Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

James K. Baxter Complete Prose Volume 3

Why Jerusalem When River a Septic Tank?

Why Jerusalem When River a Septic Tank?

Jerusalem community leader James K. Baxter would have offered ‘coffee, kai, and a place to lie down’ if he had been at home when Wanganui county health and building inspectors Messrs R.J. O’Brien and B.B. Crane called last week.

page 255

‘But one cannot be in two places at once,’ he told the Chronicle. ‘If one wants to get money to keep the pot boiling, Wellington – not Wanganui – is the best place to earn it.’

Mr Baxter made this statement:

‘I hope the members of the Jerusalem community welcomed the two inspectors as guests and fellow human beings. It is our tradition and custom to lay great emphasis on hospitality. Naturally this means that many people come to see us.

‘I was a little astonished to learn that Mr O’Brien’s eyesight is not good. Or else it may just be that reports in Wellington newspapers are inaccurate. Apparently he saw only one earth closet at Jerusalem.

‘There are in fact two such closets. They are certainly more suitable for use by a community of indeterminate size, located in the country, than water closets which may jam or flood.

‘There is another matter which troubles me. I am no fanatic for hygiene. But why should two inspectors, sincere and zealous men, bother to travel to Jerusalem to inspect earth closets, when the Wanganui River itself has been turned into a gigantic septic tank? Insanitation on so vast a scale has something of splendour about it.

‘One must remember though, that it was not the unsophisticated community at Jerusalem which turned the river into a cesspool from which fish cannot be taken without fear of typhoid. No, it was sober citizens and stable businessmen.

‘I take it that Mr O’Brien and Mr Crane are labouring night and day to turn the Wanganui River back from a sewer into a river. But I wonder that they, already engaged in this work, had time to spare to visit us at Jerusalem.

‘The statement of the county engineer, Mr J. Miller, disturbed me a little. The report I have before me reads thus “the best thing we could do would be to put a match to it”. And he is referring to an old house lent to us by the chairman of the Jerusalem Tribal Marae Committee.

‘The house has been renovated a little by members of the community. I hope to see it renovated further. The roof, incidentally, does not leak in winter.

‘My disturbance comes from Mr Miller’s extraordinary assumption that members of county organisations would have a right to commit acts of incendiarism against Maori property. This kind of action went out of fashion eighty years ago, at the end of the Land Wars.

‘I take it that Mr Miller was making some kind of complicated joke. But such jokes are dangerous if people don’t understand fully that they are jokes.

‘I am comforted, however, by the knowledge that the Department of Health and myself can never differ seriously, since we are pursuing the same objectives.

‘I have seen people arrive at Jerusalem schizophrenic and become mentally page 256 balanced there. I have seen them arrive confused and despairing, and become in a few weeks both hopeful and joyful, with a renewed capacity to help others.

‘I have known only one case of physical ill health, a case of hepatitis which was dealt with adequately by the Sisters of Compassion.

‘It would be absurd if the health inspectors narrowed their view of health to the single issue of hygiene. I wait for their constructive recommendations with confidence.

‘There are always teething troubles when a community gets under way. I remember that there were some complaints about the hygienic arrangements at Ratana Pa when that community was first taking shape. But no doubt constructive help was offered by the local Health authorities.

‘I do not compare the development of the small community at Jerusalem with the magnificent achievements of the Ratana Church, except in one point – that what God wishes to endure will endure, and what He wishes to disappear will disappear. Therefore my own mind does not have to be unduly troubled.’

1971 (637)