Responsibility
The Government’s Ministry for Primary Industries won’t accept responsibility for allowing velvetleaf seeds to get into the country and be spread across our farms (April 21).
Their excuse? It was difficult, their spokesperson said, to examine the contents of the pelletised seeds under a microscope.
Difficult? I wonder how hard they tried.
Could they perhaps have dissolved some of the pellets with water, then had a look?
That doesn’t seem difficult and it would have saved farmers across New Zealand an enormous amount of money and trouble. I share the misgivings of Miss Elizabeth Miller about the proposed changes to the Invercargill Library.
As a former teacher and teacher librarian I regard our Young Persons’ Library as one of the best in its class.
I strongly suggest that the planners fiddle around with the adult areas all they like but leave the Young Persons’ Library alone.
Years ago, the then-planners made a wise decision when they allocated a Children’s Library a sufficient and detached space where staff could organise their resources and activities around the needs and interests of children.
If some children became restless, excited or a bit loud this would not impact on adult library users.
While I can’t speak for the staff, I imagine that they appreciated having a detached working environment where their planning and programmes would not impinge on their colleagues in other library areas.
As a lifelong lover of books, I have visited many city libraries overseas and have yet to see anything to match what the library staff have accomplished for our children.
In many cities, there are no Children’s Library as such. What you have in many cases is a children’s section with limited seating stuck in a corner of the main floor.
I say this is certainly a case where you don’t try to fix something that isn’t broken.
Am I being unduly cynical if I observe that the new arrangements might give children and their library staff less space than they currently enjoy?
The coffee shop? You don’t need it. There’s a cafe two doors to the right (facing the street). We recently had our Deputy Prime Minister Bill English publicly criticise a section of our population for not ‘‘fronting up’’ for available work and giving preference to migrant workers.
Unfortunately, he is correct, in that who would want to hire someone who in all probability will be unreliable, wear their pants down around their backside, have their cap on back to front and continuously play with their cellphone.
But, for a senior Cabinet minister to openly admit that this situation does exist in New Zealand is a damn disgrace.
My question would be: what is the Government doing about it?
Answer: Nothing, other than handing out the dole and putting the real problem in the too-hard basket.
Needless to say, if this is allowed to continue, our welfare system will become grossly overloaded and our workforce dominated by migrant workers.
Why not initiate programs to educate these people in, say, time and money management and work ethic, discipline etc.
Install in them a sense of pride and give them a reason to get out of bed.
Come on Bill, it is the Government’s responsibility to rectify this appalling situation.