FROM THE EDITOR

If you didn’t notice, nor care too much, we named another governor-general at a lavish ceremony in Wellington this week. I’ve got a problem with this, because I just fail to see why we need this position, apart from traditional ties. This column is too short for me to go into why we don’t need the monarchy anymore, and I understand that it’s in our law, but I’ll just touch on one point - money. Do most Kiwis see Britain as the ‘‘motherland’’ in 2016? Why are we still sucking up to an entity that just takes from us? No doubt Patsy Reddy, the new GG, will be paid an enormous salary at the expense of the taxpayer (plus thousands of dollars in holiday travel each year). The Royalists will argue that it’s good for international relations and the GG wines and dines dignitaries while they are here. But isn’t that what our politicians and delegates are for? I just don’t see what the return of investment is. We’ve got better things we can put money towards to help grow our country.