Plus Caption Competition, Quips & Quotes, Life in NZ and 10 Quick Questions

Despised by its Continental neighbours for reneging on the European Union, Britain understandably wants to foster trading relations with the Commonwealth (“Our mutual friends”, May 5). However, it may find EU members a bit wary after the Brexit vote. In any case, most are probably already involved in international trade negotiations, and introducing a Commonwealth partnership could be a distraction from – and would perhaps interact negatively with – those other talks.

I wonder, though, whether given the little if any influence the Commonwealth has on world affairs, and its being largely ignored and ridiculed by non-members, the grouping serves any useful purpose. It is obviously more important to Britain, which has some sort of relationship with each member, but the many disparate nations have little in common.

The organisation seems to exist largely in the minds of a few conservative Anglophiles trying to keep alive the old bully-boy days of the Empire. The Commonwealth, when it came along, was probably always irrelevant, so perhaps it’s well past the time to just let it fade away naturally.

Instead of wasteful Commonwealth heads of government conferences, our energies should concentrate on the more important international trading deals under negotiation, and we should get on with establishing the republic we’ve been saying was inevitable for just about all my 75 years.

Murray Eggers (Paraparaumu) The May 5 cover story raises the question of New Zealand’s slow approach to republicanism, and “Losing our religion” in the same issue looks at the diminishing clout of faithbased social conservatism. We are a secular country; we do not have people in political positions just because of their adherence to one religion. What if a future king reads the Bible, studies its contradictions and becomes an atheist?

The Bible can be seen as a slavery manual rather than a source of morality. Although its myths are interesting, they represent the first attempts to understand our universe. The Enlightenment and development of science in the acquisition of knowledge of the real world have made ancient religious tracts obsolete. We are growing up and will be confident to go our own way.

Paul Bieleski (Nelson)

LETTER OF THE WEEK KEEPING LAWYERS IN LINE

I write in response to the May 5 Editorial. There is no place for a culture of bullying or sexual harassment in the legal profession. It must stop. The Law Society is determined to do all it can to tackle this issue and a number of actions have been initiated over the past two months, with more to follow.

Although confidentiality about investigations into complaints is required by law, standards committees (made up of lawyers and non-lawyers) can and do publish their decisions in summary form. Publication orders are made at the end of the investigative process. It may include the names of the lawyers involved. Standards committee decisions that have been published are available on the Law Society website and are also published in its monthly magazine, LawTalk.

The society agrees with the Editorial that lawyers are entitled to express views publicly that are critical of judicial decisions in cases where they have not appeared. However, lawyers are also officers of the court and they must be careful not to do so in a way that may undermine public confidence in the judicial system.

Standards committees are independent and free to carry out an inquiry into a lawyer’s conduct if they consider there are grounds to do so. It does not follow that their investigation will result in disciplinary action being taken.

A lawyer being investigated, and the society itself, is entitled to apply to the Legal Complaints Review Officer

for a review of any outcome if they are dissatisfied with the decision or the process.

The society is opposed to all forms of domestic violence. It is unacceptable whenever it happens. Violence by a family member who is loved and trusted can be particularly devastating. Commentary on this issue is essential to achieving change in this area.

Mary Ollivier Executive director (acting) (Wellington)

WHAT TO DO WITH WAR DEAD

As a Pākehā with limited mobility, I was proud to observe Anzac Day in the company of Māori Television, from the dawn service on. I thank all concerned for the superb coverage.

The documentary by Witi Ihimaera was incredibly moving. To my mind, he even seemed to include and embrace my father’s desert war in the Fourth Field Ambulance. The case for bringing the fallen back to their whānau seems incontestable.

I followed the service at Pukeahu on RNZ National, where a slip of the tongue mentioned the Last Paste, an error forgivable in spoken English.

In the Listener’s interview with Ihimaera ( Shelf Life, April 28), though, his slip was to

place Tunisia next to Syria, when he may have meant Libya. It’s unfortunate no one at the publication was sharp enough to save him from any embarrassment he may feel.

Davey Calder (New Plymouth)

I regard Witi Ihimaera’s suggestion of bringing home our war dead as silly. His assertion that the US has reclaimed its war dead with a 60% success rate also seems a little odd. Something radical must have happened in Normandy since Steven Spielberg made Saving Private Ryan.

Having visited the beautiful Commonwealth war cemeteries outside Cassino and Florence, I can testify to how well they are looked after by the locals. At Bad Fallingbostel in Germany, some locals have taken it upon themselves to honour our dead every Anzac Day.

Taking the remains away from them would be an insult.

Jeffrey Plowman (Sockburn, Christchurch) WASTING WASPS

I read the feature on wasps (“Killers on the wing”, April 28) with much interest. Restricting availability of the bait Vespex is a mistake. In our semi-rural area, landowners are well versed in handling chemicals and we don’t need to pay a huge callout fee to get someone to put out a trap.

What is happening is that people are buying the active ingredient to make their own

bait. There have been reports of bees dying in their thousands and I wouldn’t mind betting that home-made wasp bait is the problem.

Paper wasps are another problem. If these are not tackled, we won’t have any monarch butterflies. The wasps kill the caterpillars.

Three years ago, I nursed caterpillars to 11 chrysalises. Two years ago, I had 35 caterpillars and just one chrysalis. This year, there were some caterpillars, but none lasted. Paper wasps got the lot.

Their nests are easy to destroy but hard to find. They can be just inside the leaf cover of any bush, shrub or tree, and on any fence. The wasps defy tracking, unlike Vespula.

Geoff Levick (Kumeu, Auckland) MOW AND BEHOLD

Greg Dixon ( Good Life, April 28) refers to a book about lawn mowing called Cut Above and says “so popular a pastime did this become that the newly formed Ride-on-Mowers Association of NZ attempted having synchronised mowing accepted as a sport in time for the 1974 Commonwealth Games”.

I was in a combined choir that sang at the opening of those Games. On the day of the opening ceremony, the choir met for a practice in the morning, and stayed in their allotted space until the ceremony began in the afternoon.

At about midday, several lawn mowers came out to mow the already immaculate grass centre of the oval. They followed a set pattern pushing the mowers.

Of course, the choir started singing “One man went to mow, went to mow a meadow …”

Although the Games didn’t feature a mower competition, I, at least, have a memory of the synchronised mowing before the opening.

Elayne Robertson (Palmerston North)