The fund’s trustees had planned to distribute the fund’s final $47,000 to three recipients, including the trust pushing to rebuild the Aramoana wharf, after which the fund was to be wound up.The fund’s chairman, former city councillor Paul Hudson, told ODT Insight the money was to be paid out by yesterday.
However, Dunedin City Council chief executive Sue Bidrose confirmed late yesterday the money had not been transferred, and there was no immediate plan to do so.
The money was held by Dunedin City Treasury, a Dunedin City Council-owned company, while being administered by the fund’s trustees.
DCT had not received any instructions from the fund’s trustees to transfer the money, which would be required before it was distributed, she confirmed.
Asked if the delay was temporary, or whether decisions on the final payout had been revisited by the fund’s trustees, she said that was "unknown".
Mr Hudson could not be reached for comment about the fund’s final payout yesterday.
The fund was launched days after gunman David Gray claimed the lives of 13 people in Aramoana on November 13, 1990.
The appeal, which raised about $300,000 in donations from across New Zealand, was to provide direct financial support to victims and their families, and also to help rehabilitate the community.
The trustees, after consulting the community, decided to split the money between the Aramoana wharf project, the Aramoana League and Victim Support.
The decision was criticised by Chiquita Holden, a survivor of the massacre, who told ODT Insight donors’ intentions, and the views of some victims, were being overlooked.
Mr Hudson denied that, saying "senior family members" among victims and their families had since been contacted, and had endorsed the trustees’ plans.
But Ms Holden’s concerns were backed by two other people with connections to the massacre, who contacted the Otago Daily Times after reading of the trustees’ plans on Thursday.
Shane Morgan (46), whose sister Rewa Bryson was among those killed, said he did not agree with the final payout.
"I just disagree with what they’re planning on doing. It’s all fine and dandy closing it [the fund] up, but don’t just throw the money away just because someone wants a jetty or wharf built," he said.
Mr Morgan’s foster mother, Julie Bryson, was engaged to another of Gray’s victims, Garry Holden, at the time of the shooting.
Mr Morgan still lived in Dunedin, while his foster parents had moved to Australia, but none of them had been contacted about the fund’s final payout, he said.
"I think it should go to keeping the memorial updated and counselling. That’s the way I look at it. That’s what the money was for."
Carrie-Ann Buchanan (43), who "grew up" in a holiday home at Aramoana and still owned property there, also contacted the ODT to say the money could be put to a better use.
As an Aramoana ratepayer, she was among those who received a letter from the fund’s trustees last year, asking for her views on how the last of the money should be spent.
"I actually couldn’t believe it. I don’t see it as my decision."
Mrs Buchanan said the fund could be better used maintaining Aramoana’s memorial to the massacre, but "it’s for the survivors and their families to decide what happens to it".
