Editorial: Mayoral missive was out of line

Opinion

It is an index of how far out of touch Wanganui Mayor Michael Laws is that, when confronted with the suggestion that he was a bully, he looked the word up in the dictionary.

The mayor, who has been a vociferous opponent of the proposal to insert an "h" in the city's name, took exception to letters on the subject from seven pupils at the kura kaupapa unit at Otaki School.

In his reply, which might most kindly be described as belligerent, he dismissed the writers' entitlement to their opinions, saying that they should "[start] addressing the real issues affecting Maoridom, particularly the appalling rate of child abuse and child murder".

Setting aside the absurdity of the idea that kids aged between 10 and 12 can be held accountable for the actions of adults, his response is more than a little disturbing. The high-handed and arrogant talkback-host tone may be characteristic, but it was grotesquely inappropriate.

Interestingly, he said he was "stunned" by the tone of their letters, since "almost all ... recounted the personal anger" of the writer. In fact, four of the seven letters, which were all written in Maori, used the word "pukuriri" which means angry, but can also mean upset or cross. And the writers, all second-language learners of Maori, might be forgiven for not having a nuanced vocabulary to draw on.

Laws defended his stance by saying that "there is nothing worse than a strong opinion that is ignorantly founded". That is remarkably rich, given his pugnacious and profoundly ignorant stance on the "W[h]anganui" question and his opposition to giving official status to Maori names for the North and South Islands. On the latter subject, he said that no other country had dual place names, which suggested he knew little about Poland, Wales, Switzerland and South Africa, to name a few countries that do.

In the end, though, Laws' stance was most offensive because it was so undignified. A mayor of heartland New Zealand who behaves like an intellectual thug and bullies young children may like to consult the dictionary one more time and ponder the meaning of noblesse oblige.