Wizard will visit Bay despite protest

Press, 1 March 1989, Page 9

Wizard will visit Bay despite protest

By

KAY FORRESTER

The Wizard will go to Hawke’s Bay next week in spite of opposition from the region’s churches. The Wizard and the Mayor of Christchurch, Sir Hamish Hay, were invited to take part in a swap-a-mayor promotion by the Hawke’s Bay Tourism Board.

Napier City’s marketing and development manager, Mr Hamish Jamieson, confirmed yesterday that he had not withdrawn the Wizard’s invitation in spite of being asked to by six or seven church groups.

He had met the groups and had pointed out that they represented only a portion of the population of Hawke’s Bay. The invitation to the Wizard came from him and not Sir Hamish. One church group from a Good News Trust, of Hastings, had written to Sir Hamish asking him to leave the Wizard behind. Mr Jamieson said Monday’s meeting had resulted in guarantees from four of the churches that there would be no protests while the Wizard was in Hawke’s Bay. In return he had said he would not ask the Wizard to cast spells. However, he had made it clear that did not stop others asking or the Wizard deciding to cast a spell.

Mr Jamieson said he did not want publicity over the Wizard’s visit to jeopardise the promotion. As well as Sir Hamish, the mayors of Wellington, Mr Jim Belich, and

Auckland, Dame Cath Tizard, will spend March 10 at the Bay. Three Hawke’s Bay mayors will visit Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland. Sir Hamish said yesterday he had had several letters from Hawke’s Bay and Christchurch expressing concern about the Wizard’s visit. He was replying to them that he had not issued the invitation and suggesting the Wizard was really an entertainer, who should not be taken too seriously. “I probably would not have invited him as part of my entourage but he is a tourist attraction. The people organising the promotion invited him to provide some extra publicity and entertainment,” he said. That some Hawke’s Bay people were not taking the Wizard too seriously was evident from the letter he had received on Monday from a minister of a Hawke’s Bay church, Sir Hamish said.

“The letter suggested the Wizard might cast spells on the rates department of Napier City Council for a dose of scurvy because that would make accurate residents’ description of the department as a bunch of scurvy knaves. He also suggested a spell for his well-meaning neighbours who let their dogs run over his property. “He suggested a spell for the Flaxmere Golf Course, which must undoubtedly be inhabited by nymphs and other creatures who entice golf balls astray.”