Protesters beat drums outside Mt Eden prison

Press, 23 April 1980, Page 3

Protesters beat drums outside Mt Eden prison

PA Auckland About 500 parents, school pupils, and officials of St Peter’s College marched from their school last evening to Mount Eden prison to protest against the arrest of a Tongan pupil, Joseph Havea, aged 18, a convicted overstayer. But the march was in vain as the boy had been removed from the prison earlier in the day. The silent demonstration turned into a chant of “We want justice,” backed with a beating of drums, when a prison official told the group the boy was not inside. “This is devastating — I can’t believe it,” said a 1 school counsellor and one of the march leaders, Mr B. ; Mason. I “I telephoned the police I and they implied he was at ; at the wharf but then someone at the wharf said he was with the police. “Nobody seemed-to know what was going on — just ] typical of the whole affair,” ;

I Mr Mason said last evening. The superintendent of Mount Eden Prison (Mr S. : Ward), said Joseph Havea, I who was in jail awaiting deportation as a Tongan overstayer, and two other deportees, were taken away by the police yesterday. “This is normal procedure on the day before being deported,” he said. The disappointed protestors left the prison entrance soon after they arrived and made their way to the Auckland Central Police Station to find the “true story.” Mr Mason sent a telegram to the Governor-General (Sir Keith Holyoake) and asked him to use his prerogative of mercy to free the boy. He had not heard from Sir Keith, by late last evening. I Haven expected to leave New Zealand at 8 a.m. today as an overstayer. He injured an eye in an accident in Tonga, resulting in a type of cataract. His eye specialist in New Zealand, Dr O. B. Hadden, said yesterday the condition

could definitely not be f treated in Tonga. Dr Hadden decided last , year not to go ahead with - an operation on the boy’s in- - jured eye because the youth - could not be given the necf essary backup treatment in Tonga. ‘ “In order to see clearly - after the operation, he would need to be fitted with - a special contact lense,” Dr i Hadden said. 1 “The lens might need ■ adjusting or renewing and I i can positively tell you that this treatment cannot be i (carried out in Tonga.” In Wellington, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for i Immigration (Mr Malcolm) yesterday branded Havea as 1 “a criminal.” The imprisonment was not * the responsibility of the Immigration Division, he said. “Basically it is a simple case: he has been before a court and has been found guilty,” he said. Mr Malcolm said Havea was 19i, not 18, “a pretty big boy* to be at school.”