11.45am
Featherston community leaders say they are gutted over a column in their local newspaper that hurls negative comments at the town.
The column last Saturday in the Masterton-based Wairarapa Times-Age said Featherston had become home to a "criminal underclass", with cheap housing attracting a high number of beneficiaries.
The piece, written by chief reporter Alastair Campbell, and starting with the words "Poor Featherston", said media attention surrounding the death of Featherston girl Coral Burrows had forced the town's "grubby secrets" to become public.
"Throughout our inquiries into the girl's disappearance, Wairarapa Times-Age reporters have been told about incidents of violence and allegations of widespread drug use and trafficking," the column said.
It said Featherston "craved respectability" while another South Wairarapa town, Martinborough, was featured in glossy lifestyle magazines and Greytown's house prices had sky-rocketed.
Mr Campbell said recent efforts by Featherston locals to make over their "scruffy town", had been blasted away by negative publicity during Coral's disappearance two weeks ago.
Yesterday, the day several hundred people attended a Featherston service for slain Coral, the newspaper ran a front-page follow-up with South Wairarapa mayor John Read saying the column had been a "kick in the guts" for the town.
The front page also carried a story on Wairarapa's fight against the drug P -- pure methamphetamine.
Featherston resident of 16 years, Bill Harragan, told NZPA today the column had misrepresented the community at a very sad time.
"It made us seem like a load of low-lifes," he said.
A petition had begun circulating in Featherston asking people if they disagreed with the paper's comments.
"We used to be a town with a lot of beneficiaries in it, but like everything, things change and we're getting more and more solid citizens."
Mr Harragan, a salesman whose wife is a South Wairarapa district councillor, admitted there was a "very small" criminal element in the town.
"They tend to hog the headlines, but they don't concern us at all," he said.
Asked what Featherston's "grubby secrets" were, Mr Harragan quipped: "I'd love to find one, I'd sell it to a paper."
Rather than a scruffy town, Featherston had "world class" tennis courts, while the community hall was a "masterpiece", he said.
Mr Harragan said Featherston people wanted their local paper to be more positive, with fewer "lurid" editorials.
He said the Times-Age editorial on Featherston had sent people reeling.
"After it was published, you couldn't go anywhere without people buttonholing you for a response."
The petition also calls for a front-page apology and retraction by the Times-Age.
Lady Featherston cafe manager Caroline Stonnell told NZPA about 30 people had signed her copy, but many more had signed in the local service station and post office.
Campbell said today he was aware of the petition, but the newspaper had already responded openly to the criticism.
"We ran the front page article -- in total and without rebuttal -- in which mayor Mr Read and another woman roundly criticised us," he said.
Today's newspaper would carry an almost full page of "hostile and critical" letters in response to the column.
However, Mr Campbell urged people to read his article again, as his message, which he thought was sympathetic, had been misunderstood.
"All I was saying was that this has been a blow and I don't see how you can't see that," he told NZPA.
"I feel people haven't read the article very carefully. I understand they are very raw and it may be a matter of bad timing ... but there's no ganging up or picking on Featherston going on here."
He said the newspaper had reported many positives about Featherston.
The column was "topical and relevant right now -- it won't be in six months time", Mr Campbell said.
However, mayor Mr Read told NZPA today the column had simply taken the opportunity to "slag the town".
"I'm not a simpleton, I can read, and I can take the correct meaning from what the words are," he said.
Mr Read said a front page apology was appropriate.
Coral disappeared on September 9 after being dropped off at South Featherston School.
After a search by hundreds of police and volunteers, her body was found last Friday on the South Wairarapa coast. A post-mortem examination showed she died from a brain injury.
Coral's stepfather, Steven Williams, has been charged with her murder.
A final funeral service and burial for Coral will be held in Matamata on Friday.
In Featherston today, police were still working at the home she shared with her family and were working through other smaller details of the case, police spokeswoman Kaye Calder said.
- NZPA
Newspaper column 'kick in the guts' for Featherston
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