Supporting our Blue Knights
Talk to any retired police officer and they will undoubtedly have stories of the rare times in their career that they entered a house on a raid and there was a gun waiting for them on the other side of the door.
Fast forward to today and in many parts of the south it is a weekly event that our brave upholders of law and order are confronted with ‘‘scum with a gun’’.
In Invercargill I am told, with the influx of methamphetamine and gangs, it’s quite literally a 50/50 call that the house they are entering will be ‘‘armed up’’. I am in awe of the courage shown by our southern Blue Knights.
On a constant basis, they are being placed in highly volatile situations never seen to this extent until just recently, and society expects our police to respond.
What I am concerned about is the support we are presently giving them in assuring that police are adequately resourced in dealing with this new era in the sophistication of criminality.
Historically, I think we would acknowledge the North Island has faced greater challenges in the level of crime and the dynamics around cohesion of criminality.
However, now that imbalance is rapidly evening out.
The north has expanded its business plan down south, to what they must be licking their lips at, unsuspecting wee towns full of naı¨ve people with money to spend.
Unfortunately, this has happened so fast that no one has told Wellington that Mary Poppins is getting plundered and consequently our side of the battle lines are not seeing reinforcements at the rate they deserve.
The proportionality that presently has one constabulary for every 528 people in the North Island, compared with one for every 608 in the South Island, needs careful consideration.
We need to examine whether this mix is appropriate in light of the ‘‘gold rush’’ our criminal element, especially organised gangs, are presently driving.
Thankfully we are about to see the first of the much heralded 1800 new police enter the fray.
From a New Zealand Inc. perspective, I applaud the initiative.
However, as always the devil is in the detail, as shown in an Official Information Act request I made for specific numbers and locations.
Unfortunately, closer scrutiny raises questions that I believe the south needs to dwell on, because once you take out the 520 new constabulary officers classified as ‘‘service centre’’ – you will see the remaining 1280 are ‘‘divvied up’’ with only 264 for the south compared with the north’s 1016.
While it’s becoming increasingly obvious that New Zealand is incapable of producing an accurate census let’s not get hung up on semantics.
I will save you doing the maths. Based on 2013 figures that equates to the North Island getting one new officer for every 2574 people compared with the south at one for every 4006 people. Give me strength!
The solution could be simple, let’s change the arbitrary figure from 1800 to 2000 new officers and distribute the additional numbers throughout the south.
That way all of New Zealand are able to see equal additional resourcing of police.
Which is a real coincidence because that’s how the taxes, that are extracted to pay for our brave Blue Knights, is calculated.
It’s too late if we all wait till a significant tragedy stimulates a response, or everyone just sits back quietly until they have a loved on snared in drugs and violence and being forced into debaucherous acts or committing crimes.
Our brave police officers need our support right now to give them a fighting chance; it’s time to wake up Mary Poppins. I must take issue with your editorial of November 6, 2018.
The idea of Parihaka celebrations becoming a national celebration on November 5 is often promoted by those who stand to profit, groups in Taranaki and North Islanders with sympathies towards them.
But you don’t have to scratch the surface of the Parihaka myth to find glaring holes.
The government had very good reasons to suppress what could easily be described as a terrorist training camp.
Not only were government spies within the camp recording stockpiling of weapons, but the man organising the units of dissidents puling up surveyors pegs etc and standing at the right hand of Te Whiti was also the great and terrifying Titokowaru.
His violent campaign prior to joining Parihaka was nearly successful in collapsing the North Island settlements, land prices plummeted as settlers fled to Australia.
His reviving cannibalism as a weapon of war and killing the legendary Von Tempsky is just the tip of an awesome story.
He also knew from personal experience how quickly leadership can change in those sort of movements, as did the government.
It should be remembered that the response of the South Island Maori communities to the Taranaki land wars was to raise funds for the displaced settlers and organise a militia to protect their Takata Pora, the southern term for Europeans, from the northerners.
The concept that Maori were and are a homogeneous nation with a united world view is the sort of institutionalised racism that has caused many of the problems Maori face today.
I would have expected the editor of Southland’s paper to champion our world view as we are and always have been unique.
Guy Fawkes should remain as a reminder of the Protestant, Catholic silliness that brought many of our ancestors to Nui Tireni/New Zealand.
Martin McCully
Clean water for all
Having read with increasing disappointment Bernadette Hunt’s (our Federated Farmers Southern Provincial Meat and Wool Section chairperson) diatribe against this present Government’s efforts to improve water quality (Southland Times, November 2, 2018), instead of perhaps a report on the progress of the Wool Summit instituted by a very proactive Agriculture Minister, I can only wonder if she is using this article for political purposes.
As a farmer, I see positive, proactive decisions being made by progressive farmers to work towards a low-carbon economy.
They recognise that clean water for all is the basis of that economy.
I see nothing in the policies of this present Government that could be detrimental to the Southland economy, nor do I think we will see large-scale exotic afforestation supplanting sustainable farming.
The nearest ‘‘sacrifice’’ I seem to remember that Southland has endured, is the considerable percentage of funds from our Road User Charges (about 30 per cent) that the previous National Government siphoned off to bolster road funding for Wellington and Auckland.
Is that what she means by ‘‘sinister’’?
Chris Henderson (member Federated Farmers Southland Branch)
Is whitebait at risk?
I write in response to Southland whitebaiters who claim there’s no proof whitebait are in decline (November 6).
Whitebait are juveniles of five native fish species, and four out of five species are in decline. This was determined by a panel of top fish scientists back in 2013 – and was reconfirmed this year.
To determine if a population is in decline, you have to look at each phase of life (egg, juvenile, breeding adult), and look at what is happening all around the country, not a single river or catchment.
There is a reason that whitebaiters from the east coast of the South Island drive over to the West Coast – whitebait are in decline where they live.
Native fish face multiple threats – water pollution, wetland drainage, and barriers such as dams and culverts. It’s ‘‘death by 1000 cuts’’.
Whitebaiting may have been sustainable historically before these other pressures increased to such dangerous levels.
But now we are at crisis point and need to do everything we can to save our native fish.
We need to work towards eliminating all threats, and whitebaiting is one we can do something about right now. The three ko¯ kopu species are only found here in New Zealand – once they are gone, they are gone.
Forest & Bird is involved in the current whitebait consultation. We hope it results in better regulations – particularly around commercial whitebaiting – that help ensures our native fish have a future, and that Kiwis can still catch a feed for their families, sustainably. Annabeth Cohen (Forest & Bird Freshwater advocate)