Actually, it is interested

Kaitaia's Remembrance Park could soon be home to a field gun. Photo / Peter Jackson

Returned serviceman Richie Taaffe hung up after a Far North District Council employee told him by phone that the council wasn't interested in placing an L5 field gun, similar to a howitzer, in Kaitaia's Remembrance Park, then said she knew of a trust that might like it.

Taaffe, who served in Vietnam, said his alternative would be to offer the gun to Te Kao, but in the meantime the council has in fact expressed some interest.

Mayor John Carter said CEO Shaun Clarke was looking into it, although approval would probably be needed from the RSA and Te Hiku Community Board.

"It is being worked on," he said.

Far North (Kaitaia) RSA president Angel Erstich said her executive had no objection to placing the gun in the park, but did not want it to be associated with the RSA.

"A lot of RSAs are getting away from this sort of thing," she said.

"A lot of our members are traumatised, and they don't want to be reminded of what they've been through every time they come here."

Taaffe said an NZDF contact had offered the gun, at no cost, and the RNZAF had offered to fly it from Wellington to Kaitaia aboard a Hercules, again at no cost.