Police reluctant

Police said that they had been present that afternoon, and that as the matter was a civil one, they were reluctant to get involved, and would intervene only in the case of a breach of the peace. It was pointed out to them that the landlady had to be told that she had acted illegally, and had to let the tenants return. Unless this was done the tenants and TPA would have no alternative but to break in and forcibly repossess the premises. When the police heard of this likely breach of the peace they sent a senior sergeant and three constables.

"Passionate love" (faces blacked out for legal reasons).

Photos by Hillary Watson

After TPA's lawyer had talked to the police in the car the sergeant talked for over an hour to the people in the house, and later with the lawyer and the tenants. The landlady claimed she had acted on the advice of an Auckland lawyer whom she refused to name. She offered to put the young mother and her son into the (Salvation Army's) Florence Booth Home, but the tenants refused. She would not admit that the eviction had been illegal, nor allow the tenants to return.