Opposing bad actions but all for our history

It's little wonder the Otago Daily Times placed the report about the boy being robbed of his shoes on the front page on Tuesday.

Civis, like probably most others, is incredulous that the incident was near the doorstep of the Dunedin Central police station.

If you cannot be safe there and under the eye of cameras around the bus hub, where can you?

The 13-year-old’s grandmother said the boy was left screaming for help but neither police nor members of the public came to his aid.

She said her grandson was waiting for a bus outside the police station about 6pm last Sunday when three teenagers told him to give up his shoes, or his cellphone, or he would be beaten up.

Running to the police station, knocking on the door and yelling for help were all to no avail. The boy left from outside the station and his shoes were taken.

The grandmother said it was not until she told the police call taker, who had received multiple calls about the incident, that "can you actually tell the police to get out of their chairs and actually go outside, because this is happening outside their police station" that police went out and found the "terrified" boy.

The incident is even more disturbing, as the tragic stabbing death of a 16-year-old at the bus hub in May is still fresh in our minds.

The teenagers from Sunday must be caught and face consequences. Those who get away with such crimes often become emboldened, potentially leading to more serious offences.

Others follow. Such behaviour easily escalates.

It’s a variation of the "broken windows" principle, popularised in New York in the 1990s.

The idea is that if windows in a building are left broken, the rest will be smashed. If bad behaviour is tolerated, it spreads.

*****

In honour of the longtime ODT Memory Lane columnist, the late Gordon Parry, Civis should return to A.H. Reed. He was mentioned in last week’s Passing Notes via his plaque on the Dunedin Writers’ Walk.

Mr Parry, journalist, author and community figure, wrote his popular nostalgia column for 20 years to 2014. Civis is sure he would have had plenty of stories about Sir Alfred.

Sir Alfred, although fading from memory, is well worth remembering. When he was knighted in November 1974, Governor-General Sir Denis Blundell made a special trip to Dunedin to do the deed. Sir Alfred died aged 99 the following January and is buried in the Northern Cemetery.

The bookseller, publisher, writer and philanthropist founded one of this country’s first large publishing houses, under the imprint A. H. & A. W. Reed.

His extensive collections included books, autographs, and medieval manuscripts, notably editions of the Bible and on authors Charles Dickens, and Samuel Johnson. In 1948, he gave these collections, along with property to fund future acquisitions, to the Dunedin Public Library. These and other donated collections are housed in the library’s third-floor Reed Room.

The frugal, hard-working Sir Alfred became a particular celebrity in his later years thanks to his inspiring long-distance walks.

Aged 85 he walked from North Cape to Bluff. At 88, he trekked from Dunedin to Christchurch via Arthurs and Haast Pass. The next year, he walked from Sydney to Melbourne.

A short track near the summit of Mount Cargill bears his name, as does a Whangarei reserve near his childhood home. He was inducted into the New Zealand Business Hall of Fame in 1997.

His 99th birthday coincided with the publication of his final book, The Happy Wanderer.

civis.co.nz