No more money for Eden Park
If there was ever an organisation which was misnamed it is the Eden Park Trust. It was blindingly obvious to anyone with a smattering of financial wit that when the Auckland Council lent ratepayers’ money at the time of the Rugby World Cup that money was being poured down a rat hole with little chance of return.
Even worse was the council’s insane action in guaranteeing the trust’s bank loan.
I can only hope when the trust meets the council, the councillors have enough sense to refuse any further financial accommodation. If this means future tests are held outside Auckland, then so be it. Overall, we, as ratepayers will be better off.
If the question arises as to what to do with this piece of prime real estate, there are no doubt many developers who will pay the council premium rates to help relieve Auckland’s housing shortage. The council needs to consider the best interests of its ratepayers and not those of some sporting code.
Of course the mayor’s solution to address the potential loss of something in the order of $50 million will not be a rates increase but more likely the imposition of an “Eden Part Trust levy”.
Rod Lyons, Muriwai.
Time is nigh
Eden Park is too small for international cricket, too big for most rugby games and in a location that time has rendered inappropriate.
Surely our politicians will now recognise the mistakes of their predecessors in funding this misshapen and inhospitable white elephant and refuse to sink any more money into it.
There is no way it will trade its way out of the situation. The time has come for Auckland Council to call in its debt, take possession, administer the last rites and sell off the land to fund a new, purpose-designed stadium that will nurture the sports that use it, and encourage the populace to use it.
Tony Waring, Grey Lynn.
Look to Perth
Don Bunting is right that Eden Park is too small and does not have an international class cricket ground.
The answer is to build a new cricket stadium on Avondale Racecourse the same size and with the same facilities as the new Perth Stadium. Watching the Perth Scorchers play at home in the Big Bash on Sky, it’s a treat to see the huge sixes scored. That is the answer for Auckland too. Murray Hunter, Titirangi.
Cheers to that
You recently reported that 10 to 20 alcoholic drinks a week will shorten my life expectancy by six months.
If that is the six months I spend drooling into the mush they serve as food at whatever institution I’m in, if it is the six months where someone has to help me to the toilet, clean me up afterwards and get me back to bed, then I shall willingly and joyfully trade that for a lifetime of enjoying the pleasures of grain and grape.
David Morris, Hillsborough.
Think again
I have read two smug opinion pieces this week which have made my blood boil.
The article by Robert Patman on Tuesday reminded me of the European Union cabal and Tony Blair who think they know what is best for us. People voted for Brexit because they did not like the vision of a federal Europe and currency in spite of short-term problems which will occur.
As for Ikea, derided by Damien Venuto yesterday, I have bought and installed a number of their Billy bookcases and kitchens because they are robust and best value for money, not because I have to have the meatball and chips experience.
Ian McFarland, Remuera.
Bouquets for columnists
What a wonderful start to the New Year your opinion column has already provided.
Following last week's article by Peter Lyons (“Tribalism to fore in era of Trump and Brexit”), we were yesterday given further educational insight by David Hood (“Schooling ourselves towards better NZ”).
A big thank you for their well informed and well written articles which, may I suggest, are a lesson to us all.
John Norris, Whangamata.
Elitism in NCEA
David Hood’s critique of our education system could have been more specific.
Well-intentioned ideologues have sold us the “egalitarian” notion that every secondary school student should receive a suitable preparation for doing a university degree. The result is that curricula for NCEA exams have become elitist and over conceptualised.
The subject English is no longer about literacy skills. Candidates are expected to write about “language features” and other aspects of literature.
Schools and teachers struggle to meet our young people’s needs, but the content of some NCEA qualifications tends to be self-defeating and irrelevant to the needs of the individual and of the economy.
I hope some of the kids who are going through “the system” will write to the Herald about their frustrations with the school curricula that are supposed to be benefiting them.
Arch Thomson, Mt Wellington.
Assisted dying facts
When one falsehood is rebutted, a plethora more arise like mushrooms, and seemingly fed on the same stuff. Such is the approach of certain End of Life Choice Bill opponents.
On Wednesday in these pages I rebutted the argument that legalised assisted dying leads to suicide contagion, with the simple facts from overseas experience.
Yesterday, Jean Glossop (“Assisted dying bill”) decided not to dispute that point but use a typographical error in my letter as a launching pad for yet more falsehoods.
First she said it is wrong to call a treatment that relieves suffering and allows a person to end their life on their terms “medication”, as the bill does. Not being an etymologist, I’ll let her argue the toss.
Ms Glossop then says doctors who conscientiously object to assisted dying must refer patients who ask about it to colleagues. What does the bill say? That conscientious objectors must inform their patient that the Ministry of Health can put them in touch with another doctor. No doctor could call giving one sentence of generic, publicly available, information a referral.
Then Ms Glossop says the bill requires death certificates to be falsified. Good heavens, really? No. The bill requires that death certificates for people who take advantage of assisted dying must state their cause of death as their underlying illness, along with the fact they had an assisted death. Hardly falsification.
Let’s see what the opponents of compassion and choice can come up with tomorrow. David Seymour, ACT Leader.
Problems at the tennis
Is it my imagination that too many professional tennis players are disrespecting our major tennis tournaments in Auckland by pulling out at the last minute citing several lame reasons, and that some of the players who came this year are just not showing any interest in being here?
It's an insult to tennis supporters who have paid to watch world-ranked players on our shores. It's also a big insult to Carl Budge and all his hard-working staff.
Can I also suggest that corporate boxes are put at the back of the stands, so the real tennis fans are not distracted by the comings and goings of the serving staff for the entire time. I am not aware of any other major tennis tournaments where the best seats in the house go to so many people who are just there to socialise.
Jeanne Bell, Epsom.
Monarch predators
I note the item about monarch butterflies yesterday and, in my opinion, the real culprit for a decline in numbers was not named: The Asian paper wasp.
A couple of years ago I had a swan plant in a protected area, which I put there because of wasp predation. I had another 3-4 plants in the open. The sheltered plant had 32 caterpillars, the outside ones none. The sheltered plant became totally eaten out and I had to transfer the 32 caterpillars to the outside plants. By the end of the third day, all had gone. There were wasps circling the plants at all hours of the day.
They were Asian paper wasps, a smaller, thinner variety with dangling legs. They build nests about the size of a cricket ball on fences, bushes, trees, etc and the nests can be hard to find. A spray with fly spray in the early evening will wipe a nest out. Geoff Levick, Kumeu.