Mystery phone calls to board members

Press, 3 February 1979, Page 1

Mystery phone calls to board members

Nelson reporter Telephone calls threatening the lives of three members of the Marlborough Maritime Park Board had been made by an unknown man with a “posh” voice, members were told at a meeting of the board yesterday. References to the threats were made during discussion about the board’s demand that Mr Harold Saunders, a farmer and shipwright in Tory Channel, should shift part of his new home off the Sounds foreshore reserve. The threats were deplorable, Mr Saunders said last evening. “I certainly di4 not make them.” Mr Saunders described the board’s demand that he shift part of his howse as "ridiculous” and said he would take legal action against the board. The men threatened, the chairman (Mr I. B. Mitchell) and Messrs W. B.

Parker and E. J. Wilkes, have consistently opposed any move to permit the house to remain where it is. After both Mr Parker and Mr Mitchell had referred to the threats during board discussion, Mr Parker said at a luncheon adjournment that the threats had been made at 1 a.m., soon after the last board meeting. Mr Parker said he was a wakened by a telephone call and that the caller, speaking a “posh” voice which he was sure was not assumed, sought the telephone number of Mr Mitehell. “When I refused to give it to him he told me that there were 40 loaded rifles in Picton if the board tried to move the Saunders house and that one of the bullets had my name on it,” he said. He had later learned that similar calls and threats had been made to the homes of Messrs Mit-

chell and Wilkes, in the small hours of the morning. Both men were away on board business at the time and the calls were taken by their wives, said Mr Parker. “Mrs Mitchell, with two small children in the house, was quite disturbed,” he said. The call to Mr Wilkes at Picton had been placed through the Blenheim toll room and the caller had given his name as “Wilkes” and a number which later was found to be false, said Mr Parker. A motion that sought to allow Mr Saunders to keep the new house where it is, provided he made several concessions, was lost, six votes to five. All the men who were threatened voted against the motion. The board will now pursue its original plan to institute legal proceedings against Mr Saunders for building on foreshore reserve.