Letters to the Editor

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Design lacks ‘soul’
The Wood Street revitalisation project was initiated by the Mangawhai Business Association. The Council has asked for community feedback. And, just to establish the playing field here, this offering is not about traffic movement (it would appear public response to the one-way parking circus is gradually being sorted), this is at a more organic level. Read atmosphere, ambience and aesthetics and the ‘enhancement’ thereof.

The Wood Street shopping precinct serves an iconic, charming, kiwi seaside village. And, in its current organically evolved form, it is what it is and serves us perfectly well. We are not a city and, by the impression I'm given from permanent locals, nor are we in any hurry to become one.

Here's the thing. Mangawhai Wood Street shops do not need the white painted industrial size concrete pipe offcuts passing themselves off as 'planters', or the 'urban street art' on the road. They do nothing to enhance the already existing natural beauty of the village’s wonderful coastal setting. In fact, they detract. They are harsh, ugly, intrusions into a natural coastal setting already enhanced with trees, grasses, flowers in gardens, flowers growing wild on the soft edged verges, a picturesque golf course at the entrance to Wood Street and a beautiful user friendly estuarial beach at the other end.

Why the need to create artificial spaces for organised 'street games' or whatever when we have the amazing MAZ park just up the road? In this context let the visual attraction, colour and texture of the shopping area be provided by the design of the store fronts and window displays. That's what shops do to attract people.

Matakana village and market space, which draws on its rural and rustic influences, is a good example of how the essence of a place can be enhanced in a genuine style that creates a welcoming relaxed shopping environment. It is not a shopping mall, and it does not pretend to be. I urge the Wood Street enhancement committee not try and compete with whatever Mangawhai Central intends to be.

Wood Street’s appeal is in its coastal organic charm influenced by a maritime environment – the dune, the sea, fishing, surfing, bach and beach lifestyle, in harmony with the emerging artisan and artistic profile of Mangawhai. It is what it is. That is why Aucklanders find Mangawhai such a wonderful escape from the city. The concrete pipe vibe and painted road surfaces is the very thing they come here to get away from. In Wood Street all it does is simply lower the tone.

Wood Street should play to its strengths. It's a seaside village, keep it stress free, keep it simple, keep the coastal atmosphere, keep it loose. Keep it honest. Keep it real. Draw on our Kiwi coastal and maritime heritage for design influences. Trust yourselves. You really do have a great thing going, don't bugger it up by trying to be something you’re not. Leave that to the other development guys. They are quite capable of buggering it up for themselves with their complete lack of empathy for the real 'soul' of Mangawhai.

I make these comments in the light of the following Council statement: "The project is an iterative design, and can be tweaked and changed through the two year period it will be in place."

Famous quote: "There are no statues in any of the great cities of the world commemorating a committee.”

