Thwarting burglars

I have lived in Australia, where some 24 hour shops and service stations (open after hours) have locked sliding glass doors. This prevents criminals from entering whilst disguised. It would be an idea if shops here also lock their doors, and open them when customers want to enter.

Yes, people will say that robbers will just wait until a customer enters, but doing this would increase security for staff. Also, cigarette cupboards could be kept locked and a diligent staff member could disappear out the back with keys and phone to ring police if a disguised robber enters.

I worked in the security industry and it would not be expensive for shops to convert to security doors. It would just be a matter of pushing a button for people to enter the stores, and safety would be greatly enhanced. Yvonne Wara Ward Opunake

An opportunity

I just figured it out. What I’m about to say will at first seem to be a crazy statement, but please hear me out. I reckon that the Government’s and media’s obsessive fascination with linking Auckland’s housing problem to New Zealand’s growing popularity as ‘‘the place to live’’ is wrong. To use a hackneyed, over-used expression, Auckland is old enough and ugly enough to look after itself.

The focus should be on our regions and small towns. After all, not everyone coming to New Zealand is from a big city or prefers to live in one.

If you’re still with me, here’s some out-loud thinking. Patea. It’s a town which knows how to market itself – Poi e, the Patea School Ball getting national TV exposure - ‘‘outsiders’’ have found Patea, and are buying houses there. Or Hawera. Especially Hawera. Wherever I go in the world, I find people who have lived in or know about Hawera.

But are we currently doing enough to communicate our reputation and resources to attract new residents, visitors and opportunities? I don’t think so. We need to look at how we can capture and exploit what makes us special. We need a new brand, an innovative way to communicate our story to old and new residents, and to visitors to our town.

Have a look at Brian Vickery’s recent letter. Telling the stories of the personalities who have shaped Hawera is an intriguing approach which should be seriously considered. Hawera’s avenue of stars would be a very wellpopulated thoroughfare. It makes us different, it’s innovative, it is very very cool.

It would make new residents and visitors take notice, and pave the way for exciting opportunities. Wendy London Hawera

Dairy lunacy

Regarding Barrie Smith’s critique of Rachel Stewart’s column (Taranaki Daily News, September 21), Ms Stewart has a very valid argument when it comes to the dairy industry. NZ has over 6.5 million dairy cows collectively dumping more than a million tonnes of (untreated) manure on the land every 5-1/2 days, along with sufficient urine - every single day - to fill 33-Olympic-size swimming pools. The run-off goes into our creeks/streams/rivers and no amount of riparian planting is going to be sufficient to clean the mess. Swimmable rivers? - a joke. All indicators point to Havelock North’s pollution being caused by cattle. The historic myth of ‘100% Pure New Zealand’ is now exploded, and the fallout’s on show via media to the entire planet. I’m sure the vast majority of dairy farmers are doing everything they can to mitigate the effects of dairy pollution, but nationally, if only one-in-twelve of our 12,000+ dairy farmers is still doing dirty dairying, that means we have a thousand farms across the country potentially polluting the local fresh water resources. The regional councils tend to be ‘easy’ on their farming buddies. One dairy polluter in Taranaki, owner of multiple farms, was recently fined $66,000 for recidivist polluting when, to make a point, the TRC should have fined him ten times that amount. The millions for the clean-up will fall on us, the taxpayers. Alas, in 2014, the government called for a doubling of dairy exports by 2025. Total lunacy! Andrew Wallace New Plymouth