Letters to the editor
All Blacks’ test
It’s Saturday before the ‘‘High Noon’’ test against the Springboks in the early hours our time Sunday morning. Gary Gold in The Timaru Herald wrote, ‘‘The All Blacks will come up against the famed Bomb Squad – the forwards-dominated Boks bench – and they might find it a difficult element to defuse.’’
So now, before the game, I am going to call it. Firstly we in New Zealand are 10 hours ahead of South African time. For a team coming off an Irish defeat that plays with your mind and body.
Our forward pack, outplayed by the Irish, are going to meet a forward juggernaut, which means we have to remain at our best from the first second of the game. Alas the Boks have a spare juggernaut just waiting to get on to the field.
Add in that our kicking game has been less successful than usual, presuming we can actually get the ball and our lineouts have been poor, you can see the word defeat looming large.
However all will be well as we may dispatch our secret weapon, Grant Robertson, Deputy Prime Minister, to give the pre-match team talk. ‘‘The country is doing great, we have inflation under control and we know you’ve got this. I look forward to having my photo taken with you as Sports Minister after the game.’’
I am going to predict the Boks by seven points, but like inflation I suspect it will be more. I hope I am wrong. Fortunately there may be another Robertson in the wings who is ‘‘Razor sharp’’ and who can show us what victory looks like.
Ian Hanley Timaru
Bay waterfall
The Timaru District Council’s demolition of the Caroline Bay waterfall seems inexplicable. That is until you understand the myriad of health and safety, risk, and compliance regulations enacted in the name of safety, but often only enforced by the fun police.
You can sympathise with the council’s low-or-no risk approach, due to huge penalties (including prison time) of getting things wrong. But that doesn’t excuse the total lack of consideration of the impact on the community of decisions like these.
D H Darling (The Timaru Herald, August 3) and Peter Bennett (August 6) might be on different sides of this debate, but both have reached the correct conclusion: the community must come together and offer the council an alternative.
Given it now takes seconds to tear something down, but years to build it back up, this conversation needs to start now.
James Meager Timaru
Water
Nobody owns water. People own the infrastructure that delivers or disposes of water. To me it makes no difference who owns or provides the infrastructure as long as it is efficient.
The important thing is that ownership is vested in non-profit organisations – whether that is councils or the government doesn’t matter.
People who think they retain control if it is vested in councils don’t know how councils work. Rates or taxes pay the bills one way or the other, but governments have greater access to funds than councils do.
At the moment a huge amount of development is necessary. Most councils can’t afford to pay for everything that is necessary from rates.
A chilling report about Three Waters submissions from Queenstown Lakes District Council suggests privatisation is being considered. I suppose this is a nice opportunity for people or companies with plenty of money to make a lot more at our expense.
A J Kerr Fairlie
Temuka building
It is gratifying and very pleasing to see that the new owners of the iconic Carnegie Library building hin Temuka ave taken pride in their home.
The paintwork has been carried out with care and attention to detail and looks stunning.
Thank you for your efforts to restore an element of grace to the town.
J Rae Timaru
LineTrust SC
I received a LineTrust South Canterbury voting paper recently. New to the district, I rang the secretary of the trust to find out what the trust is administering.
It distributes an annual rebate to 26,000 power consumers – about $20 per year per consumer – from 90% of profits gained in it’s shareholding (40%) of Alpine Energy. The other 10% is disbursed to areas of social need.
The $20 per year (40c per week) is a small return to be a useful contribution to most consumers. Would there be support for changing the LineTrust deeds to enable the trust to administer the annual return – approximately $500,000 – from its Alpine shares to be amassed and then distributed in large grants? The bonus to many struggling community charities, sports clubs, events etc would have a real social benefit; then every consumer can contribute in a small way with pride.
Nigel Douglas Geraldine