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Tourist driving complaints

With reference to the ‘‘Woeful Driving’’ article printed on February 22.

I do really understand the concern about insane driving. However, let’s get real about the issue here.

If the statistics are correct then 97 per cent of the accidents on the road of New Zealand are caused by non-tourist drivers, therefore what is Mr Forde proposing the Transport Minister should do about these drivers?

It is easy to find bad drivers, local or tourist, if you set out to find examples of any particular group.

What Forde fails to understand is that bad drivers exist in most countries around the world, including New Zealand and when you have almost as many tourists each year as you have permanent residents, you are going to get your fair share of poor drivers.

However, if they have a driving licence that is recognised by New Zealand then they have every right to drive here, as does anyone else.

Tourists in this country make a huge contribution to the economy which, in turn, creates employment for local people and it should therefore be encouraged.

It really is time to stop this vilifying of drivers from overseas as the statistics do not justify the argument. Michael Joy Scotland

Tax for Cadbury

Maybe our newly elected Prime Minister Bill English should take a leaf out of Donald Trump’s agenda and tell Cadbury that, if they take their factory off shore from New Zealand, they could expect a heavy tax on any goods they import back to here.

Just like Donald Trump did when Ford Motor Company were going to shift their manufacturing plant to Mexico, and that changed the Ford company’s way of thinking. Jack Sheehan Roxburgh

Wachner Place litter

On Saturday February 18, my family and I were waiting outside Wachner Place (pictured) while my Dad was getting tea. Some teenagers were sitting nearby on one of the grass areas eating pizza in the afternoon sun.

Once they had finished, I was surprised to see that they threw their empty boxes at some hungry seagulls and walked away.

It made me angry to see that they had no respect for the nice grass areas.

They could have put their rubbish in one of the six rubbish bins that were around Wachner Place.

When Dad came back, I told him about the littering teenagers. He was disappointed, too.

There were a lot of tourists walking through Wachner Place and they might have wanted to eat their tea on the grass area in the sun as well.

I was so disappointed that I got out of the car and picked them up myself.

If you visit Wachner Place or any of the other beautiful areas in Southland, think about other people and the environment. Please don’t litter. Millie Hackett (9 years old) Invercargill

The hospitality industry

A report the other day about a shortage of suitable labour to fill jobs in the Southland and Otago hospitality industry is of some concern in view of the resources that the likes of SIT are putting into their courses.

Are the students who gain a qualification from such places entering the work force with too great an expectation?

Education at this level is desirable in this day and age but is still only the the first rung on the ladder.

Everybody needs to crawl before they can walk, let alone run.

The hospitality industry is big business and needs to be run that way.

As I watch some of the food programmes such as MasterChef, I wonder how they would fare if costs and numbers came into the equation.

Would many of the contestants be able to turn out such stunning meals if they needed to put out 20 meals with time and cost limits?

Even after 60 years in the food industry, I found you could learn something new every week. Jim Fish Manapouri Abridged, editor