Students protest at the USP
STUDENTS held up protest placards as the New Zealand Governor-general, Sir Denis Blundell, the Acting ViceChancellor, Professor Frank Brosnahan (nearest to camera), Mrs Brosnahan and Lady Blundell (nearest camera right), left the University of the South Pacific, watched by the Fiji Police Commissioner, John Kelland.
The protest was reported in The Fiji Times on Wednesday, August 11, 1976.
The banner-weaving uni students asked Sir Denis to “halt all racist tours” when he visited the university.
Several hundred students protested against the New Zealand All
Blacks football tour of South Africa.
A statement from the University Students Association, circulated on campus, asking the Governor-General to accept the protest as an expression of the students’ concern and total condemnation of the Muldoon Government’s “wicked” attitudes and behaviour.
The statement referred to the All Blacks tour of South Africa and the behaviour of the task force dealing with Pacific Island visitors in New Zealand.
Another statement from the Fiji Student Christian Movement said all the sport in South Africa was played under the cloud of racial discrimination. The movement said by sending a rugby team to South Africa, the New Zealand Government was supporting such a system.
As Sir Denis was leaving, a group began chanting “Halt all racist tours!”
Sir Denis smiled and waved at the students and left the campus immediately.
He spent about an hour at the university, visiting the Vice-Chancellor’s office, touring the library and having morning tea in the students union building.