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Damaged trust

First Fairfax, and then Nobby Clark, raised very valid concerns about how the Invercargill City Council, under the leadership of Mayor Shadbolt, has destroyed any written records, of the minutes, or the signed ‘‘requisition document’’, which led to the resignation of Darren Ludlow as deputy mayor.

I wonder how Mayor Shadbolt would have reacted, if a councillor called ‘‘a secret informal meeting’’ from which he was excluded, and at which a ’’requisition document’’ asking him to resign was signed, by those who went to it?

Invercargill’s deputy mayor would, in my opinion, have more to do than any other deputy mayor in New Zealand, and this might have been one of the things that caused friction between the two of them?

Darren Ludlow was, in any event, a very busy man, because of his other council responsibility but surely he deserved the opportunity to defend himself against any accusations made.

My trust in the present membership, and leadership, of our city council has been very badly damaged by the way they chose to treat Darren Ludliow. I don’t envy his successor as deputy mayor. Neil Wyeth Invercargill

Too many ducks?

I walk the park most days and the last few weeks have seen me detoured past the duck ponds, plural, and ducks, too many.

My nostrils twitch anticipating the appetite-destroying aroma of ’’Triple D’’ – duck doo-doos.

I have come up with a natural and organic way to reduce duck numbers.

Genetically engineered piranha: fish that have been altered to seek out duck flesh only and ignore anything else.

In the dead of night, ‘‘Operation P’’ – for piranha or Pagan, take your pick – would see this omnivorous fish slipped into the ponds and left to get on with it.

When duck numbers had reduced to an agreed figure, the operation would be terminated as follows.

A tiny demolition charge was implanted in each fish at the beginning of the operation.

Using a smart phone, with the ‘‘OpP’’app. and wi-fi and the push of a button, each fish would experience a sudden and total loss of appetite. Operation P concluded!

By the way Robin, when will the St Andrew St path be reopened? Daniel Phillips Invercargill

City Council parks manager Robin Pagan replies: Thank you for your suggestions to deal with the fallout from the ducks in Queens Park. Your ideas are very innovative but may be a bit before their time.

In the meantime, if we can encourage our licensed duck shooters to be a bit more accurate, this may keep the numbers down.

One of the other problems is the feeding of bread to the ducks, which helps to produce quantities of soft messy output - the feeding of grain would help to firm this up.

The St Andrew St path is still closed as contractors complete the sewer main upgrade.

Unfortunately it has taken longer than anticipated and this may also have contributed to the duck mess as the contractors view the pond while feeding the crusts from their lunch box to the ducks.

Fair play

Our Anglo-Saxon brothers and sisters of the once-Godly nation that brought justice, fair play and order with the 10 Commandments to the world to bring them out of darkness and under his loving hand, have been dwelling carelessly self-centred, changing his laws and denying his existence as we do, and have reaped what they sowed as he removed his protective hand, bringing about tragedy on a multitude.

Maori would to well to remember that for the last 175 years, dwelt as one in unity with us Anglo-Saxons, mixing freely, living and working as one, receiving his bountiful blessings as one, playing and fighting as one, in unity under the banner of the love of Jesus Christ in this fair land, now covered with a long black cloud cutting off the light of God from above, reverting to ancient forbidden ways.

It is time for repentance of us all and a return to his ways and bosom of love, for to practise duality is to divide us as a nation and is a form of apartheid which he judges, as you well know, and is forbidden.

Jesus Christ owns the Earth and all in it and we are all but sojourners here for a very short time and like a dying leaf must fall in the autumn of our lives.

Hear oh Israel the Lord God is One God and Jesus is his son and there is no other, for stones and idols speak not, but he, through the Holy Spirit, speaks to our conscience.

The sword of Islam is not selective and falls on all outside. Robert Rout Invercargill