Only then will peace reign once more, and The Strand people will breathe a sigh of relief.
Dune restoration
I wish to congratulate Mark Dean on being awarded the Loder Cup for 2011. Working in the biodiversity field, I have known Mark and Esme Dean for the past 25 years and have the utmost respect for their vision to promote New Zealand's native vegetation, naturally. As a fellow trustee of the Dune Restoration Trust, I know how hard Mark works to promote the restoration of New Zealand sand dune communities.
Mark has been at the forefront of dune restoration and after six years of trials, was the first nursery in the world to successfully germinate spinifex, New Zealand's native sand binding grass.
Mark is a hard worker and freely shares his knowledge with the rest of New Zealand.
Robyn Smith, Trustee Dune Restoration Trust of New Zealand
Sign of the times
It's that time again when the roadsides are swamped with signs of grinning faces that first become irritating and then objectionable.
Some smaller signs encroach on footpaths causing a hazard for children walking or cycling.
Obviously the party placing them have little respect for others it is all about the signs being seen or even tripped over.
Steve Brown, Tauranga
MMP tweaking
There is little doubt that MMP is not a perfect method of electing a government, however, with some carefully thought out tweaks it would certainly be the best of all the options.
For example, when one considers that an MP would be worth somewhere between 19,000 and 25,000 votes in New Zealand the requirement for a party to reach 5per cent of the vote is too much. For a country of four million-plus it should be much lower, possibly around the 3 per cent mark.
When one considers that NZ First obtained about 4.1 per cent ( some 96,000 votes), much higher than some other successful parties and failed to obtain a seat, it is definitely not a fair go.
One must also remember that the Royal Commission on MMP observed that there was no need for separate seats based on racial grounds, as all citizens would be adequately represented through general and list seats.
FFP (first past the post) has nothing to recommend it whatsoever.
As history shows, we could again see the tail wagging the dog with only a 38 per cent majority vote from carefully selected electorates.
Putting all the eggs in one basket could be a nightmare, especially if all the rotten ones are in the same basket.
Unfortunately, party politics can be the absolute ruination of good management and a more balanced representation is long overdue.
Guy Dennison, Maungatapu
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