Gales strike hikoi marchers

10.00am

Gale force winds snatched at the banners of thousands of marchers preparing to walk to Parliament today to protest against the Government's foreshore and seabed policy.

The full force of predicted winds hit the hikoi meeting point outside the national museum Te Papa, on Wellington's waterfront, just before 9.30am.

Banners reading Hands Off Our Foreshore, Honour The Treaty, and No Raupatu In Our Time had to be tied to anything solid to keep them being whipped away.

About a dozen huge photographs of MP Tariana Turia, who resigned from the Labour Party last week over the foreshore and seabed issue, were held aloft by strong carriers.

As hikoi supporters arrived at Te Papa before the march starting time of around 10am, organisers made every effort to keep spirits up.

Loud hailers were used to send uplifting messages, singers kept up their tunes and a group of about 40 youths performed a rousing haka at the eastern end of Te Papa.

Police were predicting a march of around 5000 people, but hikoi organisers hoped for up to 10,000, they said this morning.

Marchers included every pupil from Panguru Area School in the the Hokianga -- about 30 children.

Their principal, Mina Pomare-Peita, said the children were nearly all descendents of revered Maori leader Dame Whina Cooper.

"Children are the future generation and they know how important the foreshore and seabed is to them, because for many of our houses, it is the foodbasket," Mrs Pomare-Peita told NZPA.

"The most important thing about what they will learn is we are going on the hikoi because we are not happy with the legislation but it's also about understanding the political process."

Fifteen-year-old pupil Whatitiri Tewake said the hikoi was important because the children were at the foreshore "every day of every week".

A smattering of a pakeha, Pacific Islanders and Asians were seen in the hikoi crowd.

Maori kaumatua were slowly seated in buses to take them to Parliament as the wind became stronger, however marchers said the weather was not cold.

Lawyer Moana Jackson, representing the Hawke's Bay branch of Ngati Kahunungu, said there had been widespread support opposing not just the Government's policy but just about every party's policy.

"Sadly for our people, it's not an usual condition to be in, but we'll oppose it as we have at other times," he told NZPA.

Corney Andrews, who was born in England, said he was on the hikoi representing his 12 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Parliament's security co-ordinator Jonathan Barlow said the high winds in Wellington meant that a marquee could not be set up in the grounds.

Instead it had been agreed to allow four buses on to the forecourt to allow elderly people to take shelter if the weather deteriorated.

- NZPA

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