SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2021 ABOUT TO DO BATTLE: The 1921 Maori All Blacks who played the first touring Springbok team 100 years ago, next Tuesday. According to some accounts of the match, the Springboks refused to shake hands or face the haka. Parekura Tureia, as team captain , sits in the second row holding a football. Two to his left is All Black great Jimmy Mill. The team official in the back row, extreme right, is another All Black great, Billy Stead. The first five-eighth and vice captain of the 1905 “Originals” All Blacks was an unofficial coach of both the Maori All Blacks and the All Blacks in 1921. Picture courtesy of the New Zealand Rugby Museum Telegram sparked dismay leaked telegram stating “Europeans frantically halfback Jimmy Mill and outside him, first five-eighth Tuesday is the 100th anniversary of cheering on a band of coloured men” shocked and Maori captain Parekura Tureia. the controversial Maori All Blacks- the New Zealand public a century ago. Both men were Ngati Porou. A The telegram from visiting journalist Charles Mill was a future All Blacks great while Tureia, a veteran Springboks match at Napier’s McLean Blackell, intended for readers back in South Africa and of World War 1, was to be die in action in World War 2 as written after the Springboks played the Maori All Blacks the commander of C Company, 28 Maori Battalion. Park, which featured two prominent on September 7, 1921, said the Boks were “frankly Maori and Pakeha alike were dismayed by the telegram Poverty Bay players. The Herald’s disgusted”. but that did not prevent three post office workers from The fixture, played at Napier’s McLean Park, was won 9 being sacked. Wynsley Wrigley looks at the controversy to 8 by the first Springbok side to tour New Zealand. Springboks manager Harold Bennett disavowed the and the players. Two Poverty Bay players were in the Maori side, telegram. Continued on page 2 It’s your life, your funeral Why plan ahead? 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Email offi [email protected] 33889-02 SATurdAy, SePTeMBer 4, 2021 2 LEAD ‘DEEPLY HURT’ From page 1 Harrison, and late cartoonist Murray Ball accompanied her as part of a (Gisborne) He said it did not represent the opinion of Halt All Racist Tours delegation which met the players. with Poverty Bay rugby officials before the Another future All Blacks great, Springboks arrived in Gisborne to start their Rangitukia legend George Nepia, watched tour. the match as a 16-year-old student. “They listened to us, but were committed He later said the telegram “provoked a to the tour,” said Harrison. reaction and bitterness which within the Patsy Mill told the rugby officials she was heart of the Maori race have neither been ashamed and disgusted. They had “forgotten forgotten nor forgiven”. the mana of my father” and didn’t Tureia and Mill and four other Poverty understand the humiliation he felt. Bay players also appeared for Hawke’s Bay- Harrison said Patsy Mill felt consumed Poverty Bay against the Boks in Napier. and disappointed. One of those other players was Tom She threw her father’s All Black cap on the Heeney who fought Gene Tunney for the floor before them and said “you can take it”. world heavyweight boxing title in 1928. He said to those present at her funeral, “ The Boks won that match 14-8. where is that cap (now)?” Tureia also played for the Maori All Blacks Mill was noted for the speed of his pass, in 1923. and it was this that helped the backs outside Mill was playing for the Tokomaru Bay him scored a lot of tries. Wanderers club in 1921. The schoolboy sprint champion was a East Coast was only a sub-union of the deadly threat running down the blindside. Poverty Bay union in 1921 and did not play “When Jimmy decided to go . It would its first match as a full province until the be a try, “ wrote the country’s most famous following year. rugby journalist, the late Terry McLean. Mill was a gifted sporting all-rounder and “He had a sort of lopsided, deferential opened the batting when Poverty Bay won grin which rather gave the impression of cricket’s still prestigious Hawke Cup in a excessive modesty. match against Whanganui in 1919. “So far as I remember he was modest. In his four Hawke Cup innings, played “But