PM May looking well ahead with election
THERE is another reason why United Kingdom Prime Minister Theresa May might have called a snap election that was not mentioned in your editorial of April 24.
Despite the confident-sounding (even smug) PR emanating from the Conservative Government about the Brexit deal they hope to negotiate, EU leaders have made it clear that Brexit will cause a lot of pain to the UK economy. A bad deal would be punished by the voters three years from now — at the end of the normal term of government. So what does Theresa May do? She jumps in and takes advantage of Labour’s abysmal polling figures to get five more years in government and hopefully time to neutralise the looming electoral time bomb. Bill Southworth
Port Chalmers
Based on fact
UNDER the headline ‘‘History rewritten in the lives of Kiwi sons’’ (ODT Weekend Mix, 22.4.17), Jim Sullivan has some nice things to say about my novel and for that I am grateful. However, the headline suggests that the novel itself may be a rewrite of history.
When you read the article it seems that the only rewrites of any consequence (to the reviewer) are a rugby match fictionally played by fictional characters and won by Waitaki Boys’ High and the fact that the YMCA in Timaru did not start up until 1917. I had my character, Robert Sutherland heading for that establishment in 1916.
For the record, the recruiting, training and deployment of these ‘‘good sons’’ is based as far as a reasonable novelist can, on fact. The 20th reinforcements did leave Wellington on the Athenic on December 30, 1916, and the Otago Infantry battalions did train at Quelmes for the attack on Messines which did take place on June 7, 1917. They were in action again at Bellevue Spur on October 12th of that year.
I was very careful that the significant historical references were accurate. It is unlikely that any 20th reinforcements took part in the Battle of Messines; however, Frank Wison and Jim Logan did — for the sake of the novel. The consequence of my failings may be that the novel is not well received in South Canterbury and I apologise to the good people of Timaru. However, I can assure you that the win by Waitaki
Boys’ High, although fictional, was well received in Oamaru.
Jim’s notes on the photo on the front cover are extremely interesting. I had researched the boys who were featured and was aware that H.S. Harley had a distinguished war and unfortunately like so many ‘‘good sons’’ is remembered only on war memorials. Incidentally, my grandfather, H.T. Hall, was a member of that 1912 First XV, a war veteran and later a master at Waitaki. Greg Hall
Auckland
Bus hub
THERE’S an excellent item about Auckland’s traffic woes in The New Zealand Herald (18.4. 17). If the DCC and the ORC read it, they might come to their senses about the proposed bus hub in Dunedin’s Great King St. The place for a bus hub is on the rim of any central city district not slap bang in the middle. In Dunedin’s case this should be the far southern reaches of Princes St, where it’s six lanes wide and traffic from all directions, bar the north, has relatively easy access.
As for the north, buses from there could perhaps terminate in Great King St, connecting with feeder buses to other city districts. I. Williams
Dunedin