John Dawson
Mangawhai Heads
 

Base views on facts The letter to the editor from Christine Silvester regarding the Mangawhai Harbour Restoration Society (MHRS) (Mangawhai Focus, Jan 25 edition) is misleading and at times false. The MHRS does not “feed rubbish propaganda”. We are only interested in the health of the harbour for all concerned and base all the information we provide on what we do on supportable fact. Christine Silvester: “The Second entrance opened up during a cyclone.” Richard Bull: “Over years of neglect caused by loss of vegetation, no rabbit control and commercial nearshore sand extraction, the sandspit degraded into a deflated state. In 1978, severe easterly storms breached the sandspit. As the tidal flow increased and widened the breach, this flushed thousands of cubic metres of sand into the harbour covering and killing large areas of shellfish and exposing the inner harbour shoreline to erosion.” CS: “There was no foul smelling unhealthy environment; Picnic Bay was not a toxic polluted environmental wasteland.” Richard Bull: “Children who swam in the harbour were being treated for infected sores. School picnics were curtailed. To dig in the sand out from the campground brought up a smell that was akin to a malfunctioning septic tank.” CS: “If the MHRS have created marine and bird life habitats that are so treasured today, please explain.” Graeme Smith: “The 12 hectare (Sand Island) mangrove removal site qualifies as a RAMSAR site of significance for the NZ dotterel and has been documented as having significant use by the eastern bar-tailed godwit. Fairy tern nesting sites have been created on the sandspit. Scientific research in Mangawhai Harbour has documented an increase in biodiversity and density of marine organisms following mangrove removal.” CS: “MHRS sucked up, and destroyed millions of living pipis on the estuary floor and dumped them on the sandspit.” Richard Bull: “Initial dredging picked up dead shellfish smothered under thousands of tonnes of sand from the breach. There will always be some live shellfish dredged up, however the shell that has been dredged up and placed on the sandspit has contributed to nesting areas for the fairy tern.” CS: “Dredging… turned the entire estuary bright orange…” MHRS: The “entire estuary” was orange following Cyclone Wilma in January 2011. A clay slip on Cove Road entered the estuary and turned the entire estuary orange, for around three days. This was in no way associated with dredging. CS: “MHRS removed mangroves (near Hideaway campground) they destroyed the nest sites of hundreds of starlings.” Graeme Smith: “There are no mangrove dependent avian species in New Zealand. There were no bird nests found within the 19 hectare mangrove removal areas. Ms Silvester’s statement regarding nest sites of hundreds of (exotic) starlings is false.” CS: “Sand dune planting over many years has not helped birdlife that lives on the sandspit.” Graeme Smith: “The annual planting programme using native pingao and spinifex is an essential means of stabilising the movement of sand on the Sandspit. Windblown sand can cover the shell nesting sites of the fairy tern. The Department of Conservation often requests MHRS deposit shell on the Spit for fairy tern nesting areas. The stabilising of the Spit is also important in slowing down the movement of sand into the channel. This reduces the need for dredging to maintain water flow throughout the estuary.” MHRS takes the health of the harbour very seriously and the before and after photos that can be seen on our website bear testament to that. Go to mangawhaiharbourrestorationsociety.com We acknowledge that there are people in the community that have different viewpoints but all we ask is that that they base their views on facts. John Pearson Chair, MHRS

 

Requiem to Pan

Quantitative easement.

Politicking appeasement.

Quantum leap.

Bad medicine for the sheep.

Fly blown butt; wait there's more.

Batten down the hatches

We're in for a hell of a storm.

Chuck in a pandemic.

Nothing like a little pan -

Demonic panic.

Back to the future, like back in history.

Cull back the population – the old ones particularly.

The young will take care of the young.

The little heroes – the unsung.

Sad all this.

It could be a state of -

real bliss.

Not the state of the enemy or

the enemy of the state.

Oh well! Let's “Be kind” and

deal with man kinds –

New World Order mandate.

Edith Johnston
Wellsford

 

History of New Zealand
I note with interest the intention to introduce a programme of New Zealand history into our schools. It should be a good step in the education system with an obvious proviso

that the content is as accurate and impartial as possible. However this does give me a degree of concern and confusion due to the following.

When I was at school we were taught that the first meaningful migration of peoples to this land arrived in their canoes from lands far far away. The next wave of migrants arrived on or about the 18th century in their big ships, also from lands far far away. We were lead to believe that a degree of harmonious and good-natured existence endured for some time. Let us accept that for now!

And now this is where my confusion takes hold with the claim by certain people that there are indigenous people in this land. This claim has been made by a retired governor general and several learned people with a law background from Otago and Canterbury Universities. Now the word indigenous as detailed in the Oxford Dictionary and the Heinemann New Zealand Dictionary (1979) simply means belonging naturally, not imported or bought in, originating in or being native to a particular place.

Considering the definitions of the word from these renowned and distinguished sources, there can be no known indigenous people of this land. We apparently have all migrated here from lands far far away! It cannot be both as some claims are being made. We are either migrants or indigenes, one or the other, definitely not both.

And so what other lies, half-truths and myths will be included in this educational package? Considering the current climate of political correctness and extreme bias towards ethnic claptrap, I feel my concerns are real and justified. Thank goodness I have finished my formal education.

Wake up New Zealand, we are on a high speed train into the world of apartheid, all at the expense of rate payers and tax payers with no real benefit to New Zealand and New Zealanders. For the young people and those who have forgotten, the word apartheid is Afrikaans and means “separate development”. Sometimes I think the high speed train has already reached its destination.

What a great pity we cannot all be New Zealanders going into the future together!

Peter Matheson
Maungaturoto

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