Letters: Original Elms decision was a win-win for everyone

The Elms, Mission House.

For the past few months while in the Bay of Plenty, I have been watching closely the Tauranga councillors' about-turn decision making, regarding the Elms Te Papa Homestead.

First they agreed to hand back the site to an iwi trust which, in turn, was more than happy to generously offer it back to the Elms trust at a peppercorn rental for the next 99 years.

What a forward thinking and hugely conciliatory win-win decision.

Then, after some backlash from the wider community and major scaremongering from some of the councillors, they met again and withdrew their earlier offer to iwi.

What a shame Tauranga, for missing the chance of moving your community out of the past and into a future where working with iwi and not against them will be the norm.

Mike Lander
Thames

No solutions offered

I see that the student strike was a resounding success throughout New Zealand.

All young people can tell us adults, what is wrong with this country and how it has been mismanaged ever since the industrial revolution.

At this point, no one has said what should be done to correct the situation - oh yes, we should do away with oil and coal.

Then where would we get our plastics and synthetic clothing materials etc from, or the surfboards even the pleasure boats and the toothbrushes we use are plastic.

Combs could be made from whalebone, but that would not go down too well, would it? As well, the bitumen on the roads comes from oil.

However, following my comments about saving the planet, here are some suggestions of mine: Students could walk or bike to school; stay at home instead of going away for the holidays and certainly do not fly either in NZ or go overseas; must not borrow Mum's car to go to the school ball, go by bus, and, by the way, that synthetic material for your frock should be either cotton or rayon; stockings must not be nylon; even your cell phone is mainly plastic.

Of course what about asking the council for some unused land around the city, organise a large group of students to plant trees and keep them weeded till they grow, and they will help to soak up carbon dioxide, and the city will have a new park.

What do you think about these ideas?

John Smale
Fairy Springs

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