Letters to the Editor

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Fake news & spin
Once again Worzel, in his columns, is blatantly guilty of the same ‘fake news’ and ‘spin' he accuses others of.

Recently he declared that there was no evidence that 1080 poison was effective in the battle to save our endangered birds? To what then does he attribute the rebound in populations of the kokako, saved from extinction in the forests north and south of us? Such successes are being replicated throughout the country.

Now he engages in a disjointed one-sided diatribe against NATO, the Americans, and our own armed forces that he accuses of murdering civilians. He cites the evidence of two journalists.

Mr Sellars, I would back the integrity of our defence chiefs against that of those discredited journalists and yourself any day.

South Korea, Malaysia, Brunei are some of the post war nations whose freedom was won by New Zealand forces as part of a wider alliance. New Zealand-led operations in Bougainville and the Solomon’s undoubtedly saved hundreds of civilian lives. And even New Zealand’s extreme left ideologues called for and applauded the ANZAC intervention in East Timor.

The reality is that our armed forces serve in whatever capacity our government, elected by the people, determines, and they do so honourably and professionally. Nonetheless my real heroes are those thousands of civilians who work unheralded and often unrewarded for our communities in countless ways. Is Mr Sellars one of these?

MC Harris
Te Arai

 

Stick to the plan
I cannot fathom why the current formal Structure Plan and the current formally adopted District Plan are simply ignored when it comes to decision making. Those plans have cost millions of dollars and they have been lawfully adopted after integrating the views of many people.

Those plans also describe very elegantly how we should manage the growth of Mangawhai, that is, how the council should manage the growth of Mangawhai on behalf of the ratepayers and those who live here.

Those plans very clearly demand to avoid traditional grid fashion subdivision and they require instead a focus on open space design.

Those plans require a walkway-and-bicycle network through Mangawhai.

But despite this, subdivisions in outmoded, tedious grid fashion that actually block off walkways and cycle linkages continue to get approved. The council has the power to insist on compliance with its District Plan. Why doesn’t it do so?

I believe that developers and the Council have an obligation to act lawfully and respect the planning ordnance that have been so carefully created. Failure to comply with our own plans, which every resident has the right to expect council to do, is an attack on democracy. So it is unethical and immoral. And the effect is that we are destroying the beauty of our town.

The first step Council needs to do for Mangawhai is to establish a walkway-and-bicycle network plan. Next, the council must force all developers to link their developments to that network and create open space areas mandated in the District Plan.

Christian Simon
Mangawhai

 

Fishing fraternity floundering
Rob Pooley wrote in his last opinion piece ‘Wanted: A fair go for all fisherman’ (Mangawhai Focus, April 24). It concerned a local cray fisherman who has had his pots and livelihood vandalised, probably by ratbag recreational fishers. I agree, a despicable happening.

There is though, another angle that might well have contributed to this, nevertheless, inexcusable situation. It is worth noting that in this jewel land of the sea, many can no longer afford fish for their families.

And where can we buy the local catch in Mangawhai, or affordable crayfish?

It's now over 50 years since I washed ashore in this once Pacific paradise, and Kipling's last verse of his ‘Song of the Cities’ sure rang true to me as I stepped ashore: "Last, loneliest, loveliest, exquisite, apart."

He was describing Auckland, and so it was back then. A fair go for all who worked for it, and so it remained until the 80's, when the big money people rogered us all, in the shape of their implant – Mr Douglas. And so it's sadly continued, right to this day.

Within a short time of arriving here I was sailing and learning to fly. Work got in the way a bit, but my sailor friends were toying with scuba diving. No dive schools in those days, though we did obtain US dive tables and swotted up. A three month wait then for a flimsy 3mm wet suit from Australia, so my first dive was off the Noises in a pair of jeans and a sweater. No buoyancy compensators then either. Straight down and heavier as you dropped. Unbelievable sea life of all sorts awaiting.

For many years we owned a lovely Matangi yacht, and dived from the Coromandel to North Cape and all the islands between, most often the first to see the hidden wonder under those many places. Goat Island and the Poor Knights too, before they became marine reserves. Although put out to graze a decade ago, I did my last dive a couple of years ago, off Taiharuru, where I'd dived over 40 years earlier. Where once swam damoiselles, black angel fish, pufferfish, leather jackets, mao mao and every small cave filled with big eye, moki and crays, now was mostly, only scattered sea eggs.

In the 90's I took a position in Marlborough and sailed over the top and down the West Coast to the Sounds. I also wrote a Saturday page for the Marlborough Express and was invited to join the committee of Marlborough Fishers. Met often with the under-staffed Ministry of Fisheries. There had been one voluntary fishing warden in the Eastern Sounds, then he was no more and people were instructed if they saw any doubtful activity to ring Nelson where it may have been decided to dispatch a helicopter. It was accepted that more paua illegally left the Sounds than legally. It's still the same today.

To sail Northland until later years, it was a cert to catch a swag of kahawai trolling at 4 knots, or several bonito at 6 knots. Every few miles the sea would be boiling for about 100 or so metres around with diving gannets by the score, with tern atop and snapper lurking for scraps below. They were known as meatballs. All sadly gone, while tons of kahawai come back now, tinned from Australia as pet food. It is known that almost as much by-catch is thrown back to waste as fish landed, yet with the evidence, the Ministry of Primary Industries choose to do nothing, and much of the very body set up to monitor sustainability is industry owned. Meanwhile, rust buckets and slave labour have fished our waters while able kiwis kick their heels.

Fishing quotas? A few years ago my son, returning from the Aussie mines, thought he'd look at a fishing quota and asked me to help. I rang the Ministry and they suggested two brokers. Yep, if you won lotto it's on, but like everything now, quotas are for sale to the highest bidder, if at all, with crayfish up there with the top prices, and most catch, of course, goes overseas. Tough bikkies Kiwi.

The ACT party now want tradable rights for water. Air next I spose! Our poor grandchildren.

Terry Harris
Mangawhai

 

Our history a big puzzle
Thank you, Liz Clark, for your reply (Mangawhai Focus, Apr 24) to my letter in a previous issue.

I became interested in New Zealand’s early history at a very young age (six), and at eight, my mother told me that she knew Tommy Solomon, the last full-blooded Moriori, who died in 1935. At the same age, some 70 years ago now, while on school holiday with my aunty in Kaniere, Hokitika, she told me about three men who were on an expedition down South Westland-Western Otago, in dense bush, and they came upon the remains of a huge wooden ship, which had lain there for approximately 600 years. After almost 70 years, I believe that I now have the answer to it.

Could somebody tell me why about 12 ancient oak trees, each of which were some two metres thick, were cut down by our very own Department of Conservation in the Bay of Islands? They said that these trees were not a part of our history, but I believe that that was exactly what they were! They may have been 600-800 years old, proving that a race of people had been here apart from Maori at that time.

Gnarled old pohutukawa trees grow along the Mediterranean Coast of Spain. They are said to be at least 500 years old. How did they get there?

How about a stone from up north called the Jesus Stone? It looks like a watch face with scratches marked in a circle which look like minute strokes with two hands on it.

A stone at Raglan has ancient writing on it, certainly not Maori markings. Rock drawings in Canterbury and Otago are said to be from people other than Maori as well. Who were these people?

You were right about one thing, Liz. The Waitaha people were not white. They originated from China, but that is another story, and may be well tied in that ancient ship in the bush.

You are right about another thing as well, Liz. I have not done much research, but as I have gone through life I have picked up pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, and have gradually put them together. It is turning out to make a fascinating picture!

Kevan G Marks
Kaipara

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