Not NZ at its best

The last time Catharina ArtsJanus’s family had a house confiscated was in 1941 in winter in central Amsterdam, opposite the German Embassy, at the point of a gun by the German Army. It was taken for an officers’ mess. The Germans paid fair market value.

Little did she know that in 2013, in Christchurch, New Zealand, the New Zealand Government would take her relatively undamaged red-zoned house on the fringes of the central city. They offered to pay her less than market value for her 1400-square-metre section.

And if you think that there was no pointing of a gun, you are incorrect. We were told that we would have no water, power or services. We sold under duress at a significant discount to market value, the price being based on a 2007 rateable value.

Then Cera placed a designation on Catharina’s CBD red-zoned building and told her it might take it any time in the next five years.

Is there any difference in the circumstances?

She thought not. We, her family, think not. Most of Christchurch thinks not.

Natural justice? Moral? Fair and reasonable? Willing seller, willing buyer? We think not.

New Zealand at its best? I am afraid that she thought not.

Catharina died broken-hearted at the injustice of it.

JOE ARTS Huntsbury Hill