when he moved in that tryscoring over three matches, Mill was run out twice! movement, he wore a lopsided, deferential But it is his deeds as a footballer which grin which suggested that he was really made Mill a household name. sorry, he shouldn’t be doing things like this Mill, like Nepia, become a superstar of the to your team.” 1924 Invincibles. Tureia had suffered racism at the hands That All Blacks side won all 30 of their of South Africa as a Maori footballer before matches in Britain and France and featured 1921. SOUVENIR: The official programme for the 1921 tour of New Zealand by the other rugby luminaries such as Bert Cooke, He had been part of the New Zealand Springboks. Picture courtesy of Alexander Turnbull Library Reference: Eph-A-RUGBY-1921-01-front Mark Nicholls and Maurice Brownlie. army rugby team which won the post-World Mill played 33 matches for the All Blacks War 1 British Empire army tournament and between 1923 and 1930, including tests toured Britain. against England, France, Wales and the The side stopped off in South Africa in 1930 Lions, scoring 15 tries and kicking 1919 to play matches while returning home four conversions. from the war. He also played for the great Hawke’s Corporal Tureia and Sergeant Nathaniel Bay side of the 1920s who defended the “Ranji” Wilson, who was part West Indian, Ranfurly Shield 24 times. were both forbidden from playing at the But a low point came in 1928 when the request of the South Africa Rugby Board. New Zealand Rugby Football Union ruled Tureia served in the Pioneer Battalion in Mill and Nepia ineligibile for that year’s first the first world war and in C Company (East ever All Blacks tour of South Africa on racial Coast) of 28 Maori Battalion in the second. grounds. Captain Tureia was killed on November The national union had acquiesced to the 23, 1941, and is buried in the Halfaya wishes of the South African Government. Sollum War Cemetery in Egypt. Mill was limited to playing provincial Tureia worked in the Department of rugby in New Zealand as the other Native Affairs. Invincibles halfback, Canterbury’s Bill He and wife Henihou both came from Dalley, played all four test matches in South prominent Maori whanau and together Africa in 1928. raised six children. Mill’s late daughter Patsy Mill said her His parents were Waiheke and Ruihana father was deeply hurt by his omission and Tureia (nee de Jones). that of other Maori players and lived with Jane Tureia, whanau spokesperson, said a sense of humiliation for the remainder of he tried to look after his family while serving FUTURE STAR: The Maori All Black - his life. overseas in the army. Springboks match of 1921 was the first big match of Jimmy Mill’s stellar rugby He often discussed the matter with Nepia A tuberculosis epidemic was raging in New career. He debuted for the All Blacks who had described the non-selection of Zealand and Tureia sent poignant letters in Australia in 1923, before becoming Maori players as “leaving New Zealand home. FALLEN TOTARA: Parekura Tureia served one of the all time greats after playing indignant”. He wrote beautifully in Maori and English, in World War 1. He did not have to serve in for the 1924 Invincibles in Britain and Laurie Harrison, who first met Patsy she said. World War 2 but chose to, and he was killed France. Mill ended his All Black career Mill while demonstrating against the 1981 Tureia was educated at Tititiki Native in North Africa as the officer in command of against the 1930 Lions. Terry McLean, C Company, 28 Maori Battalion. The captain Springbok tour, and who gave a eulogy at School and Te Aute College. writing in the early 1980s, said he of the 1921 Maori All Blacks was a man of reluctantly picked Mill ahead of Sid her funeral last year, described her as a He was an officer of great mana. great mana in Maori and Pakeha circles. Going as the greatest Maori halfback. “firebrand”. The family was very proud of his many Photo courtesy of the Tureia family File photo SAturdAy, September 4, 2021 3 PROFILE At home in the bush A POINT OF BALANCE: Hamiora Gibson is a man about the bush, writer and champion of biodiversity. After travelling the world and picking up skills from farms and fiordlands, he came back to Gisborne to help regenerate the land he hails from.