Forestry setback

The article ‘Forestry’s new setback model’ ( Marlborough Express, December 27) reads like congratulatory pats on the back for all but the residents and users of the Sounds, in particular the Pelorus.

It’s quite laughable that

‘‘coastal scientists and industry players know forestry contributes to the runoff mud suffocating the seabed ... they agree forestry is not the only culprit ...’’.

Well, blow me down in a dust storm! Where else does it all come from? Who are the other as yet unnamed culprits that create these subterranean mudfields? Not the salmon or mussel farms, maybe spurious landowners creating bach-havens or log-cabins? You can’t tell me that all the brown dirt deposited on my windows and roof-tops during our frequent northerlies comes from anything but the soils disturbed by logging throughout the Pelorus. And I haven’t even mentioned the increased build-up of our local mudflats around the estuaries of the Pelorus and Kaituna rivers.

British environmental research has demonstrated that creating a buffer zone of native plantings between forestry blocks and the water’s edge, for example, has gone some way to ameliorating the offensive and destructive runoff and sedimentation build-up which the Pelorus is now experiencing. So, it’s not new science. The suggested impact on jobs surely would be off-set by the new plantings as well as other logging jobs in inland locations not affecting such water environments as the Sounds.

Maybe loggers could turn their hands (excuse the pun) to more constructive carpentry in the building trades which are crying out for employees.

Judy Shone

Mahakipawa successor as minister of finance, had an MAin history and had worked as a university lecturer.

In contrast, in the fifth Labour government (1999-2008) the finance minister was Michael Cullen, who had a PhD in economic history, had published on economic statistics, and had undertaken further economics training. As noted by Orman, Bill English (finance minister in the fifth National government between 2008 and 2016) had a commerce degree (he never seems to state what his major was) and had worked at Treasury, while John Key (prime minister over the same period) was an accountant who had done well at first year economics.

Economists as well as accountants have therefore been well represented in high-level government decision-making. As Orman notes, other ministers of finance have usually enjoyed considerable success at university or sometimes in a skilled trade, such as surveying, that now requires a university qualification. This implies that the taxpayer is benefiting from government investment in higher education.

While Joyce argued that his poor academic record in economics was due to him concentrating on business interests, his academic record was much worse than that of other finance ministers.

Matthew Gibbons

Hamilton