The S-Files

Making a Community Proud

Civilization is built neighbour by neighbour.  How we treat the person next door, or the one we encounter in need not only reflects society, it shapes and determines it.  Today there is a report of three school boys in Hastings whose actions helped build our civilisation--in New Zealand.

The S-Award Committee has convened an SGM and voted unanimously to bestow the ContraCelsum S-Award upon Liam Mataira, 15, and his two friends Ben Hayllar and Tama McKenzie.

Here are the facts as reported :

Three Hastings schoolboys rescued a 12-year-old girl by threatening to attack two men who were trying to drag her away. "The other boys told them that if they didn't go away right now they would get a hiding," Hastings Boys' High School pupil Liam Mataira, 15, said yesterday, describing the rescue he had made with friends Ben Hayllar and Tama McKenzie.

"We just jumped in front and pulled her away. The men were over six feet tall. I was taller than them, but they were quite stocky. "They just started swearing. They looked like they had been taking drugs – they were all twitchy and stuff. "It happened fast. They could have retaliated and attacked us, but we had to do something to get that girl away before something happened." The rescue took place in busy Karamu Rd on Wednesday morning, as the boys were on their way to school.

The girl was going to Hastings Intermediate and the boys escorted her there afterward, before continuing on to their own school. "She was pretty shaken up; she was crying," Liam said. Ben, also 15, said the men had used language indicating that they were affiliated to the Mongrel Mob, but he had not felt scared. "They towered over me but I just felt an adrenaline thing. It all happened at once. I told them to go away and leave her alone."

Now, this is not all. 
There was a a quick public recognition by the young girl's school of what the boys had done.  And, the boys' own school, Hastings Boys' High School is also going to recognize them publicly at the morning assembly. 

Yesterday, Hastings Intermediate put on a morning tea with pizza for the heroes, attended by the girl they had saved. "She was all smiley and jumping up and down," Liam said.  Boys' High principal Robert Sturch said he would make a fuss of the boys at morning assembly today.

Good stuff.  Now how about the police?  Well, that's a different story.  Different from the story we hear all too often, where police warn the public from becoming involved in trying to protect the weak and prevent crime--in case they put themselves in danger.  No such nannying in the Hastings Police contingent.  

Sergeant Eden Sewell, of Hastings, said the boys had done the right thing.  "They did real well," he said. "It took a bit of courage on their part and prevented something a lot more serious from happening." The police would make sure the boys received recognition for their bravery.

Excellent.  And arrests have been made. 

The Committee is pleased to bestow the S-Award, Class I upon teenagers Liam Mataira, Ben Hayllar and Tama McKenzie, for neighbourly actions that have been Sound, Salutary, and Staunch.

Citations are also made to the staff of Hastings Intermediate, and Sergeant Eden Sewell of the Hastings Police for giving us a glimpse of what it means to be civilized.