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How much?

Well another of Tim’s grandiose schemes has crashed with our money. This mayor has got to go.

Recently, a writer asked how much the councillors received each year and we were told the official stipend, but what about the perks like directorships in council companies, etc? We are entitled to know how much each councillor receives per year to understand why some of them stand election after election. David Keene Invercargill

Please stop spraying

It is with concern I see that DOC is planning to spray ‘‘Grazon’’ on marginal strips on various rivers in Southland. I have a problem with more chemicals being sprayed close to our waterways.

My American friend Paul Brunner, who is a land owner and a conservation-orientated person, and I were on the Upukeroa at the end of May, when there should have been a lot of brown trout moving up to spawn.

Where we would expect to see 50 or 60 fish, we saw five!

A lot of the broom had been sprayed right to the riverbank and undoubtedly chemical would have entered the water. We believe that it has killed the insect life in the water – no insects, no fish!

This will also happen in the river areas listed to be sprayed as advertised in local papers.

We only have to look at the 1080 controversy to see what can happen if you interfere with nature.

Please don’t spray these important river margins and keep things as they are for future generations. JL Lawrence Te Anau

A train lesson

Trevor Wilkes’ letter to editor August 26 to bring Kingston Flyer down to run to Bluff: No, no!

It’s the Kingston Flyer; leave it up there.

Get it going and, with just 5 per cent of 2 million tourists visiting Queenstown annually, there would be 100,000 passengers paying $45 per ride, which would be $4.5 mil- lion turnover, before food, drink and souvenirs.

How come the Southland District Council has $18 millionplus to spend on a cycle trail for 30,000 cyclists, mostly all heading back to Queenstown, when the complete Kingston Flyer railway could be bought for less than $2 million and set up as a charitable trust costing very little to the ratepayers of Southland.

And, as far as getting a tourist train to run to Bluff, we have one based just up the Ohai branch line at Wairio. Two wooden carriages, plough van and original ORB diesel DSB Mitsubishi locomotive. But, sadly, the SDC and Southland District Mayor Gary Tong want it all gone. If you want it to stay as a complete heritage railway and based in Southland, then come to our next ORB Wairio Railway Museum meeting at Wairio Hall on September 11 at 2pm.

For more information, call me, Karl, on 0275940090, or email csi@hotmail.co.nz.

Last weekend we celebrated the ORB’S 100th and in four years, Labour Weekend 2020, we will be celebrating again, this time the 100th of the first steam train to Tinkertown and the 95th anniversary of the first train to Ohai.

Plus I’m talking to Taieri Gorge Railway, which is planning tours to Invercargill and it is keen to bring its Silverfern railcar up to Wairio but people want something to see apart from some empty ORB heritage buildings.

So come on, Mr Tong, start thinking about small-town Southland and stop writing copious reports stating the facts. Tourists want to see our heritage where it is, not in another town. Karl Barkley Wairio