that was great to read. Growing up you don’t remember everything, but remember a lot from what my father told me. He was rugby crazy. More so than us I tell you….haha. Wish he was still alive today. To have seen the Boks win the world cup twice. Knowing my Pa, beating the ABs would have been first prize in the 1995 world cup to us beating England in 2007.
His passion was the Boks and All Blacks games. Nothing else mattered, just had this huge passion about those games. Of course it is ours too, but he instilled that in me, about the Boks/ABs games.
7@ Puma – Wonderful stuff, these old stories!
Can anyone be more rugby mad than us? Well in that case PumaMaksimus must have been one hell of a fella to know!
1970 was my matric year…I remember this very well. All the nonsense running up to the tour, plus the fact that SA had finally been excluded formally from any further Olympics and me having a chance for the team in 1972….I remember my thoughts being….”why can politicians interfere with sport, why dont they just leave us sportsmen alone to get on with it” after all, sport builds bridges. it only occured to me later how grossly unfair the system was in not allowing people of colour to play in the Springboks. Football was already dropping racial divides in the junior leagues and in athletics black (athletes of colour) were already allowed to compete at the various tournaments….but I dont think they could represent their province allong with their white friends….it was in a seperate league entirely..crazy. But anyway it is behind us largely as far as selection goes….but I am still irked that there are racial connotations in SA sport, with white kids deserting in their droves, because they know that no matter how good they are, there is little chance of being selected on merit…..not a nice feeling. Merit should be the only way to select and the SA sporting bodies must pour money and coaching expertise into the poorer areas to ensure kids get the same start….thats the only place you change it…at grass roots.
I remember admiring (and still admire) Syd Going and it did not matter to me as a young man that he was a Maori, because he was a fantastic scrummie….if they had sent someone sub-standard based purely on colour, I would not have appreciated that, because only the best are good enough to play against our Springboks….so from the other side of the coin and practising a bit of empathy…..that is why other teams do not understand racial selection today. Look at the black kids coming out of rugby schools, they stand up to be counted by their own ability, which does not lack and to select them on a racial basis is a slap in the face to them and a slap in the face to the fans.
Excellent piece this…thanks very much (I like the picture of the old Holden car)
9 – 4man, Really enjoyed reading your post. Agree 100% with you there.
Do you remember Matthews Batswadi? Matthews Temane (spelling) Those two runners would have made the Olympics had we not had a boycott against us. It affected all sportmen/woman in this country, they paid a heavy price. Politics should never ever interfere with sports ever. It is like picking on the inocent.
Pity you never made that 1972 Olympics, must have hurt really bad.
Remember seeing Matthews Temane breaking the half marathon world record, in the SA Half Marathon Champs held in Durbs. Saw him break the tape in Kings Park atheletic stadium. Think it was 1986 or 1987. They too suffered and it was a shame.
Now every sports person, what ever sports they play should always be selected on merit. Otherwise it is being done all over again just in reverse. Sad actually cause now we should have moved on from that a long time back.
I remember Syd Going too. A wonderful scrummie. Looking at their photos above they just don’t look Maori at all least of all coloured. We were really stupid then with the daft system we had not to allow NZ to bring their best. Hope nothing like that happens again.
10 – Meant to mention there. Cause we had sanctions against us. That World Record of Matthew’s never stood. Shame that. So they suffered too everyone did. Not fair on the sports people of the time.
10 – First paragraph. inocent = innocent.
10 – Sorry for the typos there. Meant athletic
11 & 12 & 13 @ Puma – I’ll have to think about getting you your own EDIT BUTTON…. Mr Typo!
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