MPs asked to chase unschooled Northland children

Northland MPS will be asked to contact the families who refuse to send their children to school, in a bid to convince them a formal education is the best option.

A spokesman for Education minister David Benson Pope said last week there was a strong desire to get into school the children identified in the Herald On Sunday last week. We revealed a group of three families with a total of 19 children - none of whom has been to school. The families moved to Mokau, on the coast between Herekino and Ahipara, about 10 years ago.

It also emerged the fire which destroyed their homes was deliberately lit, according to a fire investigator's report.

The report underlines the remoteness of the area in which the families live. The report says fire engines from Kaitaia and Ahipara attempted to respond to the March 3 fire, but only one four-wheel-drive tanker could get in to the area.

The family had travelled to Kaitaia on its weekly provisioning trip. When they returned, one house was burning and the other smoking. It took 30 minutes to drive to the nearest telephone, and on returning both houses had burned to the ground, with the fire spreading to scrub.

An investigator wrote: "Two neighbouring property fires almost at the same time are a bit too much of a coincidence. The cause of the property fires has to be that a person or persons unknown ... deliberately set fire to the two premises."

- HERALD ON SUNDAY