Get the mower out

Many hours are spent by volunteers on keeping the Matamata Centennial Drive an attractive place to visit, only to be let down over the Christmas/new Year period by the Matamata-piako District Council not keeping the grass mowed and emptying the rubbish containers.

The council does a sterling job working with the Centennial Drive Committee for 11 months of the year.

Matamata has the highest number of visitors over this period and it is so disappointing to see the drive so unkempt as is State Highway 27 / Firth St and the apex between Firth St and Burwood Rd.

I understand the reason the council does not maintain its programme of mowing is because all staff are on holiday.

Every year we know that Christmas and New Year occur during our summer and this should be factored in the budget and council staff holidays could be staggered as one does in a successful, well-run business. be a New Zealander when our people have excelled in sport, academic achievement, agriculture and so on.

But recent, disgusting violence against young and otherwise vulnerable people, culminating in the appalling attack on a five-year old girl at a holiday park, makes me wish I was no longer a Kiwi.

The responsibility for all this Stone Age violence, where morality and common humanity have vanished, has to be borne by us all and the shame lies heavily upon me.

I am opposed to the death penalty for humans but the perpetrators of these crimes can be considered to be sub-human and can therefore be put down as we put down savage dogs.