OVER TO YOU
How Dingle became Dingle
Thank you to everybody who has taken an interest in ‘‘Dingle’s journey through the suburbs’’.
The interest has taken me by surprise, whereas Dingle isn’t bothered by all that is going on around him.
Many queries from the national media. I was interviewed by John Campbell on Check Point. Social media has been busy. The main interest is not what Dingle did or didn’t get up to but how he got his name.
In 2007 I was on a bus trip around Ireland and stopped at a small fishing village in Southern Ireland called Dingle.
The stop was for only two hours. It was a beautiful day and awesome watching the boats come in.
A random thought popped into my head. When my current cat passes away I would name my new cat Dingle to remind of those special two hours. I had to wait seven years. Dingle was a 5-monthold stroppy stray from the North Taranaki SPCA.
Oh and if you see Gareth Morgan around Lynmouth please contact me asap.
Mike Merrick
New Plymouth All strength to Cullen
Monday’s editorial was good - in parts.
Where it definitely went wrong was in criticising the appointment of Sir Michael Cullen to chair the long-overdue tax review.
Those of us who have watched his performance over the past twenty years, especially the Super Fund and Kiwisaver, know that any suggestions he makes will be sensible, within our comfort zone, and neutral.
Neutral not necessarily as to political ideology, but neutral along the much more important dimension: between the ordinary citizen and The Government. All strength to his arm!
Frank Gaze
New Plymouth
Compromise option
It seems the Stratford and South district councils are able to be far more accommodating of freedom campers and controversial nonself-contained campers than New Plymouth.
And this largely explains their opposition to a proposed NPDC bylaw that would ban non-self contained-vehicles. STDC Mayor Ross Dunlop is concerned the proposed bylaw would have a negative spillover effect, exacerbating the already crowded popular surfing spots (in South Taranaki) especially Stent Road on SH45.
It’s axiomatic that more patrolling of these surf spots and increased cleaning of the toilets would be expensive and labour intensive. It’s an 80km commute for council staff. Unless of course, they pay contractors from New Plymouth.
Neil Holdom is marketing New Plymouth as a lifestyle destination and wants visitors to the district that spend big and respect the environment. Clearly freedom campers and non-contained campers don’t fit the bill.
By contrast South and Central Taranaki can cope with a proliferation of freedom campers. But that’s not the case for New Plymouth.
Surely it makes sense for the STDC to compromise and have the surfing spots comply with the proposed New Plymouth bylaw. Bryan Vickery
New Plymouth
Refugees people too
Mr Chamberlain (letter, November 27), refugees have another name, they’re called human beings.
Within our society we have refugees and their descendants at every level. From shopkeepers to ex-Prime Minister they occupy valued positions.
They protect us as members of our police and Armed Forces, they care for us within our hospitals and communities, they educate our children and they represent us in our law courts.
We have refugees from Armenia to Zimbabwe making a positive contribution to this country, a country that gave them safe harbour in times of strife.
I grew up in London in the sixties and many of my school friends were the children of refugees. At the age of nine I once asked the mother of one of my friends where she had gotten the funny blue mark on the inside of her forearm from.
She gave me a look that, nearly fifty years on, I still remember.
Perhaps realising that she had scared me she hugged me and gave me a kiss and said pray to God that you never find out. I haven’t forgotten, have you?
John C. Buchanan-Brown New Plymouth