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Story: Anti-racism and Treaty of Waitangi activism

Rugby Union decision, 1959

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Rugby Union decision, 1959

In 1959 the Rugby Football Union again proposed to send a whites-only All Black team to South Africa. By that time opposition to apartheid rugby within New Zealand had grown into a nationwide campaign. This cartoon from the Christchurch Star shows the stubborn Rugby Union dragged between two opposing forces – the trough of money it would make by giving in to South Africa's demands, and the opinion of the New Zealand public, which favoured non-racial sport.

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Alexander Turnbull Library

Reference: A-317-065

by George Duncan Henderson

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Robert Consedine, Anti-racism and Treaty of Waitangi activism – First sporting contacts with South Africa, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/cartoon/26667/rugby-union-decision-1959 (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Robert Consedine, published 2 May 2011.