He maru mo te iwi – shelter for the people

Tu Tangata, Issue 31, 1 August 1986, Page 35

He maru mo te iwi - shelter for the people

na Philip Whaanga

Outside of Auckland, Tim Shadbolt is probably most kindly seen as a former ‘radical’ who is now working to change the system from within.

Most unkindly he’s seen as a clown and a child that won’t grow up. However, within Auckland and more pertinently, Waitemata City, Mayor Tim Shadbolt excites deep emotions either of love or hate.

This public reaction to the man who three years ago ran for the mayoralty of Waitemata City, probably the second largest municipality in New Zealand, just for a laugh, has had mixed blessings for a maori work trust and the vision their mayoral patron shares.

The trust is Te Oranga and the vision is to provide shelter through housing by using unemployed people, to mill timber in the nearby Waitakere Ranges for Waitemata city housing. Explaining the kaupapa, is simple, but explaining the bureaucratic blocks is another story altogether.

That Tim Shadbolt has faced opposition from his own councillors has been open knowledge in the media, but it has almost been the kiss of death for any projects he supports.

However as he says, his opposition have underestimated his resilience because he sees himself as a survivor. He’s developed an effective working

HE RERENGA KORERO

knowledge of bureaucratic structures from local authorities to the government and used this to pursue his ends.

The end in this case has been to resolving unemployment and a housing shortage. He has put together a package involving the felling of pine trees in the Cornwallis Park in the Waitakere Ranges.

Auckland Regional Authority permission was needed for this along with approval from conservationists keen to see the pine removed and replanted with native trees.

Then an experimental plot had to be identified within the park. Labour came through liaison with Hoani Waititi

Marae, Maori Affairs, Henderson and Te Oranga Trust. Private enterprise was needed to supply equipment and skills to the trust, enter the River head Sawmilling Company.

A portable sawmill was next needed to process the logs.

This came after a radio talk-back session Tim had on Radio Pacific, where a retired gentleman offered his sawmill and tractors for twenty six thousand dollars along with his personal help.

The Otahuhu Railway Workshop also came to the party after hearing about the project on talk-back. They faced closedown from decreasing work-load in making wooden carriages.

They agreed to give a good deal in processing the timber for tongue and grooving, only stipulation being that the timber should arrive by rail. No trouble said the mayor.

Waitemata City groups that are planned to benefit from the ready to use timber are the Ambury Park Riding for the Disabled, the Massey Kohanga Reo, the Birdwood Primary School and the Ranui Playcentre.

It was at the time of ARA approval being given for a trial block of one thou-

sand trees to be milled, that a Canadian lumberman asked for two hundred logs to build an experimental log house in the Waitakeres.

A down payment and approval meant that work then started in late February on felling the trees.

The trust have until June to complete the contract. At the time of writing (late April) a track had been bulldozed and a truckload of logs taken away. The portable sawmill (which Tim Shadbolt has personally bought) was completing a

three week contract and expected to be on site within weeks.

Trust foreman, Marcus Hawkins showed me the site and introduced me to the young Maori working there. Jack Mangakahia, Kevin Kingi, Edward Te Whata, Tania Williams and Marcus’s brothers, Paul, Robert and Andre. Two other brothers Brian and Steve are at Carrington Technical Institute getting their welding tickets.

It doesn’t need to be spoken of, but there is a fierce pride in what these young people are doing. They see that their effort is worthwhile and appreciated. You get the drift that they like the notoriety (or is it glamour) of being associated with Tim Shadbolt.

In the time I spent with the trust, there had been a temporary halt to felling, following the instructions of an ARA Park Ranger that some clean up work was needed on an area already felled.

It’s part of the agreement that on-going site restorationtakesplace, becausetrampers use the track on weekends. It was because of this, says Marcus, that putting the track through was at first a slow job.

“We were instructed to go around nearly every punga with the bulldozer.” The irony is that viewing sites have been marked out along the track by the ARA, and some punga will be sacrificed for the price of a view.

Experienced loggers from the Riverhead Sawmilling Company are teaching trust members the skills of tree-felling.

However, at a time when the forestry project was looking promising bureaucracy reared its head. Word had just come through that dole was to be stopped for the members of the trust, because they were not available for work if offered. The point that none of the trust members were being paid, or could expect payment for some months to come, didn’t seem to matter. Nor, said Marcus, was there work to offer, especially as PEP schemes were being phased out.

Marcus was hopeful that the new Labour Department work schemes could hold promise in paying wages for true community help such as housing. He says the skills taught by the private enterprise loggers would be real life skills with meaningful returns to the community, and much better than just cutting gorse.

It was with this in mind that members of the trust called on the Minister of Internal Affairs in March to see if their project qualifies for government aid. Peter Tapsell has replied that the project appears to satisfy the requirements of the Scope Programme and that the trust formally apply for assistance.

At the time of writing Marcus said the application had been made but there was expected to be some months of waiting. It’s this waiting that the trust can ill

afford if it is to get the trees out and processed and so prove the doubters wrong.

The mayoral patronage has extended to the use of a house and property he is a shareholder in. The property, purchased in 1970 for around $3,000 and run as a commune, is just along the road from the logging project site. The house was built on the site with salvaged kauri timber and is an A frame design. It was allowed to run down after most of the owners left the site in the mid 70s, and it has suffered at the hands of scavengers. However, trust members have worked to make it a home and a base for their operations.

Even after the felling the trust will be involved in replanting in kauri seedlings. Tim Shadbolt is strong on the point that the pine forests were planted by our grandparents during the depression on the first PEP schemes. He says it is only right that the sweat of the community should return to the community and not into private contractors who would export the pulp,.

On figures prepared by the Waitemata City Council, the project is expected to cost the council $213,000. With the current sale price of treated framing timber the net yield of the operation is expected to be around $117,000. As the logging area is part of a state park, no profit can be made, but Mayor Shadbolt says the community of Waitemata should be the

beneficiary. He’s keen that once the benefits are realised in Waitemata City,

other communities around the country will adopt the idea.