That’s why Eden Park is increasingly empty and the money is drying up for rugby too. No amount of hype can sell a flawed product.
Jeff Hayward, Auckland Central.
‘God help America’
Having recently read Sir John Wheeler Wheeler-Bennett’s Munich – Prologue to Tragedy, I’d be very keen to recommend it, not only to Donald Trump but also his Secretary of Defence, Pete Hesgeth.
Neither of them would have any clue about what happened almost 90 years ago and if they did, they would draw parallels and substitute Nazi Germany for Russia and Czechoslovakia for Ukraine. America as a “peace-maker” – what a joke!
And, as yet, I won’t get into the Robert F. Kennedy jnr issue. God help America.
Graeme Leary, Papakura.
Lessons from history
Last century in the 30s, a German tyrant dictator won a major concession from Great Britain. This was appeasement at its worst that failed to stop World War II as it was intended to. Trump’s detente with Putin is reminiscent of this recent history. It will have a similar outcome, and Ukraine will pay the price. Do we ever learn?
Larry Mitchell, Rothesay Bay.
School lunches
Let’s get this straight. No government, of any political persuasion, is obliged to provide school lunches free of charge.
Don’t like what’s on offer? Don’t like it being late? Bring lunch from home.
Janet Boyle, Ōrewa.
Provide breakfast instead?
There are over 2500 primary and secondary schools in New Zealand and as reported, just 449 are currently eligible to receive school lunches – equating to just 18% of all schools throughout New Zealand.
I am sure that some schools that are constantly complaining could easily be replaced by schools that are appreciative, that school lunches are actually available, with the other alternative of course being that the school lunch programme cease altogether.
If students are going to school hungry why wait to feed them until midday? Instead, provide them with breakfast which would more likely be provided on-site, at schools, rather than heated and delivered by contractors.
More focus on learning and less complaining about a free service is warranted.
Mike Baker, Tauranga.
Bike riding lessons
It seems that Auckland Council has spent nearly half a million dollars on a programme to provide free bike riding lessons for adults. This illustrates yet again how out of control the decision-making processes of the Auckland Council, or its subsidiary CCOs, actually are.
It is no wonder that our rates continue to increase each year. Perhaps this outrageous expenditure can be justified by the Mayor. Perhaps it is time for a Royal Commission to investigate how effective, or otherwise, the Super City Model is after some 15 years of operation.
Bruce Owen, Drury.
Gloomy power price outlook
Jamie Gray’s article gives a rather gloomy power price outlook (Herald, February 13) for this winter. Lake inflows in both islands are half their mean rates for this time of year and levels are well below maximum and declining.
Every winter we fire up Huntly and burn imported coal to get us through. Last year, artificially high power prices from our outdated pricing mechanism forced several business closures with associated job losses.
If our Government truly wants to do something inspirational and forwards-on-track, it should look no further than full steam ahead with installing solar power generation.
We have had three months of summer sunshine, as we have every year, leading into autumn and winter when we expect rain to fill our hydro lakes for power generation through the winter. Except that it is never enough, leading to shortages in the winter.
We need to use that summer sunshine to keep the water in the dams ready for winter. Combined with utility scale batteries solar energy would also cover the 6pm July peak demand.
The two major advantages are that we avoid importing coal or gas to generate winter electricity and that we avoid the burning of fossil fuels.
The levelised cost of solar installation has come down to the point where we must ask ourselves “if not now, when?”
Maurice Robertson, Torbay.
