Kawhia, small town NZ

Thinking about emigrating to New Zealand for a change in lifestyle? Think carefully about where you’re going to live when you get there, it may be best to avoid the small towns completely and head to the major centres of population.

Outspoken New Zealand politician, broadcaster and writer/columnist Michael Laws, has made a scathing criticism of small town New Zealand in an column headed “Failed NZ towns attract losers”

Commenting on the mob beating of the sole police officer in the township of Kawhia, Waikato, Mr Laws touched on a problem experienced by many small towns and villages in New Zealand – a disgraceful lack of law enforcement officers (many of these communities only have one police officer, some have none) versus an over-abundance of people living outside the law.

Laws dryly observes that Kawhia’s local cop, Perry Griffin, is the third officer to be run out of town “by local thugs” in the last ten years.

In his report Laws highlights the lack of resources in New Zealand towns that have been effectively abandoned by the state. The poverty stricken areas, where generations of families survive on a combination of welfare and crime, simply do not have the funds to fight crime effectively. Yet this is in a country with a GDP of $142 billion, where does the money go? Mostly on welfare payments we guess.

Laws (Stuff.co.nz) says

“The response of the police hierarchy, though, has been intriguing. Faced with calls to boost their presence, police leaders have pointed to budget constraints. There are more than 60 similar one-cop towns in New Zealand, and the cavalry will not be coming. It will be business, and assaults, as usual.

The reality is that many small towns in New Zealand are, in essence, failed communities. Those who live in them have largely been left and forgotten by the country’s economic and social progress. They exponentially attract the losers in life -attracted by cheap living and the complete absence of jobs.

For those seeking a welfare lifestyle, the failed town is perfect. There is no risk of employment which is exactly why they go there. Unsurprisingly, drugs, alcohol abuse and ethnic gangs flourish in these odd outposts.” read the full article here

You may not be headed for Kawhia, so how do you know where to avoid? Laws gives us a clue

“The Bay of Plenty and the East Coast will provide plenty of examples, and the west coast of both the North and South islands will add to the score.”

“But hang on“, I hear you ask, “doesn’t New Zealand have a falling rate of reported crime. Surely most places are ok?

Think again why those reported rates are falling, could it be that communities either have no-one to report the crime to, or there are whole communities that have no faith in a justice system that has abandoned them to gang and mob rule?

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Our Crime Facts and Stats page and posts tagged Crime

and Kawhia cop out Tumeke!