A Purge of the Wilful

Things thus appeared to be going well for Brunt — he at least seemed to think so. He wrote a letter to a Party member in the Auckland Region claiming that he had "purged" the Wellington executive of eight members, adding that he'd got rid of "the wilful young Guy Salmon", the architect of the Party's present malaise. The first meeting of the Regional Secretariat formed by Brunt was in early April. To this meeting Brunt's erstwhile opponent Bartram was invited. He was not, however, invited to a subsequent meeting. Although the Wellington executive had decided that the Secretariat should sit on any Regional Council that was established this decision was not implemented after the all-important Regional meeting on May 31, the meeting at which the Regional co-ordinator was elected.

Prior to this meeting, Salient put the suggestion to Brunt, then acting regional co-ordinator, that the coordinator for the Wellington Region would in effect be leader of the Party. "It is possible that in the media's eyes I would still be de facto leader, sure," Brunt replied. Salient also asked Brunt whether or not he would be standing for the position. "I don't know — ah, well, put it this way, it's going to be nominations from the floor. There could be a number of nominations," he said. Asked whether or not he would be happy for the media to propagate the view that he was de facto leader of the Party Brunt replied: "If I'm elected regional co-ordinator, every press release will be signed by me as Wellington Regional spokesman." Salient then questioned Brunt about the fact that the meeting was to be held on a day when a possible contender — the wilful young Guy Salmon — could not attend. Brunt indicated that he did not know of this until after "we" set the date of the meeting. It was too late, he said, to change the date. He saw no reason, he said, why Salmon could not stand in absentia.