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Woodville care appreciated

As a Woodville business person I very much appreciate the effort and concern of our new mayor, Tracey Collis, for the Woodville community.

To think that there were people reluctant to vote for her at first because they thought because she didn’t live here, she would not care for our small community that has been affected by the closure of the Manawatu Gorge road.

Many Woodville residents, not just businesses, are disadvantaged, and I feel especially for the people who prefer to live in our quiet little community and now have to commute over the alternative road to get to work in Palmy.

More freight is said to now go on trains.

That is where it belongs all along, and maybe there is even a possible solution of shuttling Tararua residents via a commuter train to the ‘‘big city’’?

To be frank, truck drivers aren’t, or cannot always be, as considerate as one would hope on the Saddle Road and less of them will mean less time stuck behind them, less damage to the road, and ideally only a few minutes longer to drive from one side to the other than the gorge road.

For now, and while this cold weather is slowing down business anyway, I will keep my shop open on weekends, when truck traffic is considerably less.

On a sunny day, the Saddle Road makes for a very scenic drive, and don’t forget to stop at the viewpoint.

I also want to thank especially the visitors who have come into my shop over the last few weekends and told me they made the trip especially to support the Woodville community.

I am sure I speak for many of my fellow business people when I say a heartfelt thank you!

Gabriele Losch

The Living Room, Woodville

Always beware of Lions

I could not believe the all-round rude dismissal of the Lions as an effective force in the run in to their arrival and after they touched down.

This was matched by the contempt expressed by those who set out their views on social media.

I am by birth British Scots and have been a New Zealander for 50 years. Normally I cheer on all Kiwi sporting endeavours, save when they are playing the Scotland.

This time I was rooting for the Lions.

Most unusually, having lived in our country for half a century, I am still totally ignorant of the game.

When listening to the last test on the radio I was never quite sure who was on what side.

This factor was alleviated somewhat by the rise and fall of the commentators’ enthusiasm.

Nevertheless I had a strong feeling that I was among the crowds in the stands.

The reporters’ enthusiasm rose to near hysteria during those crucial last 90 seconds.

As to that French referee many will maintain ‘‘we were robbed’’.

Steve Hansen summed the result up succinctly, ‘‘that’s rugby’’. Although, I have a feeling many a Kiwi’s response to Steve would be to use the time honoured phrase: ‘‘Yeah, right.’’

Don Robertson

Palmerston North

Fire of concern

Thank you for publishing the photograph and story of the house fire at Collins Crescent, Feilding, in Thursday’s paper [Standard, July 13].

What is of real concern to me is that a standard, domestic electrical appliance, a bathroom extractor fan, is believed to have caused the fire.

So many of us have such an appliance and now we are left wondering why it happened.

Could I ask you please to approach the Feilding Fire Brigade when the investigation is finished, obtain the information and then print this for all of your readers to learn what and why it happened.

I spent a lot of my working life developing electrical heating appliances. I designed your electric blanket to keep you warm in bed.

I am left wondering why the extractor fan did not blow a fuse and shut off instead of catching fire. Information on this occurred would be most important.

Ernest Norris

Feilding ❚ Having heard yet again the neighbourhood nuisance labrador barking into the night, I have to say: Please dog owners, be good neighbours. I have two dogs and wouldn’t dream of letting them be such a pest. Think of others. ❚ Broadway closes to traffic, where will people park? There’s no-where now. Think this through, PNCC. Izzy ❚ Sunday, lovely weather, ideal for getting stuck into the Saddle Road. Nothing happening, let’s wait for commuters and heavy transport and send them the long way. Obviously no hurry to get this job done. ❚ The way the Labour and Greens parties are planning to spend govt money will probably put this country back to where we were when the Labour Party lost three elections ago. ❚ Who would have thought that the dear old spud would become a luxury item for superannuitants? G.T. ❚ When are NZ dairy farmers going to stop ‘bleating’ that they are responsible custodians of waterways? Rather like a builder I once worked for standing in the front yard of the house he had just built with water lapping the top of his gumboots, claiming to the client, ‘‘There is not a drainage problem here’’, there is only one reason why NZ waterways are cow s... green. Gary Tanner

Why so long?

Over the years since I joined the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research as a plant physiologist, I have gathered colleagues who had their own skills and assets.

Included in that gathering were gentlemen who were qualified and skilled in areas known then as land use and capability service, and various aspects of geology.

One would have thought the geology of the Manawatu Gorge would have been familiar to those highly skilled and highly paid scientists. Yet, horror!

The gorge is probably doomed, and good riddance, because learned folk now advise that the surrounding and overlooking hill sides are not stable.

Most unlearned folk living in the area, and in fact in most of Manawatu, Napier, Hastings, Woodville and Dannevirke areas around the gorge have known that for decades.

I am asking; Why has it taken so long and been so expensive to produce such an obvious result?

BSC

George Halligan

Foxton