Letters to the editor: Rail speed and infrastructure

Rail speed and infrastructure is a hot topic at the moment. Photo / File

Re Rob Rattenbury (Opinion, November 9), I disagree that the NZ rail gauge limits us to 100km/h.

South Africa has the same gauge, and an engineer there by the name of Scheffel in 1975 designed a bogie that enables train travel at much higher speed (see Wikipedia).

A record speed of 245km/h was set using these bogies on the South African narrow gauge.

I have always thought that a high-speed rail link between Auckland and Hamilton with limited stops, would open up the isthmus for commuters to live along a rail link such as this.

It would also lay down infrastructure for the day that inevitably Wellington gets hit by "the big one", and government realises that, facing the cost of rebuilding government centres there, it would be better to relocate to a more geographically stable location, such as Hamilton.

Chris Pattison
Tauranga

Chemicals cause concern

While watching a television advertisement for chemical cleaning of windows, chemical wall cleaning, and chemical decking cleaning, it has occurred that we are now relying on an awful amount of chemicals to do what used to be done by elbow grease.

We try not to use chemicals in the garden rather hoping that nature will get on with it, but in the last two years, I have had to go around the feijoas with a little brush because there are few bees to pollinate things.

I put up insect homes all winter but there was little sign of occupancy.

Are we using too many chemicals; are we killing nature in our desire to save a little extra work for ourselves?

Almost a whole aisle in some local stores can be devoted to the sale of chemicals to clean, kill, and remove half of the natural elements in the Kiwi garden.
Frightening.

Jim Adams
Rotorua

Be aware of bullying

Sadly, according to the NZ Herald, a large percentage of 8-year-olds say they've been bullied within the last 12 months.

Bullying has always been. If we were able to see social interactions over past millennia, I feel sure we would see it through all human societies and all ages as it is about dominance, fear, differences, and intolerance and mainly stems from parenting ideals and practices.

Parents, we need to be secure in who we are as caring people with an awareness of the needs and shortcomings of those around us.

This in turn needs to be demonstrated naturally in our interactions within our own family group.

Consistent, firm discipline should be used, based on the Bible's overall picture of a prosperous, caring society with an emphasis on the stable future that our children should inherit.

We need to support and encourage the same aims, based on the same principles, in our schools and all preparatory institutions charged with the raising useful adults capable of contributing to a decent society.

That evil is an inherent part of human nature should be obvious to all careful and considered observation.

John Williams
Ngongotaha

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