I have read three articles in The Post of the affair – 1) 10 December 2024, 2) 21 January 2025 and 3) 4 July 2025 – which I have referenced below and critique as follows.
It was reported that the council’s chief executive Jo Miller said that a staff member acted in good faith and held the genuine view the insert was misinformation. I don’t believe that, but if it’s true the person clearly has no knowledge of New Zealand history and needs to be re-educated. Irrespective of what one may think of it, Sir Apirana’s Explanation is a primary piece of our history and Ngata one of our most venerated politicians. People who do not know that are not sufficiently trained to work in our libraries.
Apirana Ngata LLB also wrote in the Journal of the Australasian Association of Psychology and Philosophy, March 1928:
“Under no other rule has it been possible to stage such a drama as has unfolded in New Zealand – the deliberate lifting of a people of lower culture to full equality in political, social, and moral communion with one of the most advanced races in the world.”
That is the fact that we are no longer allowed to admit.
Ngata and his writings cannot be removed, but he is now condemned as racist. They are painting Apirana Ngata out of the picture, like Nikolai Yezhov from the photo with Stalin. How long before they take him off the fifty dollar note?
It was also reported that the rationale for the decision was that it was considered “not in line” with council values. But the council must not impose their values on us. The council, whoever that comprises, is there to work for us; we pay their wages from our rates, we own them. We must insist that We the people are sovereign and they have no mandate to impose values on us. The council people have the same right to values as the rest of us, which they can express when they vote, just like us. It is concerning that we need to have this conversation.
All three articles stress that the law suit should not proceed because it would be a cost to the Hutt City rates payers. Council chief legal officer Bradley Cato asked the FSU to pause litigation asking whether it was an “appropriate use of your time and resources, as well as the time and resources of Hutt City Council and the court”.
However, the 21 January 2025 article by Virginia Fallon gives a more complete story.
“[Jonathan Ayling] said the FSU tried on numerous occasions over six months to engage with the council, threatening legal action if it didn’t happen.
‘We prepared legal charges then contacted them a week before filing to say the offer still stands if you want to stop this before it gets into the courts.
‘They didn't reply until the working day before we were supposed to file and asked for a delay. We asked if they wanted to meet but they just wanted a delay’.”
Not good enough.
It is abhorrent that we live in a country where the authorities do such things. This is New Zealand for pity’s sake, not Stalin’s Russia or Pol Pot’s Cambodia or Starmer’s Britain. As Jonathan Ayling said, “We simply cannot have local councils and bureaucrats dictating what information ratepayers do and don't consume.”
But I get the impression that we are beginning to accept it as the norm. That is the way things happen here now. We stop people from speaking at our universities. We don’t publish certain Letters to the Editor. We make engineering students do papers on Maori mythology.
We stuff the country.
Just look at what is happening in South Africa (here).
All because someone, somewhere, somehow had a revelation.
Barrie Davis is a retired telecommunications engineer, holds a PhD in the psychology of Christian beliefs, and can often be found gnashing his teeth reading The Post outside Floyd’s cafe at Island Bay.
References
“Advertising insert lawsuit settled,” The Post, Justin Wong 4 July 2025 (here).
https://www.pressreader.com/new-zealand/the-post-1022/20250704/281539411957796
“Free Speech Union pushing ahead with plan to sue Hutt City Council,” The Post, Virginia Fallon, 21 January 2025 (here).
https://www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/360563159/council-boss-sued-staff-decision-made-while-she-was-work-cancer-treatment
“Free Speech Union suing Hutt City Council,” The Post, Tom Hunt, 10 December 2024 (here)
https://www.pressreader.com/new-zealand/the-post-1022/20241210/281633900820154
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