Baxter Undertakes to Heed Demands

‘If the local Maoris want me to shift, I leave tomorrow. If anyone else does, they’d better bring a helicopter up to get me out.’ In these words, Jerusalem’s controversial poet-philosopher James K. Baxter summed up his feelings towards adversities clouding the future of his remote commune up the Wanganui River. He had just heard the decision of a Wanganui County Council meeting that he must effect an extensive change to the buildings occupied by the group, or expect a final show-down with officialdom.

The Council debated the topic amid glaring floodlights, whirring TV cameras, and before a group of eight news media representatives. Bearded, barefooted, Mr Baxter puffed a cigarette nonchalantly in the public gallery.

Afterwards he was unruffled by the decision, and not concerned that the future of his community was in any danger. Talking to news representatives before lunching in a Chinese cafe, he asked if he could ‘thank the councillors from the bottom of my heart’ for setting before his follower the common tasks of improving the buildings. And in typically philosophical mood, he laid it down that ‘the state of people inside themselves is more important than whether they have two toilets or one.’

He said the improvements required under county health and housing bylaws would be made. ‘We might need several months, but they will be done.’ He welcomed the new goals toward which the community now had to strive. ‘Members will always answer immediate needs, but need something like this to interest them in long-term things.’

He dismissed the allegation that local residents resented the presence of his group. ‘They’ve got used to us being there. Even those who were influenced by uncertainty at first have found we don’t bite,’ he said. With that, he thanked the news representatives (his ‘brothers’) for hearing him out, crossed himself, and dug his chopsticks into a plateful of chow-mein.

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