Trees get the chop, to what use?
There’s not a possum alive that can compete with a man with a chainsaw.
So the condemned trees in the Town Basin are to be replaced. So what. What does that do for our immediate carbon footprint and the adverse effects of climate change as pohutukawa take time to grow?
I wonder how the mayor and the councillors would feel if they were given the chop and were only likely to be reinstated in many years time? Perhaps that’s not such a bad idea. MB Hicks
Ruaka¯ka¯
Voice for Ma¯ ori
I have watched the letters and the petition on this subject with interest. There is talk of democracy, and that we all have an equal chance without needing Ma¯ ori Wards.
Unfortunately we do not all have an equal chance when it comes to local body elections. General elections give candidates a fair chance through the added power of the party they stand for, along with ranked party lists of candidates. Local body elections do not.
In the last Census, Maori were 16.7 per cent of the total population of New Zealand — one in every six people. If you live in Whanga¯ rei and Kaipara, then for every Ma¯ ori person there are between two and three Europeans. The ratio is closer in the far North, but is still in favour of Europeans when it comes to voting for district and regional councils. What I see in the petition and in impassioned letters is that the comfortable majority do not want the minority to have a fair opportunity to have a voice. This is not democracy.
Sadly, a small number of eligible voters can petition to force a referendum on Ma¯ ori Wards, where the majority European voice can then hold sway. It is anything but democracy, fair, or everyone having the same chances. Ma¯ ori Wards will give Ma¯ ori a voice in local government affairs. It is their democratic right.
Jill Mutch Waipu¯
Inclusive society
Your correspondent (Letters January 14) is misinformed regarding Network Waitangi.
I have attended community education workshops run in Whanga¯ rei by Network Waitangi and have found them valuable learning experiences which I can warmly recommend. The Pakeha facilitators are knowledgeable and skilled in the way they share information relating to the Treaty of Waitangi and the years that have followed. I have been inspired by these workshops to learn more of our history, particularly the effects of colonisation and the continuing inequalities which have resulted.
Books such as Nga¯ puhi Speaks and Healing Our History have also opened my mind and led me to support the work of Network Waitangi and others who want a fairer and more inclusive society.
Margaret Irvine Whanga¯rei
Civic shortsightedness
What is it with the WDC and po¯ hutukawa? I mean the kill rate is climbing inexorably, and what it shows me is that the Nonks of Forum North have no love for these iconic and uniquely Kiwi trees. The quintessential symbols of our summers.
Specially if pesky specimens get in the way of pet projects on the make.
In the way of the Civic Centre? Cut ’em down, pull ’em out, plonk them out of the way. And now there’s more to be turned into firewood are mulched to a pulp, because they have the misfortune of being in the way of the Riverside Playground in a Basin.
Put it this way the trees are 25 years old, sorry were 25 years old. In 25 years time, the replacement versions will be a similar age. And the super interactive spouting fountains and snazzy playground seating will also be a quarter of a century in, and looking somewhat battered and spattered with grime and graffiti and all the usual accoutrements of civic amenities. But had the original po¯ hutukawa been spared they would be 50 years old and looking good. Another 25 and the playground will have been replaced by another piece of civic shortsightedness. As for the po¯ hutukawa?
Aue Hoki.
GM Tinker Whanga¯rei