Why is committee stopping lake activity?
The Governance Committee have stated they wanted to get rid of the ski club, trout fishing and all power boating except paddle power.
Trout fishing at the Kai Iwi lakes is slowly growing to a close thanks to a radical decision made by people on the Governance Board of the Lakes to have trout liberations stopped. I am very disappointed in New Zealand Fish & Game that they have never made a public statement about this. It would seem they do not want to rock the political boat. How the Kaipara District Council can let a subcommittee controlled by them make such far reaching decisions affecting so many people and businesses is beyond comprehension. I presume they to do not want to be seen as though they have made a decision that could be deemed to be racist.
I will give you some idea of how many people went trout fishing there. When the lakes were opened to trout fishing in 1968 I was a ranger for the Acclimatisation Societies and then Fish & Game. For many years I would check up to 140 to 180 licences per year, that was mainly through the winter period and I would only be there one day a week. About 15-20 per cent would be local fisher people, the rest would be overseas visitors or people from other parts of NZ, most had heard about the great fishing to be had there. The removal of trout will affect the native fish populations. The decision made by the Governance Committee is contrary to all scientific evidence that has been put before them about the removal of trout and how it will affect the native fish . The first thing to go at the lakes was the Water Ski Club. This club when they ran the NZ championships and other events must have contributed large amounts to the local economy. The Governance Committee have stated they wanted to get rid of the ski club, trout fishing and all power boating except paddle power. They have got rid of two of them, it is only a matter of time before power boating goes. They have never given any reason why they want this to happen.
Bruce Yorke Whanga¯rei
Ugly talk
The sincerity of the group of correspondents writing under the title of Network Waitangi (January 18) is not in doubt, but they are a group who have interpreted te tiriiti with bias and have taken a strong position which they deliver in their courses on the Treaty. They refer to the Hobson’s Pledge group as radical and talk of 500 years of white supremacy. This kind of ugly talk does not contribute to our need for togetherness. For truth, fairness and democracy.
The recently elected Ma¯ ori Party MP in her maiden speech used the word holocaust as the intent of the settlers’ early government. Another ugly word and far from the truth. That word could more truthfully be applied to the inter- tribal massacres, during the musket wars and preEuropean.
Our early history is very complicated and as we move to a better space we need to be open minded, to listen to different interpretations of our history, and certainly of te Tiriiti..
Robin Lieffering
Onerahi
We need to work together
Man was not prepared for this pandemic; far from over. There are thousands more viruses waiting in the wild. We are not developing new antibiotics for resistant bacteria. We are not winning against global warming — hundreds of millions will be displaced, hungry, and looking for somewhere to live. Rivers are drying up, desertification is increasing and we are losing soil. World population is burgeoning and Earth’s resources are finite. For all the talk about robust systems, a neo-fascist poisoned
democracy in America; far too many people still believe Trump’s stinking lies.
These problems may have no answer: our civilisation might collapse — as others have before it. The whole of humanity will need to work together. The wealthy are going to need to do more than the poor; they will fight that. Now is not the time to revisit and rewrite the past.
It’s the future or nothing.
Dennis N Horne
Howick