Maori Rights Campaigners Heckle Queen

A young woman threw a T-shirt at Queen Elizabeth II today and radicals campaigning for Maori rights heckled the British monarch during anniversary celebrations for the founding of modern New Zealand.

The queen, who was accompanied by her husband, Prince Philip, appeared shaken, witnesses said.

The woman, a member of New Zealand’s Maori minority, threw a black T-shirt after the queen disembarked from the royal barge that carried her to Waitangi, a village in the country’s far north.

Angry spectators seized the woman, aged about 17, dragged her from the crowd and handed her over to police.

As the queen gave a speech marking the 150th anniversary of the Treaty of Waitangi, a pact between Maoris and British colonial authorities, a small group of radicals shouted “You already have everything! What more do you want, Elizabeth?” and “150 years of oppression!”