Library set to ‘give life’ to South Dunedin folk

OF course South Dunedin needs a library.

That a resident whose suburb has already benefited from the small library that has been recently provided should ask questions (Letters, 15.2.21) that have been answered by supporters of the South Dunedin library continuously for the past 27 years is a sad day indeed.

There are other public libraries throughout Dunedin.

Some have much smaller populations than South Dunedin.

I point out the public library at Port Chalmers, a popular, muchused facility that is easy to reach by all the people of West Harbour.

It is this factor alone — distance from the main public library — that decides its use by the people of southern Dunedin.

Older people, some with disabilities, may be able to get to the library by bus. Then they are required to carry their books up busy footpaths and a variety of steps and stairs.

During the 30 years that I was employed as a social worker in the southern suburbs of the city, I came to appreciate the number of books in the homes of residents.

One day a week, I spent collecting books and passing them on to others.

The writer of the letter has taken a broad, almost worldwide view of a simple local need and thankfully the Dunedin City Council has made a decision that will give life to people who love to read and use all the other special devices that are offered them.

Anne Turvey St Leonards

Forestry

THE Otago Daily Times’ articles on carbon forests (ODT, 6.2.21) deserve some explanation.

How permanent a forest is depends on the species.

Quickmaturing radiata pine is about 30 years for maximum CO2 sequestering. Standing alone, it can last over 100 years.

Grid planted at 1000 seedlings per hectare, you end up with a lot of skinny trees and a high attrition rate.

In the end, they must fall over. One presumes this is the time to replant spaces with natives, slower maturing and CO2 sequestering, and lasting hundreds of years through regeneration.

It would seem New Zealand Carbon Farming would be better off planting a mix of species to start with, with different maturity rates.

Indigenous growth tends to be sitespecific dependent on rainfall, contour, soil type with low pH, subcanopy cover and suitable fungii. Drier lowproduction hill country, such as in North and Central Otago, featured mainly native scrub and tussock, typically beef and lamb farming areas.

Ideally, some areas should be set aside for commercial woodlots, which can be registered for carbon uptake and finally a basic income, which can beat net returns from beef and lamb.

Jim Childerstone Hampden

Hooning

THE killing of 30 redbilled gulls at Taiaroa Head (ODT, 8.2.21) is merely symptomatic of a phenomenon observable on many of our city streets: those who drive according ‘‘to their own rules’’ with no consideration for the safety of other road users.

It seems that more and more drivers, most of them youthful, seem unable to resist a compulsion to ‘‘put the pedal to the metal’’ under any circumstances, lending any situation in which they are able to accelerate in a totally inappropriate way the aura of some sort of obscure ‘‘statement’’.

The fate of the birds is regrettable but it is, to a great extent, symptomatic of a greater problem.

We are long overdue for some affirmative action by those charged with the responsibility for keeping our streets accidentfree and usable for those who have the maturity and common sense to drive within rules devised for the benefit of all road users; dare I add, even ‘‘irresponsible idiots’’.

Ian Smith Waverley [Abridged]