Letters to the Editor

Mangawhai always surprises

A surprising and enjoyable Mangawhai night. On a cool and crisp Saturday (April 13), myself and a friend decided at the last minute to visit the Mangawhai Tavern, not only to see the old pub again, but to relax after a day's activities and check out the local band, who were not due to start until 9pm.


The pub was it's usual friendly, warm and accommodating self, and hadn't changed too much. Sometimes things are better when they don’t. We drove into the old car park feeling a little jaded after a full day both working and sampling the local surf, and on exiting our car commented on how chilly it had turned all of a sudden this week. We thought it most likely the reason there were so few cars around. The Easter break was only just over, colder and maybe us out-of-towners had decided to play catch-up at home this weekend. We even jibed that we might have misread the venue. 

After settling back with a welcome Mac's, we didn’t care too much about being part of a smaller audience due to the timing, and carried on talking the typical malespeak that makes our absent partners smile and glaze over. What a wake-up call – this band kicked off with punch and style. The lead singer came out with a personality of her own and rhythm to match, combined with a sense of humour. All the members of this somewhat understated band (The Damage) ha d a special individual talent.
No sooner had they covered a couple of Rolling Stone's hits, the next renditions of Stevie Ray Vaughan's classics ensured that we didn’t succumb to our fast-approaching weariness. 

Mangawhai always has plenty to do and plenty of surprises, and they are never bad. We will be back again for another one. 


More questions for commissioners

Regards Commissioner John Robertsons first propaganda piece in the Focus: I hope that the Focus was paid standard advertising rates for the space? If so, why is ratepayer money spent manufacturing consent for government agenda?

Thanks to Mr Robertson for his edict that we “must look to the future.” In my case though this instruction is superfluous. I have already looked to the future and under the present regime can see the payment of compounding interest on unethical (currently illegal) loans, and consequent ever-increasing rates bills for the foreseeable future. 

Mr Robertson tells us that he is on 'our side' or at least on the side of the community. He does not enlighten us as to which or what community but his actions indicate that it is not the 'Kaipara Community'. Perhaps he means the banking community or the business community? 

Since Mr Robertson is so keen on answering our questions I have a couple for him:

1. What moves have been made by the commission to negotiate with the banks regards interest rates and repayments? They did, after all, make unethical  loans, without properly ascertaining the clients ability to effect repayment.

2. What efforts have been made to recover monies from those actually responsible for the district’s woeful position rather that simply billing ratepayers who are innocent of any council associated incompetence or malfeasance. 

3. Has a claim been made on the public liability insurance of the office of the Auditor General for negligent auditing going back at least a decade? If not, why not? 

If Mr Robertson believes he is on 'our side' I would respectfully ask, given his performance to date, could he please go and play for someone else.

Council lied to me

I have a minor issue with the Kaipara council and the result is: The council lied to me and to the Ombudsman. The council gave false information to the QV office in order to fabricate new evidence. To me this is one of the worst cowardly actions perpetrated by a so-called ‘public servant’.

I am a firm believer this matter should be promptly investigated and the mastermind of these actions should be named and dismissed on the spot otherwise I am lead to believe that all decision makers in the council, from the chief executive down, are a bunch of crooks. Are we happy to pay a fat salary to such people?

Egg drop ideas

Regarding the Easter egg drop on Easter Sunday, at Mangawhai Beach School, I was impressed by the organisation of parking and the ease of access for pedestrians. The sausage sizzle afterwards was a real hit, and the parking wardens moved the vehicles out, quickly and safely.

What I was concerned about was:

1. I saw several little kids who had been bowled over by older ones. No serious injuries, but squashed their chances of collecting Easter eggs. I think that the scramble could be limited to kids 8 years and under.

2. When the helicopter dropped the Easter eggs, there were still about 30 adults and children walking to the school along Insley St. The pilot could easily have seen this and delayed the drop by 5–10 minutes. Of course it would cost a bit more for the helicopter, but I can't see that there would be any disaster happening by allowing all those kids to be there at the drop.

The reason that all these people were late was the assumption that there was no parking closer than the shops and it's a few minutes walk to the school from there with little ones. (However there was still parking in the school grounds but nobody knew.)

My point is that dropping the eggs at exactly 12 was a little inflexible.