Takapau May Have Commune Early in 1972

Poet James K. Baxter is planning to establish a commune at Takapau, Central Hawke’s Bay, early next year if he can complete negotiations for land and a house.

Asked today what he planned to do at the commune, he said: ‘We’d just be rural and try to grow a few things.’

The commune would start with a group of what Mr Baxter called ’helpers’ – active, idealistic people, with no particular problems, who want to help other people.

From there, he said, the community would probably have an open-door policy – and try to establish good community relations with local people. This might help avoid some of the problems encountered with the commune at Jerusalem, which Mr Baxter said he saw as quite an ordinary community, but which is generally viewed as extraordinary by many people.

‘There is a great need for communes,’ he said, ‘especially with the tremendous shortage of accommodation in the cities. People often end up without shelter and are liable to end up in jail. A commune might help avoid this,’ Mr Baxter said.

1971 (661)