Real reason
As the call goes out, in some quarters, for the compulsory teaching of Maori, te reo, it was interesting to read Hekia Parata's self-aggrandising article in the Herald on the advances in Maori education during her stewardship and find she seems against the proposition.
Rodney Hide had, in an earlier article, given very cogent reasons why it is impractical and untenable. Ms Parata stated that in 2015, $400 million was given by the Government to promote te reo. That amounted then to $2800 for each speaker. Imagine that on a national education level.
The only occupations where fluency in te reo is essential for employment are in some areas of law, the media, education and tourism. These fields require much broader educational qualifications than are offered by te reo. In education, te reo seems to be a self-promoting requirement. One needs more fluent te reo teachers to teach te reo.
Bryan Johnson
Omokoroa
Not feeling love
Regarding the One Love Festival, congratulations on managing the noise levels for this event, this year. (A disaster last year).
Alcohol. This year residents have major issues with crowd control outside the venue. In particular, Hamilton St West and Wharepai Domain area where people congregated to drink alcohol. These people were happy to urinate on private gardens in full view of the public and householders even though public toilets were just across the road.
Rubbish. Masses of rubbish was left behind. The clean-up after only partially cleared the Wharepai Domain and Hamilton St West, where bottles and rubbish lie where it was dropped.
Parking. There was no traffic management in the area of Hamilton St where Wharepai Domain was used for parking on Saturday, both sides of the road were parked on, in many cases two deep, making it impossible at times to exit our property.
This is simply not good enough management of a major event in this day and age. It seems to me that no thought was given to the thousands of people who either had no intention of going to the event or were locked out for some other reason, being left to flout the liquor laws, road rules and who demonstrated a total lack of respect for private property.
Geoff Willacy
Tauranga
Engage students
"I congratulate Tommy Kapai for his excellent article, about mandatory te reo being a wrong move (Opinion, February 6). I think Tommy has got it right. Telling people they will do something as part of a social engineering programme is divisive and builds resistance.
Tommy sprinkled a few Maori words throughout his article and explained the definition of each. I found it interesting, and it invited me to learn more about the Maori language."
Ian Young
Papamoa
Referendum the way to go
Hear, hear and well done R Paterson (Letters, February 10). BIT (Bay Institute of Technology to replace Toi Ohomai) makes enormous sense and, if it can't make it on its own, a referendum would democratically show the way so that the issue can go to bed.
B Anderson
Tauranga