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
7 comments:
It hasn't only been Sir Apirana Ngata's work that has been censored by the Hutt Library. Anything that questioned the woke narrative has been removed or at least under threat. The Spectator Australia ran an opinion critical of Jacinda at the time NZ media were fawning over her. Immediately the Hutt library stopped buying the Spectator. But it isn't just the Hutt library. Look at libraries, public art galleries, museums all over the country. Very few will show anything that questions the woke political orthodoxy. The staffer who removed the Ngata books was only doing what librarians do everywhere.
And people still bury their heads in the sand!
“We stuffed the country. Just look at what is happening in South Africa”.
Zimbabwe politicians also kicked out whites (many born in Zimbabwe) that ran successful farms and businesses and the land was left to go to ruin. They then drained the money from aid meant for their own indigenous people all in the name of racism! blaming whites for their misfortunes tricking their people while their own corruption was always their goal. (Sound familiar)
Meanwhile, The United Arab Emirates has begun wrapping itself around the Africa like a snake. It is in Africa where Emirati and influence is the most pronounced. The UAE, and to a lesser extent its partners in the Gulf Cooperation Council, have been buying up African resources at a shocking rate, with the UAE, which has an economy perhaps 1/60th the size of the United States’, becoming the largest foreign investor in Africa in 2024. (Who owns NZ Inc?)
A Warning from Zimbabwe to South Africa (to New Zealand)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmwTAXAjCOY&list=TLPQMDUwNzIwMjW9Zf2vL99Twg&index=5
You are so right Barrie - a truly despicable and costly affair that was entirely avoidable. CEO Miller and Mayor Barry had every opportunity to 'nip this in the bud'; offer an apology for the mistake of breaching NZ's Bill of Rights Act, and move on at no real cost to ratepayers. But what did they do? Deliberately force the FSU to pursue them legally at a cost to it and ratepayers. What they've proved by their deliberate obfuscation is that they are unfit for the offices they hold. I gather Barry isn't standing for re-election, but the ratepayers will no doubt be stuck paying Miller's significant salary for several more years. In sum, an utter disgrace. But, alas, all too common in the politics of Local Govt. these days.
I support all that Peter states and urge that librarians remember they are functionaries, not censors; and for Anonymous @4.41am, the Spectator is about the only bastion of conservative/liberal (?contradictory) view readily available today. Occasional comment about the appalling Ardern is still found among its pages. Australia has suffered as has NZ with wokerism and inept governance and continues to do so, providing rich picking for Spectator columnists.
Anon@4.41am, that's not quite true, for to her credit, one of the librarians at LHCC did in fact call it out - giving the 'gateways not gatekeepers of knowledge line' to her superiors, but was overruled. It's entirely hypocritical of Miller to now claim to hold that position when she had well over a year to correct the situation but, like many of those in public roles where there's removed accountability, she chose to thumb her nose at those who challenged it until court action challenged her personally and the Council's position. The Mayor and Councillors all knew about it, but chose to do nothing. By their inaction, they were all complicit and it's staggering to think they were all ignorant of the law. But what the heck - it's only the law, and other' people's money? I pity those sucker ratepayers paying for such corruption and incompetence.
I may have missed it, but I haven't seen anything about this settlement on TV One news.
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