Embalming-course funds withdrawn

Press, 6 December 1989, Page 16

Embalming-course funds withdrawn

PA Auckland The Iwi Transition Agency has withdrawn funding from a high-pro-file Maori Access embalming course because trustees made loans to an associated Mormon-run funeral parlour in breach of Access rules. The move came after an agency investigation of Nga Hau E Wha Funeral Trust, sparked by complaints from trainees that the parlour directors, Mr Ben Matthews and Mr Ramsey Joyce, refused to provide necessary equipment or training. Nga Hau E Wha was launched in November last year by a private company, Ramsey Joyce and Murray Funeral Services, as a cheap, culturally appropriate alternative service for Maori and Pacific Island people. Because private firms are not allowed to run Access courses, Tamaki Maori Development Authority ran an embalming

course in the same premises for 14 Maori Access trainees, including Mr Matthews’ wife, Janet. When the authority was stripped of its Maori Access contract in July, after alleged mishandling of funds, Nga Hau E Wha Funeral Trust, a committee of kaumatua (elders) took over the course. The Iwi Transition Agency’s Auckland manager, Mr Erima Henare, said the trust paid $20,000 to Matthews, Joyce and Murray for running expenses, breaking Maori Access rules designed to stop commercial ventures using training funds. “It concerned me that Maori Access money was used for tax-deductible business expenses which were the responsibility of the directors,” Mr Henare said.

“The trust was given a month’s notice to December 15 and I have asked for an audit of the scheme’s accounts to see

if the Public Finance Act was breached.” The embalming tutor, Ms Rae Grace, was sacked in June for what she said were her persistent requests for proper equipment and supplies, including disinfectant and ventilation.

Mr Matthews, a former head of Nga Tapuwae board of governors, took, over the position and the salary but students said they received no proper training from him.

A South Auckland community worker, Bo Rawhiti, who was brought on to the trust to act as an advocate for the trainees, said students and clients became cdncerned at the standard of work coming out of the funeral parlour.

The directors and kaumatua were Mormons. Mormon students on the course spoke out because they were upset that their Church was being used'to impose control.