North Shore Times (New Zealand)
LAND CONSENT
It is distressing and yet becoming almost predictable, that our council and YNZ totally disregard the wishes of the local community.
How can YNZ in all conscience have the nerve to apply for a landowner consent use and how can the council even consider it?
When are the next local elections?
E. Barclay
Takapuna
SMOKES V ALCOHOL
Just a comment in reply to Dr Prudence Stones letter on smokefree NZ (July 12).
I agree wholeheartedly with what she says. I am a non smoker and hate the things. However I am a little puzzled with something.
Why does smoking get the bad rap here in NZ and nothing is said about alcohol? Cigarette prices are going through the roof, they have to be behind covered and locked cabinets in shops and now government want plain packaging for them.
All of which I agree. But then I walk into my local Countdown store and there the wine and beer is displayed beautifully, just inside the door so as to catch the eye of customers who enter.
I saw a mother wondering through the wine, looking for a nice bottle no doubt, with her little girl in tow.
Imagine if mum was shopping for smokes!
What really got me was signs all over the place. ‘‘Buy 6 or more bottles of wine and get 20 per cent off’’.
So we want to rid New Zealand of smokes but are encouraged to buy more alcohol, for cheaper.
Dr Stone gives a few numbers on deaths caused by smokes but would alcohol not cause just as much?
If not deaths surely, it must cause more serious problems and pains within society, wouldn’t it?
Perhaps Dr Stone could help me out understand it a little better. Why one is treated like the ‘Black Plague’ and the other like Sweet Candy to be enjoyed by all for a very cheap price.
Eugene Howard
Beach Haven