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James K. Baxter Complete Prose Volume 3

Communes to Stay, Jim Says

Communes to Stay, Jim Says

‘Community living is here to stay,’ says James K. Baxter.

Speaking about what would happen to his adopted family now the Jerusalem community has been forced to a premature end, Baxter predicted some would form their own communities elsewhere: ‘A minority will go back to where they came from – to the jails and the mental hospitals where they will be supported by the taxpayers and the ratepayers,’ he said. ‘At Jerusalem they were self-supporting.’

Baxter is staying in Wellington for a month or two before trying again to organise some form of urban community. He admits it could be a hard task: ‘I expect the notion of jobless and incapacitated people banding together in mutual help will provoke strong feelings of fear in the minds of local authorities,’ he said. ‘They prefer the New Zealand poor to be unorganised.’

Pressure to end the Jerusalem experiment had come from the pakeha farmers along the river.

‘One of the characteristics of New Zealand society is a tremendous emphasis on triviality – but I’m the same man bearded and with bare feet as I am clean shaven and wearing shoes,’ he said.

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