Letters to the Editor

 

Well done to Scouts
In my eyes, and most probably others, the sight of idle rubbish strewn along the roadside in both Mangawhai and Kaiwaka areas has long been a blot on our landscape.

What a fantastic fundraising initiative by the local Scouts under the leadership of Jenny Webb in recently cleaning up the littered roadside area between the two towns.

I would now like to suggest another challenge to them all in doing a similar job along the main roadway itself into Mangawhai, say, right from the Welcome To Kaipara sign at the top, around the sharp ‘crash corner’ (as we call) it, and right along past the school into the Village, then around and past the village shops and all along the Causeway, Molesworth Street and around the Wood Street shops.

This major area is in dire need of a similar clean up. The ditches particularly along the 80km road area appear strewn with all manner of car thrown and public deposited rubbish.

I feel sure that many local residents, shop and business owners would be very willing to put their hands in their pockets and donate to the Scouts to have them carry out a clean up in this area.

Having Mangawhai look clean, appealing and rubbish free would certainly be beneficial to both residents and the many visitors to our gorgeous area.

A couple of years ago I led an initiative (as a volunteer) in a similar vein under the Let’s Keep NZ Beautiful banner, with a number of the school children and parents assisting me, but in all honesty due to the high ratio of visitors and the low ratio of rubbish bins available around town it’s obvious that Mangawhai could well benefit from a litter clean up of major areas twice a year.

Here’s hoping the Kaiwaka Scouts may take up the initiative as a worthwhile fundraiser to benefit themselves and also the rest of us who appreciate a tidy town. I’d certainly happily give them my donation to take this on.

Annie Kitchener
Mangawhai


On a pedestal
Roy Vaughan still fails to educate the people. He stands on a pedestal and subtly accuses the MHRS of ‘tinkering’ yet offers no constructive or productive long term proposal. He even latches on, in my opinion, to others’ dumb proposals like Dr Meads (artificial substantial reef company) that an offshore reef ‘may be’ a solution.

May I enlighten the people of this community.

Mangawhai-Pakiri district survey records dating back to March 1929 show wind-blown sand deposited on the harbour shallows opposite the known breach location pushed the channel eastwards causing horrendous erosion of the spit inner shoreline. The end result was a combination of deflation and erosion which contributed to the breach happening – a matter if not ‘if’ but ‘when.’

The current diminished supply of sand is inadequate to rebuild the spit begging the question today: How long will the spit survive in the face of rising sea levels

and ocean swells, and does this community want to save the spit and the harbour?

The farmers of Oxnard, California have proved to me a southern groyne is stage one of a survival plan to save the spit and the harbour. Neither the birds, the fish nor the mangroves play any part in protecting the harbour shoreline against rising sea levels and never will.

Only the people of this community can save it. History shows we cannot rely on the NRC or DOC.

Stage two is to straighten the channel. Stage three is to build a channel anti-erosion wall and backfill with existing sand/silt mix after removal of all mangroves. Stage four is to build an ocean side spit ‘sea wall.’

Noel Paget
Mangawhai


Thieves steal posts
The Mangawhai Coast Care Group is an informal group of local folk, in partnership with the Northland Regional Council (NRC), committed to restoring the coastal dunes at Mangawhai Heads.

The planting of pingao and spinifex, as well as back dune plants, aims to stabilise the sand and ensure it is retained following storm events. Planting of hundreds of plants has been carried out over the past two years with very good establishment due to the cooperation of beach users staying off the dune area. It is however, hard to retain enthusiasm for the project when some miserable individual(s) decides to cut the barrier tape and steal the perimeter posts.

Our group has no funds, relies on the voluntary labour of the community, and the support of NRC in undertaking this work. We would like our posts back but I guess this is a pretty forlorn hope.

Gordon Hosking
Mangawhai Coast Care Group


Part-Maori capable
There has been a disturbing trend around the country of local Councils appointing unelected part-Maori representatives, granting them full voting rights. This has been done without consulting the electorate and one must question the legality of such actions.

The incumbent board members were elected to a Council that had a set structure and set of rules, therefore any changes to that basic format should require prior consent from those whom the Council claims to represent.

Arbitrarily changing the rules after an election is a violation of voters’ trust, so any proposal for major change should be a part of an aspiring candidates electoral campaign prior to the election. Only then will the people have a true voice and no longer be deceived by those who may have a hidden agenda that overrides democracy.

There is no problem in consulting with local Maori to hear their viewpoint on certain matters, but Council members must carefully differentiate between what is good for the community and token appeasement of taniwha at the bottom of the garden.

Politics and religion do not sit well together in local government.

People who consider that part-Maori need special help are being unwittingly patronising and invalidative of those of Maori descent who are quite capable of being elected to Council on their own merit.

Part-Maori are in no way inferior to other citizens, so at least give them a chance to stand on their own two feet without brainwashing an entire mixed-race generation into believing that a smattering of ancestral genes makes them “special”.

Any candidates with racially based policies must make their intentions very clear before voting time. Those of us who still value democracy will then know exactly where they stand.

Mitch Morgan
Kaipara