Letters to the editor: Increasing syphilis rates a sign of the times

Rising syphilis rates are a sign of the degeneration of New Zealand, a reader says. Photo / Getty Images

Increasing syphilis rates a sign of the times

The article headed "Syphilis rates worst seen in NZ" (Nation, September 6) seems just another example of the degeneration of our lovely little country.

Before antibiotics became the easy cure for venereal diseases, syphilis was treated by the "umbrella" and should that method be brought back, I feel sure persons would be more careful about their sexual casualness.

Along with some old-fashioned cures, which were mostly quite painful, it wouldn't hurt for some discipline and self-respect to return to our society as well.

Babies born with this awful disease, along with the fetal alcohol and drug-addicted babies, are the saddest of them all as these poor innocent victims haven't had a chance from the minute they were conceived.

My sister was an intensive care nurse for many years and says the cry of a newly-born addicted baby is the most heart wrenching of all sounds.

Gwyneth Jones
Greerton

Changes will make traffic worse

Does anyone in Tauranga City Council's roading division have any idea, foresight or just plain old common sense??

How can they not see that an already busy section of road that bottlenecks through Greerton Village from town is only going to get 100 times worse if you then make the road come into a single lane and also add traffic lights into the equation?

What they should have done is get rid of the small amount of parking on the side of the road to create two lanes of traffic that can freely move and navigate around the roundabout, keeping traffic flowing.

Factor in the new traffic lights that will be going in at Barkes Corner roundabout, creating further queues along Cameron Rd and gridlock back to Greerton, things are only going to get worse.

The village idiots, in this case, seem to be Tauranga City Council, who, in my opinion, have absolutely no clue whatsoever about improving our failing roading infrastructure.

Kevin Russo
Pyes Pa

Wind of determination coming

When Trevor Mallard, currently Parliament's Speaker, deleted the name of Jesus Christ from the Parliamentary Prayer last year he probably didn't expect to ruffle many feathers.

Neither would he have expected to tweak the one nerve that could unite Christian - let alone non-Christian - churches in a unified response to this ill-advised act: Anglican, Baptist, Catholic, Mormon, Muslim, Ratana – all have reason to protest at the deletion.

For some, it's the insult to the Lord and Saviour; for others, an unwarranted change to a sacred, historical document (the first in 160 or so years); for some, the threat of a growing disregard for all things religious; for others, to demonstrate by responding together, the power of the Body of Christ.

Leaders of church after church are signing up to support a combined rally on the grounds of Parliament on October 30.

The drive behind the rally comes from a group known as NZSA, New Zealand strategic Alliance, with associations in Australia and Asia, whose executive director, Pastor Ross Smith of the Celebration Church in Thorndon, Wellington, is the live wire igniting the flame throughout the country.

From all appearances, there's a wind of determination heading for windy Wellington come October.

Don Brebner
Omokoroa