A Quick Word

My question to the children deciding to bunk school: “What has each one done environmentally for them to protest in this manner?” If nothing, they should not protest. Annette Stewart, Greenlane.

In times of hardship in Britain it has been customary for senior pupils to attend a school camp at orchards short of labour, to pick fruit and be paid at an agreed rate. Why can’t we do that here?

B. Young, RD Tauranga.

The northern leading light in the Waitemata¯ Harbour has a new, very bright strobe light. It would be more effective directed at the shipping lane in the north than us landlubbers in the south. H. Milne, St Heliers.

I have been watching Auckland port for the last two weeks and none of the container cranes or straddle trucks have moved. Wharf totally idle. Is this normal? David Bentham, Rocky Bay.

A lot of the younger people hurtling along Auckland’s footpaths on e-scooters don’t look like ratepayers. Let’s make such scooter use an issue in the mayoral election.

Robert Myers, Auckland Central.

So John Tamihere says ACC costs justify banning Lime scooters? I look forward to him using that criteria to ban rugby on council land. Lyall Dawson, Sandringham. Parents who would not allow their children to be immunised were/are stupid. Perhaps they should be made to pay for treatment when they get measles.

A. J. Petersen, Kawerau.

A new thinktank is born with a potpourri of Labour stalwarts installed. It looks like a case of “Yes, ex-Prime Minister” to me.

Nick Nicholas, Greenlane.

Your report on the death in a retirement home referred to the woman as elderly but not the man. The woman is 70 years old, the man 75.

Heather Stonestreet, Lynfield.

Lime scooters are back. Why is the emphasis on brakes, not pedestrian safety? On the water, motor gives way to sail. Surely on the footpath, motor gives way to feet.

Kate Tomson, Waiheke Island.

Like it or not, Mark Taylor is coming home to prison. This exodus from Isis seems final, and let’s hope another chapter of this dead-end terrorism never spawns again. Glenn Forsyth, Taupo¯.

National must be praying Labour will introduce a capital gains tax. It will give them a shoe-in at the next election. Wayne Carpenter, Glen Eden.

Tinkerbell or Jacindarella? Neither J. M. Barrie nor Hans Christian Andersen could write this fairytale. It has to be by Brothers Grimm.

Derek Paterson, Sunnyhills.