Editorial: Celebrate unity with Pilot City

In a world with a penchant for lustful vengeance in issues of crime resolution and, more broadly, justice, the approach of the Napier Pilot City Trust is at least a breath of fresh air, even if some are confused about its direction.

The few days leading up to Anzac Day, however, afford a bit of clearing of the air, for it is in this period that the trust is most active each year, through Unity Week, this year a week which started on Saturday morning with a walk and ends on Saturday night with a dinner.

In between are some important events, specifically today's Robson Lecture and presentation of the trust's annual awards.

The lecture commemorates late Secretary of Justice John Robson, a leading figure in the debate which led to Parliament's 1961 conscience vote doing away with the death penalty in New Zealand for all offences except treason.

This year it will be delivered by Judge Andrew Becroft, the principal judge of the Youth Court in New Zealand.

He follows such luminaries as High Court judge and former chief Maori Land Court judge Justice Joe Williams (2011), Maori lawyer Moana Jackson (2010), Rethinking Crime and Punishment project leader and retired former police officer, prisons head and Prison Fellowship national director Kim Workman (2009), and others including eventual Chief Justice Dame Sian Elias and former Race Relations Conciliator Greg Fortuin.

To most interested, and there's an argument that more of us should be, the names are familiar.

But it's not necessarily so for the dozens made Pilot City Trust award recipients over the years, usually for fighting the battle at the coalface, usually quite anonymously and unrelentingly, perhaps with no plan other than that someone has to do it.

Perhaps that contrast, between the lead speaker and the award recipients all in one afternoon of ceremony, even though they might be all on the same page, gives the first explanation of what Unity is all about, Pilot City Trust-style.

It's a philosophy of working within a bicultural framework to encourage local community development initiatives that inspire co-operation, unity and reduce social conflict. "We work to help Napier residents enjoy safer, enriched lives and broaden their awareness of important social issues," says its recently upgraded website, and it does so through its own range of programmes and by working alongside and supporting other community organisations.

Basic stuff, really, and no sign of it costing anyone too much money, so long as everyone's going in the same direction.