Christchurch Maoris ‘demeaned’

Press, 27 January 1987, Page 1

Christchurch Maoris ‘demeaned’

By

DAVID CLARKSON

Christchurch Maoris will be wary of helping the police after their treatment over the gang work schemes at Leithfield, says a city Maori leader.

The deputy chairman of the Ngaitahu Maori Trust Board, Mr Rick Tau, said yesterday: “At the end of the day, we who gave assistance to the police have been demeaned by the police. Can you trust them? It is like the kiss of death now.” Mr Tau is also the

secretary of Ngai Tuahuriri Runanga, which owns the plantation at Leithfield where 26 Black Power gang members were sent under a contract work scheme in 1985. He said the police were involved from the

start, when the contract was begun, to try to defuse gang tensions in Christchurch.

According to Mr Tau, the scheme was never meant to be a real con-

tract, and could not be measured in those terms. It was meant to keep the

Black Power gang out of Christchurch and out of trouble. The gang members were made to do the work with hand tools so they would make slow progress and stay away from the city longer, he said.

He has released figures comparing the cost of the contract with the cost of keeping the 26 gang mem-

bers on unemployment benefits for the same six months.

The wages, overheads and holiday pay come to $232,383. Unemployment

benefits for the same group, plus accommodation allowances and some special benefits, would have cost $222,000, he estimates.

"Where is the rip-off? Who gains?” he asked. He said New Zealanders should be concerned about why the attacks on Maoridom were developing. "Is the division of New Zealand’s society being promoted?” he asked. Mr Tau said that in March and April- there were three killings among

the gangs in Christchurch, leading to tensions and unrest for the city’s people. Unemployment was high. “The police were at a

loss as to how the tensions could be resolved to preserve the peace. “Running true to form, Maori leadership was sought to assist in defusing the gang tensions. “The departments involved were the Police, Labour, Maori Affairs and Internal Affairs, and the Christchurch City Council’s employment-pro-

motion division.

“The unpaid section of these resource people came from our Maori communities, of which I was one," he said.

Mr Tau agreed to use a gang on the Leithfield forestry reserve, which had been set aside as an investment to provide finance for replacing the hall at the Tuahiwi Marae. “This reserve had been planted and managed by members of my community voluntarily,” he said.

“Pruning and thinning is a skilled job, so offering our reserve to unskilled workers was a major risk. “The police were happy, the citizens of Christchurch were happy, the payments made by the Social Welfare Department ceased, their work load was reduced. Congratulations were accorded publicly for these initiatives.” Mr Tau is concerned that after the police investigation that cleared the gang of any criminal activity, the groups that as-

sisted the police — the Labour Department, the city council’s employment promotion division, and the Maori community that provided the work — were under attack.

The work by the gang could not be compared with work by contractors. “The nature and type of work is beyond costing.” Police regularly stopped the gang travelling between Christchurch and Leithfield. Their tools — axes, shovels and slashers — were confiscated as offensive weapons.

“Many days were lost through these occasions,” Mr Tau said.