NZHistory, New Zealand history online - police

Air New Zealand plane fuselage on Mt Erebus

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 12:00:00 +1200

Film: police and the first test - 1981 Springbok tour

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 12:00:00 +1200

The first test: Lancaster Park, Christchurch, 15 August 1981 (5mb)

Police view of events

Blue Squad member Pete Carrington describes the police experience.

Police in a 'no-win situation'

The All Blacks won 14–9.

The day was one of massive protest action around the country. In Christchurch the thrust of the protest was to spread the police cordon around the venue by coming at Lancaster Park from all angles. The goal was to occupy the pitch.

Some people have commented on the fact that it was miraculous nobody was killed during the tour, a sentiment echoed by Pete Carrington, a member of the Blue Squad. He believed that had protestors succeeded in occupying Lancaster Park that day, there would have been fatalities. Rugby supporters pelted protestors with blocks of concrete and full bottles of beer. Carrington maintained that the police saved the protestors from serious injuries and were not the enemy.

The 1981 Springbok rugby tour

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 12:00:00 +1200

A country divided

Anti-tour protesters at Palmerston North

'Black Tuesday' - the 1912 Waihi strike

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 12:00:00 +1200

The killing of Fred Evans

Supporters of the strikers

On 'Black Tuesday', 12 November 1912, in the midst of a bitter six-month strike by miners in the small New Zealand goldmining town of Waihi, striker Fred Evans was killed - one of only two fatalities* in an industrial dispute in New Zealand's history.

Police response to disaster

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 12:00:00 +1200

Responding to tragedy

...although the functions of the Police have not been set down by statute, there is universal acceptance that these are primarily the preservation of life and property. It follows naturally from this that the Police have a clear duty to adopt all reasonable means towards these ends.

Commissioner of Police C. L. Spencer 1963

The crimes - Maungatapu murders

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 12:00:00 +1200

A timeline of crime: May–June 1866

Trail of the Burgess gang

For a few short months the gang embarked upon a crime spree along the west coast of the South Island that would culminate in the murder of five men on the Maungatapu Track.

May:

Hokitika

Burgess stole two revolvers from the Hokitika police camp on 10 May. He staged a 'discovery' of these guns at a nearby beach in the presence of two witnesses, Sullivan and a man called Chamberlain. A search of his room located the stolen weapons but his witnesses helped him escape any charges. The Hokitika police supplied the local press with details of his Dunedin history and advised Burgess and Kelly to leave town.

Politics and sport - 1981 Springbok tour

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 12:00:00 +1200

‘Politics and sport don’t mix’

In South Africa before 1948 the white minority enjoyed a privileged position, reinforced by a number of laws and practices that ensured there was extensive segregation of the races. When Daniel Malan’s Nationalist Party came to power that year, this separation was intensified with a policy known as ‘apartheid’ (‘apartness’ in Afrikaans) that aimed to strictly divide the races.

Sullivan's betrayal - the Maungatapu murders

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 12:00:00 +1200

Sullivan turns on the gang

Joseph Sullivan

Without bodies the case was circumstantial. On 22 June 1866 searchers found the dead packhorse and the missing men's swags. Rewards for information were offered in vain, but a breakthrough occurred when the government promised £200 and a free pardon to any accomplice (not the actual murderer) who would turn Queen's evidence. This reward poster was placed where the prisoners could see it.

Stopping the 1973 tour - 1981 Springbok tour

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 12:00:00 +1200

Stopping the 1973 tour

Gleneagles Agreement - 1981 Springbok tour

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 12:00:00 +1200

From Montreal to Gleneagles

The All Blacks accepted an invitation to tour South Africa in 1976 – a time when world attention was firmly fixed on the republic because of the Soweto riots. Hundreds were killed as the authorities ruthlessly suppressed protests. An All Blacks’ tour under such conditions was not only intolerable to many New Zealanders but also attracted international condemnation. Black African nations boycotted the 1976 Montreal Olympics in protest, firmly putting sports and politics back onto the same stage.