Cemetery service

My husband passed away at the end of August. It was hiswish to have an eco funeralwith a rimu tree planted

on his grave. A few weeks ago my daughter and Iwent out to visit it at Makara, to see this little tree struggling. It looked quite windburnt and we noticed a number of other trees nearby had shelter cloth erected around them.

I contacted the cemetery to find out who was responsible for the trees once they were planted and was told nothing was done to them once they planted them.

We noticed several of the trees nearby had died. I think it is very poor not to look after the trees and get them established before leaving them to nature. It is up to the relatives tomake sure the trees survive.

An eco funeral is not a cheap option and I think a better service should be provided.

Sharyn Bowen, Lower Hutt

Ignore it

For those of us who have been on the receiving end of so-called hate speech, I would suggest that laughing it off, or ignoring it, is best. Trying to legislate endlessly for ignorance is likely to be ineffective.

People seize on accents, language or colour to focus their prejudices, but airing such experiences isn’t necessary – people who mean harm are not necessarily the ones who vocalise their feelings face-to face.

As adults, we should bemature enough to deal with such minor irritations ourselves, instead of being overly precious and demanding legislation. Antony D Price, Carterton [abridged]