Let’s get reading

We are barely functioning, literally (June 16) shone a spotlight on our literacy problem.

Research from the Book Council recently found that almost 400,000 Kiwis didn’t crack open a book in the last year.

Thirty-one per cent of respondents said they didn’t have time to read, 24 per cent didn’t enjoy it, and 16 per cent said it was easier to watch movies or TV.

We know that reading changes lives, and has the potential to break the poverty cycle.

While some may be quick to attribute blame to the education system, we believe literacy is everyone’s responsibility. In countries with high literacy rates, parents read with their kids long before they start school.

They also read themselves, modelling to children that taking time for reading is important, enjoyable, and a normal part of everyday life.

But it’s not just parents – we all need to read more. When was the last time you ditched your phone for a paperback? When did you last read a picture book to a child?

Let’s take the opportunity offered by our literacy rates to nurture a culture of reading in New Zealand. We’re all responsible for that. more weight than a plumber’s.

The 30,000 written submissions to the select committee can be dismissed as not an accurate measure of the will of the country.

Mr Seymour’s personal opinion is the only one which expresses the wish of the majority of New Zealanders. Really? When will Mr Seymour realise he is a mere minnow in the sea of Parliament these days and take a large dose of humility and realism? Re Auckland advertising agency FCB NZ’s ‘‘bragging’’ about its Kiwi Cultural Codes in ads (June 20) as ‘‘a set of values that help to define our Kiwi identity’’. No women included (old or young)? No girls (except for one showing a bit of leg)? Yes, I do want a formal apology, and ads which celebrate that I also am part of Kiwi culture. Patricia Booth, Brooklyn

What are the nurses on about? If they don’t like their pay and conditions they can just find another job like the rest of us. To my knowledge there is no law saying anybody has to be a nurse, teacher or bus driver, who all seem to be wanting more, like Oliver Twist. The new regime running the Beehive has promised lots of money to lots of special interests and the withdrawal symptoms are beginning to show .. . .

Richard McLean, Newlands Wellington Regional Council similarly rebranded as the regional council for the Head of the Fish of Maui?

I was less comfortable with our city council using ‘‘Po¯ neke’’ as a translation of Wellington. As has been noted many times, Po¯ neke does not have a long Ma¯ ori identity and is in fact a corruption of the earlier European name of Port Nicholson.

If our city council is to legitimise corruptions of any of our languages in placenames, we will be unable to object to careless usages such as ‘‘Cap-tee’’, ‘‘’Pahram’’ or ‘‘Piecock’’.

And yes, we should also fix Petone, Whataitai, Otakou etc while we are at it.

Perhaps we need another Ma¯ ori are not the only people to bury the placentas of their babies. In the UK my daughter buried the placentas of her two sons under rosemary bushes.

Maureen Cope, Island Bay

Donald Trump has been very successful in diverting attention from the issues relating to his charities.

Carole Naylor, Papakowai

Re the hyperloop, offering Wellington-Auckland in an hour, Auckland-Hamilton in 10 minutes (June 18). Not counting the cost, the resource consents, the land, the ‘‘review committee’’ to go over our colonial names to establish their relevance to our history and to correct mispronunciations of our Ma¯ ori legacy. technology . . . the time for security clearance would be equivalent to that at an airport. Maybe worth it for WellingtonAuckland, but maybe not for Auckland-Hamilton? Annette Parry, Waikanae Beach

While it is wonderful that our prime minister has safely delivered her baby and celebrate this birth as all New Zealand does, I fail to see why their being unmarried is progressive. Samesex couples have of recent times fought hard for the right to be married, which would also be described as progressive. I do not judge the prime minister being unmarried but feel aggrieved that people who choose to marry are somehow consigned to being like dinosaurs, and a progressive society would see their choice to marry as extinct.

Teresa Homan, Upper Hutt