THE “COLOUR LINE”

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 257, 20 January 1928, Page 1

THE “COLOUR LINE”

MAORI GIRLS INSULTED A ROTORUA INCIDENT Members of the Te Akarana Maori Association are incensed at what they term further evidence of drawing the "colour line” against Maoris. The victims in this case were two Maori girls ot good family who had arranged to spend a holiday at Rotorua. Rooms were booked in advance at a well-known boarding-house, but on arrival there the girls were “practically hustled off the premises.” Rotorua was in the throes of the holiday season, and it was almost impossible for the girls to obtain accommodation elsewhere. Eventually after searching in vain, they were forced to ca,li upon the Maoris at Whakar*warewa for hospitality. As it was explained to the meeting last night, the visitors, though of Maori blood, were in no way related to the Rotorua Maoris, and to call upon them at such short notice for accommodation was, in effect, much the same as if they had been Europeans and strangers to each other. That Maoris should be unwelcome at Rotorua where the members of this race constituted one of the principal attractions, in the opinion of members

of the association was considered singularly out of place. A protest has been dispatched to the Rotorua Progress Committee.