Impartial Pam Jordan was a Dunedin leader behind the scenes

I WISH to add my name to those mourning the loss of Pam Jordan, governance officer of the Dunedin City Council for more than 30 years.

Those of us who were elected to the new city council in 1989, as a result of local government amalgamation, would have found the process more daunting but for her kindly intervention when the going was difficult.

She visited the former borough of St Kilda on at least two occasions, quietly answering questions and providing reassurance.

It was therefore a relief to see her almost daily in the corridors and council meeting rooms — never obtrusive but able to anticipate some of the more inappropriate actions one might take.

Always impartial and discreet, her subtle sense of humour was always at the ready.

She and one or two staff members assisted me in planning and marking the 100th birthday of women’s suffrage in Dunedin and New Zealand in 1993.

Her calm loyalty and sense of occasion gave the hard work we did a sense of dignity. Her chair will be hard to fill.

Anne Turvey

St Leonards

A Pacific union?

IS it time for a Pacific union, in which a select group of sovereign nations agree that Tamaki Makaurau is its economic centre?

Now the ‘‘PU’’ would be hard on crime and drugs, but soft on the things we like, such as a free trade and travel zone from north of the Tokelaus to south of Scott Base.

Though perhaps a confederation might be better? We might also share defence resources and improve health and education.

But let’s keep those imperialist Australians out of it. We all know what they did to Cadbury.

Climate change threatens us all and we should protect one another’s sovereignty.

T. Ryan

Dunedin ..................................

BIBLE READING: Yours, Lord, is the kingdom; You are exalted as head over all. — 1 Chronicles 29:11.