Rates sting more than double the number reported

MAILBOX

It is a pity that you did not highlight the real effect on ratepayers of Tasman District Council’s adopted rates ( Mail, June 29), rather than accepting council’s press statement spin.

Increased rates 2012-13 liability over the district at 7.1 per cent, plus water charges, will be more than double what you headlined. Additionally, debt liability will increase by more than 10 per cent. While the council reduced its planned costs it still has not accepted that its current operations ignore fixed income and export-based ratepayers. GARRICK BATTEN Brightwater, June 30.

Greed will undo TDC

Re today’s front-page news (TDC to up charges for development levies). Well done, TDC money-grabbers, in your efforts to stymie the region’s positive outlook, last one out turn off the lights. This on top of yet another out-ofcontrol rates rise.

It won’t be long before the current reign of overpaid, overzealous bunch of office dwellers find themselves in a self-induced unemployment queue. We, the ratepayers, have had enough of this reign of wasteful spending in an overstaffed, underperforming council.

When will they realise that they have already eaten the golden goose? It is about now we invite Tim Shadbolt to come and clean up the mess created by this lot! BARRY EVANS Ruby Bay, June 30.

Tourism misinformed

It seems Queenstown will go to any length to maximise its income from the tourism dollar.

It’s been said that uninformed overseas tourists, planning their visits to southern New Zealand, are being strongly advised to use Queenstown as their base for any and all ventures into Fiordland. It is being claimed that the road to Fiordland, and Milford in particular, is of a low standard and so not recommended for self-driving; bus travel is strongly recommended and, moreover, Te Anau is not recommended for accommodation because it is to be of generally lower class.

So those visitors planning up to three separate trips: to Milford and Doubtful Sounds and the Te Anau-au Caves, are being advised to have separate daily bus trips from Queenstown.

This is generally being accepted by the uninformed, even though overnighting in Te Anau would reduce both their outlay and bus travel.

I gather many such visitors express disquiet when, too late, they arrive to find the real situation regarding the standards of both the accommodation in Te Anau and the road.

The proposed Milford-Dart Tunnel and/or the monorail through Snowdon Forest would both bypass Te Anau and so further reduce tourist patronage in the area and, for this reason alone, separate from the unacceptable environmental impacts, must be rejected. ALAN F MARK Dunedin, June 29.

Returned parrot

Could the person who found and left at the SPCA a small green parrot on Thursday please ring me on 547 9585. I would like to say thank you. P THOMAS Stoke, June 29.

Shrinking phone book

I was interested to read the letter from Jim Mills in the Nelson Mail of June 27 regarding the new size phone book. I, too, calculated that the phone book reduced in size by almost 20 per cent, rather than the claimed 10 per cent.

Both as a user of the phone book and as an advertiser I find the new size most unsatisfactory.

I have written to Yellow Pages and requested a discount to reflect the reduced size of my advert. This has been met with an unsympathetic response.

I suppose it is heartening to know that in these difficult financial times businesses like Yellow Pages are so confident and are doing so well that they do not need to worry about customer satisfaction. RON THOMSON Nelson, June 28.

Clean up the pond

I recently went for a walk down by the Modellers Pond at Tahunanui. I followed two people coming from the motor camp. I overheard them saying what a disgrace the pond looks. I rang the council and was told funds were allocated to fix the problem causing all the weed and slime in the pond.

However, this funding was somehow lost in the paperwork. I agree with Terry Holton – the pond is an eyesore and something needs to be done to fix it.

Come on council, use our rates on something useful. TUNNY GILL Tahunanui, June 27. The streets of Hong Kong heaved with demonstrators on Sunday as tens of thousands marked the anniversary of the former British colony’s 15th year under Chinese rule by venting their anger, disappointment and fear.

With resentment towards their mainland Chinese masters at a post-handover high, the wrath of the protesters was directed at Beijing and the Communist Party – an autocracy neatly symbolised by Hu Jintao, who spent the weekend paying his final visit to Hong Kong as President of China.

Complaints from the throng ranged from the huge gulf between rich and poor, the massive increase in the cost of housing, the perceived erosion of democratic rights, and safety concerns about a new rail link between Hong Kong and the mainland.

‘‘Everything bad comes down to the interference from Beijing,’’ said engineer Sherman Lau. ‘‘On the surface, Hong Kong seems to be booming since the handover, but underneath life just gets more difficult. Free speech is falling away. Promises are broken. They don’t even let reporters ask questions.’’

On Saturday, local journalist Rex Hon Yiu Ting asked Mr Hu a question about the Tiananmen Square crackdown and was removed immediately. In the closing hours of his Hong Kong tour, Mr Hu received another shrill reminder of disgust at Beijing’s record on human rights.

Despite efforts to insulate Mr Hu from his Hong Kong critics, a lone heckler managed to interrupt the president’s speech at the inauguration of the territory’s new chief executive. After repeated calls to ‘‘end one-party rule’’, the protester was bundled away as the 2300 guests drowned his criticism with applause.

Among the crowds, some of whom were holding the former colonial flag of Hong Kong from its time under British control, many expressed fears that the rule of law was also under threat. The recent death of dissident Li Wangyang under suspicious circumstances in a Chinese hospital has fuelled the demands of Hong Kong protesters for a full investigation by the authorities in Beijing.

The huge protest march coincided with the swearing-in of Leung Chun Ying as Hong Kong’s chief executive. He is a millionaire already tainted by scandal and whose election to office by a small panel of patricians provides many Hong Kong residents with further reason to resent Beijing.

Fears of the growing interference by Beijing were further stoked when Mr Leung took his oath of office in Mandarin, rather than the Cantonese Chinese usually spoken in Hong Kong.

‘‘That ceremony was an anti-democratic spectacle,’’ said demonstrator Jessie Ngo. ‘‘Leung is taking the oath today only because Beijing wants him in that seat. The language is enough to tell you what is happening.’’

The handover anniversary provides an annual excuse for Hong Kong residents to demonstrate their resentment towards the mainland, but tensions are especially high this year. A vast influx of mainland Chinese has reaped economic rewards for the territory but brought with it day-to-day irritants.

Tempers have flared over the arrival of droves of mainland women to give birth in Hong Kong hospitals – to obtain a Hong Kong passport for their child – or strip shops bare of formula milk for infants because Chinese brands are so untrustworthy.