Time to get on with life

“Risk no more lives” ( Editorial, December 1) puts its case very well: this is the fitting response to the Pike River tragedy.

Steps to ensure greater safety and fewer risks are involved for those who work underground in mines should be the paramount aftermath of this dreadful event.

To those West Coast families (and others) who lost members in the tragedy, the task is to let go and get on with life. There is no compensation for the loss. Hold on forever with love for the family now gone. The pain of loss will go if you let it.

I know this to be true from the personal experience of the sudden and unexpected death of my wife some years ago. Then, I was obliged to be strong for my two young sons. Also, I had an obligation to staff members and customers of two businesses I was connected with.

It was a nightmare at first but life goes on, as it must.

The old love remains forever but new and happy events come into life. Patrick Miller (Mangawhai) Yes, we have sympathy for the families of the men who died in the Pike River tragedy. Losing a family member in such circumstances is very sad.

My only brother disappeared at age 20 in 1978 and is still on the police missingpersons file. Both my parents have died not knowing what happened to him.

I envy the Pike River folk knowing where their loved ones are, interred in a beautiful bushcovered range. The uncertainty of their remains ever being recovered has been a drawn-out agony for them. I would hate to think that the situation has been exploited by politicians.

But my family’s agony is unlikely ever to be resolved. And the many other families in New Zealand who have missing members know how awful that feels. Clare Dudley (Coromandel) When Air New Zealand Flight 901 crashed into Mt Erebus in November 1979, a team had to fly 3000km to Antarctica, live in a hostile environment, carry out a horrendous recovery operation and return safely to New Zealand. They put their lives on the line to bring the victims back home and investigate the cause of the crash.

Not re-entering the Pike River mine, therefore, is not an option. The nation needs to do the best it can for the victims and their families, while hopefully answering some, if not all, of the questions as to what caused the tragedy. It may or may not be possible to retrieve the victims’ bodies, but an attempt at recovery is better than none.

Given that re-entry is well considered and planned, we should feel confident that “knowing when to call it quits” will be in the minds of the planners and the team undertaking the task. But to turn our backs on others when help is required is not in our nature as New Zealanders. Alan Hough (Bethlehem) Politicians inevitably attempt to use such tragedies as Pike River and Erebus to gain political capital. Now that mine re-entry is on the cards, there will probably be a political appearance at the moment of entry into the drift. Let’s hope the media will ignore as much as possible the posturing of any politicians in high-vis vests. Russell Garbutt (Clyde) LETTER OF THE WEEK

The Editorial speaks of “zeal

for health and safety” as a good thing. In the context of Pike River and the forestry industry it undoubtedly is. But when it becomes a fetish and causes the closure of an iconic 27-year-old motorcycle street race, puts motorcycle rides like the Nelson toy run in doubt and results in a farmer and his wife being fined $15,000 each for not wearing quad-bike helmets on their own land, when the same offence on the road would cost $150, it is clear it is out of control. Luigi Girardin (Stoke)

BRIGGS TO THE BRIG

Thanks for an enlightening article on Katharine Briggs and psychometric testing (“Who do you think you are?”, December 1). It is amazing the effect this woman and her daughter have had on the world.

The bizarre rigmarole that researchers have to undergo to gain access to her notes is understandable: she was a very dangerous person, who

criticised Franklin Roosevelt for valuing human rights over property rights and evidently preferred Adolf Hitler.

These days, politicians officially exist for the benefit of the people, not property owners. But Briggs’ influence in the US is evident in the rise of Donald Trump. Neville Cameron (Coromandel)

AMSTERDAM ANARCHY

As a regular walker on beaches and in parks, I’ve had my share of near-misses when overtaken without warning by electric scooters ( Editorial, November 24; Letters, December 1). They have bells, but I’ve never heard one.

Contrast this with the parks of London, where the ringing of bells alerts you to approaching bikes. Courtesy is needed all round, lest we fall into the anarchy of Amsterdam. Jocelyn Poland (Christchurch) I recently spent a week in Paris, staying in Montmartre. Because of a foot injury, I was an observer rather than a tourist, and spent hours watching the people, and especially the traffic, which is chaotic.

Electric scooters were everywhere. Two up, no helmets, and passing cars on either side. I didn’t see any on footpaths and expect that Paris pedestrians would not tolerate them.

Overall, I was surprised at just how well everything works despite the size of the place and the volume of people and traffic. Parisians seem to relate well to each other, get on with their lives and have ready smiles. I think we have a lot to learn. Murray Reid (Leamington)

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Bill Ralston’s assertion that

“the media industry is in the process of collapsing into an untidy heap as advertising revenues and profits decline” is simplistic ( Life, December 1).

The Advertising Standards Authority’s 2017 media turnover report puts total revenue at $2.561 billion, admittedly down 0.4% on the previous year, but up by 6.8% on 2014’s total. Television and radio revenue were both up (1.9% and 2.9% respectively), whereas newspapers and magazines were down (8.9% and 5.4%).

Ralston is correct in assuming that corporate mergers are aimed at cutting costs, particularly in the more expensive areas such as news gathering, and that is having a devastating impact on quality and coverage in the regions. But more interesting is the extent to which news media companies such as Stuff and NZME are replacing lost advertising revenue with New Zealand taxpayer funding courtesy of NZ On Air, and the effect that going cap in hand to the Government to subsidise their journalism will have on their editorial independence. Tom Frewen (Manakau)

STEER CLEAR OF STADIUM

As a Dunedinite, I read Bill Ralston’s column on the proposed Auckland stadium with something of a sinking heart ( Life, November 24). As a nation, we don’t seem to be able to learn anything from others’ experiences.

After having ratepayers pick up the tab for the build, Stadium Otago, which has the advantage of being built away from protest-prone residential areas, appears from the most recent financials I could find to be haemorrhaging money.

The principle of “build it and they will come” is a discredited starting point for any kind of enterprise. A clear and demonstrated need is necessary. David Cohen (Dunedin North) In view of rising sea levels, building an on-seabed stadium is a wet variation of a castle in the air. Dennis Horne (Howick)

After years of Paul Thomas’ belittling of Irish rugby’s achievements and refusal to admit the All Blacks’ thuggish tendencies, it is gratifying to see he has at last opened both

his eyes ( Sport, December 1). Rory Sweetman (Lake Hawea) In reviewing Ben Macintyre’s book The Spy and the Traitor

( Books & Culture, November

17, Greg Dixon refers to claims that the late Michael Foot, former leader of the British Labour Party and Cabinet minister, had been on the Soviet Union’s payroll.

It isn’t just lefties, as Dixon puts it, who know this is a lie. In fact, Foot sued and won over the allegations when they surfaced decades ago.

The entire story is a fabrication based on the “evidence”

of Oleg Gordievsky, the ex-Soviet spy and a known fantasist and peddler of stories to keep himself in the public eye and his bank balance topped up. There is not a shred of evidence that Foot spied for the Soviets. David Townsend (Miramar, Wellington)