Little hope for Gardners

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 2, Issue 32, 29 January 1985, Page 1

Little hope for Gardners

It appears as if the Gardner and Ball families have all but lost their fight to remain in New Zealand.

Speaking from her Tohunga Road farm outside Ohakune, Mrs Ann Gardner said at the weekend that the family was still considering appeals to the Ombudsman and Governor-General, but at the moment they were just "plodding along" hoping that if people saw the value of their experimental farming work the Government would "come to its senses." However, despite the large number of signatures which were gathered on a petition in and around Ohakune before Christmas and a recent flurry of editorials in national newspapers supporting their campaign to remain in the country, there has been no indication that the Minister of Immigration intends to change his mind about deporting the family.

The family members have been convicted of overstaying in New Zealand and ordered to be de^orted as soon as one of Tom and Jane Ball's two children, who has been ill with a heart complaint, has recovered his health. Mr Charles Gardner has been given permission to remain in the country to sell up the family farm, which was bought in April 1983 for over $700,000 including lands, buildings and livestock. On Friday a Television New Zealand film crew was in Ohakune to film footage of the Gardner family for the "This Week" programme. The film crew was at Pukemaire Farms for most of Friday morning filming the family and their sheep. The programme will be broadcast on Thursday at 8.30pm on Two. Although the family — Charles and Ann Gardner, a daughter Jane, her husband Tom Ball and a younger Gardner daughter Sue — were refused permission to settle in the country before they left England, their campaign has been based on the claim that work they have been doing on the breeding of ewes with four teats was of value to New Zealand. Mrs Gardner said immigration literature from New Zealand House in London stated that people working on farming processes new to New Zealand would be considered for entry to the country.

However, although the family have a letter from the Invermay Agricultural Research Centre expressing "interest" in their four-teat project, the centre 's director, Jock Allison, said this week that New Zealand agricultural research had little to gain from the Gardners' work. He added that his centre's work in the field was far advanced on that of the Gardners. "Quite frankly there is not a lot they can offer us." The other development in the story this week was the announcement that the Government has ordered an inquiry into how the Land Valuation Tribunal allowed the family to buy their farm after they had been refused permanent residence in New Zealand.

However, later in the week a spokesman from the Minister of Immigration's office said the Land Valuation Tribunal's department was "going to look at the information generally" but the report of an inquiry being held was "not really correct." He said he did not know what might result from the examination but as far as the Immigration Department was concerned the matter had gone as far as it could. "Once the Minister has made his decision under section 20A, that's it," he said. "Under section 20A of the Immigration Act, the Minister can exercise his discretion not to deport. However, in the Gardners' case, the Minister has chosen not to exercise that discretion.