KEY POINTS:
Te Kauwhata will welcome David Bain with open arms, the local district councillor for the small rural north Waikato town says.
Bain was released on bail today to live with Joe Karam, the man who spent years crusading for his release.
Mr Karam calls the eastern outskirts of
Te Kauwhata, population 1050, his home.
Bain would be among friends, said Waikato district councillor for the local ward, George Vickers .
"This community is a very welcoming and thoroughly decent community," Mr Vickers said.
"I'd say that the young man would be made to feel comfortable. If he was my son I would think he was coming to a good place, that would be my idea of it."
Bain must stay away from all potential witnesses, must not initiate contact with his extended family and must re-appear in court when called.
Mr Karam must inform police if there are any issues with the arrangement, but Bain was not obligated to check-in with police at regular intervals.
Until today, Te Kauwhata was best known for its Government wine research station, its unique swamp lands, and producing Olympic showjumper Bruce Goodin.
There was very little buzz about the prospect of Bain living among them while on bail, residents said.
The topic only came up at tea breaks at today's council meetings, Mr Vickers said.
Te Kauwhata community committee chairman Gerald Jackson told NZPA there had been no opportunity to talk about Bain formally, as meetings were early in the month.
Informally "a lot of people will accept it, it looks like there could have been a miscarriage of justice".
People were not quite certain whether Bain was innocent, but no one he had spoken to expressed any concern about him living in the town.
Bain was jailed in 1995 after a jury found him guilty of murdering his mother, Margaret, his father, Robin, sisters Arawa, 19, and Laniet, 18, and brother Stephen, 14, at the family's Every St home in Dunedin.
When Mr Jackson visited nearby Kopuku coal mine today, he found broad acceptance among the workers.
"They're not quite certain...they are uneasy about what has happened in the past, they'll give the guy the benefit of the doubt.
"The guys said if you had the choice to live beside him or a patched (gang) member, who would you rather live beside?"
They chose Bain, he said.
Te Kauwhata -- which has a large retirement village right in the middle of town -- has no patched gang members, to the knowledge of Mr Jackson.
Te Kauwhata is on rolling farmland, on the edge of Lake Waikare, midway between Auckland and Hamilton, on the Main Trunk line, about 1km off busy State Highway 1.
Lake Waikare is the third-largest lake in the North Island.
To the north of town, the Whangamarino Wetlands has been recognised by the United Nations, as one of five New Zealand Wetlands sites.
- NZPA
