Julian Batchelor Rawhiti

Maori spiritual beliefs have always been very important to tangata whenua.  Particularly with regard to our waahi tapu, spiritual places, urupa, burial grounds where our tupuna rest and other sacred and historic sites.  It is therefore deeply, deeply offensive to discover the evidence of the history of the house which Julian Batchelor currently occupies at Rawhiti and which is the site of Mr Batchelor's unconsented works and breaches of the local bylaws . A woman was murdered in this house by her husband, in front of her children , in a particularly sad, and vicious, attack. The plot thickens however - the murderous husband pleaded not guilty of bashing his wife five or six times in the back of the head with an axe, embedding it about six inches in her skull, in front of the witnesses, because his wife wouldn't give him money.  The murderer's favorite son, 13 year old Herbert, witnessed the gruesome deed, before his father shouted "Goodbye" and rushed out ...

In 1981 plans were made to shift an old villa by barge to land at Rawhiti. That house came from 150 Bank St in Whangarei. Formerly known as Glucina House, it was also known as the Huimai Boarding House, run by Mary Hammon and her husband Daniel. The story of the murder of Mary Hammon is horrific indeed, sad in the extreme, and a telling account of the reality faced by a lot of our great grandmothers.  The fact that this house is sited on the most sacred waahi tapu of Ngati Kuta o Te Rawhiti is an obscene travesty given its history - on top of everything else. This land is the site of at least two historic archaeological sites, it is highly valued and treasured waahi tapu with huge spiritual significance to tangata whenua , and the history - and illegality - of what's gone on on this land is being uncovered.   The penultimate paragraph of the account of the history of the house (above) states that it is believed that the house has recen...

Julian Batchelor's "Oke BayLodge" was shifted onto the land Mr Batchelor is currently occupying by barge, from Bank St, Whangarei, the site of a heinous murder. Maori spiritual beliefs have always been very important to tangata whenua.  Particularly with regard to our waahi tapu, spiritual places, urupa, burial grounds where our tupuna rest and other sacred and historic sites.  It is therefore deeply, deeply offensive to discover the evidence of the history of the house which Julian Batchelor currently occupies at Rawhiti and which is the site of Mr Batchelor's unconsented works and breaches of the local bylaws . A woman was murdered in this house by her husband, in front of her children , in a particularly sad, and vicious, attack. The plot thickens however - the murderous husband pleaded not guilty of bashing his wife five or six times in the back of the head with an axe, embedding it about six inches in her skull, in front of the witnesses, because...