Frustrated Fathers

Leader of Opposition
House of Representatives
Wellington

23 March 2004


Mr Peter Burns
27 Elizabeth Street
Rolleston
Christchurch

Dear Mr Burns

Thank you for letter 2 March, concerning matters between yourself and the Family Court.

I note your comments and have forwarded your letter to National’s Family spokesperson Judith Collins, for her information. Regrettably, as you have written to the Governor – General, the Attorney General, the Prime Minister and the Commissioner of Children (who are the appropriate people to investigate and progress such matters) I am unable to assist you further.

With best wishes

Yours sincerely
Don Brash
Leader of the Opposition

cc Judith Collins.


Percy Shelly wrote 200 years ago after the Lord Chancellor denied him access/custody of his children:

I curse thee (Lord Chancellor) by a parents’ outraged love,
by hopes long cherished and lately lost,
by gentle feelings thou couldst never prove,
by griefs which they seem nature never crossed……………..By all the happy in children’s growth,
that undeveloped flower of budding years,
sweetness and sadness interwoven both,
source of the sweetest hopes and saddest fears,
O wretched ye if ever any were,
sadder than orphans ,
yet not fatherless.