Saved Cargill’s Castle a feather in city’s cap
STEVEN De Graaf and members of the Cargill's Castle Trust are to be congratulated for sticking with their plan to stabilise and create safe walkways through this historically significant ruin to allow the public to view it.
Good things take time, it is said, and it has certainly taken some years since they bravely took it on in defiance of those who could not see the merit in preserving a ruin and, instead, who wanted it demolished.
At that time, ruined historic sites were virtually unheard of in New Zealand. Yet just across the Tasman stands Arthur's Point in Tasmania, one of the bestknown heritage sites in Australia. To visit many ruins in Europe of course, it is a matter of being early in the queue.
Cargill's Castle appears as if plucked from a remote hillside in Scotland. With its views of our magnificent coastline and the city, and given a leg up with funding, the castle will make a worthy contribution to Dunedin's ‘‘must see’’ list of heritage sites, sooner, it is hoped, than too much later.
Lois Galer Maori Hill
Advantages of hydrogen
HAVING seen recent letters to this page disparaging the development of hydrogen as an energy source, a few extra pieces of information might be useful.
It is true converting water to green hydrogen at scale is not particularly efficient, yet.
But any transformative process costs energy: it is considered economically viable to mine the Canadian tar sands for petroleum, and that process costs the energy equivalent of a barrel of oil to extract two barrels: a 50% loss.
Hydrogen is portable — energy in a bottle — and does not require a large conjoined network.
It is light, making it ideal for aviation and heavy transportation, where battery packs become prohibitively weighty.
Energy storage solutions, like the Australian Lavo system for domestic use, exist now and offer lifetime and several other advantages over batteries.
It is also a relatively young industry, with far greater scope for technological development than more mature technologies.
David Cohen Kew
What would they cut?
IF economic conditions deteriorate to a point where cuts to council spending are essential, which areas and/or projects would you reduce budgets to, or cut altogether?
Hopefully, this is only a theoretical question, although reading about the looming energy situation in Europe it may not be.
But I would hope honest answers will better illuminate the priorities each candidate actually has for use of ratepayers’ money than merely asking how they intend to spend it.
Anna McIntyre
Kaikorai
Selfinterest mostly wins
CONSUMER NZ must be living in a parallel universe in claiming that letting other retailers access the supermarket wholesale facilities will result in lower prices for customers.
After more than 20 years in grocery retail, in supermarkets and corner dairies, I can guarantee that, since selfinterest always trumps altruism, any savings achieved will go straight into the pockets of the retailers and the customers will be no better off. Barry Salter
Invercargill 1.9.22).
Steps from the salt water pool cafe area over the retaining boulders so surfers can access the beach. What the devil are they on about now? Has the