Letters: Boomer life, state tenants, Grace Millane and Bill Reid

Blue skies above and the crunch of gravel underfoot, such was the early lives of Baby Boomers. Photo / 123rf

Letter of the week: Lindsey Roke, Manukau

I'm an early baby boomer; here's how it was.
We only locked our back door when we went away for Christmas holidays; it had an unsophisticated key; probably about a quarter of the other back doors keys up our road would have opened ours.
My primary schooling – primmer one to standard six (now called years one to eight) – was at Matakana. then a school of about 100 kids. It had just four paid staff ­– all taught fulltime. No other wages were paid, apart from to some of us older kids for sweeping and tidying the classrooms and corridors after school each night. We also mowed the lawns and did the gardening but that was in school hours and done for free. Once or twice a year a local farmer would mow the field with his tractor.
No bus then; unless someone happened to come along and pick us up, I walked (no shoes and no footpaths) or, later, rode a bike (after I had saved up for years and bought one for £18.10 ($36.50). It was one and a half miles (2.6km) each way, all on metal roads.
Mum was usually home when we got there but not always; there was no rules then about not being left alone.
TV hadn't arrived for us and for a year or so between one radio blowing up and us buying another, no radio.
Money was not front and centre; my parents never bought anything until they could pay for it. It was a good life.

Tenant mix

Re: "Residents flee Flat Bush state tenants" (Weekend Herald, November 30), I was very disappointed in the Housing NZ spokesperson's arrogant response, blaming the existing residents for the troubles caused by HNZ's tenants.
Buying up a whole section of housing and filling it with one provider's tenants is known as a recipe for trouble, hence why the new developments that HNZ is doing in Tamaki mixes HNZ, rented and owner-occupied dwellings to balance the new community.
Andrew Parsons, Orakei.

Procedural justice

Those who, like correspondent Claire Chambers (Weekend Herald, November 30), want procedural "justice" for Grace Millane and other victims don't seem to understand the court's perspective.
The court doesn't know anything has happened "out there" at all, only that a number of people are saying terrible things about the person in the dock.
The court's view is: "That is a free person. If you want this court to take away that freedom, you've got a lot of convincing to do. Don't expect me to make it easy for you."
"Justice" for the "victim" doesn't make any sense until the court knows they're a victim, and that isn't known until the jury finds the defendant guilty – at the end of the trial. Meanwhile, proof of guilt should be difficult.
Gavan O'Farrell, Lower Hutt.

Forced disruption

Has the Tūpuna Maunga Authority asked the native trees of Mt Albert/Ōwairaka their views on the removal of life long partners in the tree canopy of Mt Albert?
These trees, exotic and native have lived in harmony, side by side, for more than 100 years, symbolic of the Treaty of Waitangi.
The violent and traumatic removal of 345 partner trees will forever taint the mauri of their partner trees who remain.
Of course, these views only apply to those of us who believe the maunga has a soul and trees have a life force.
Max Allen, Waterview.

Container weight

Alex Swney in his letter (Weekend Herald, November 30) paints an incomplete picture regarding larger container ships calling Auckland.
The TEU capacity of a vessel is calculated on an average container weight of around 13500 tonnes per TEU. Import containers weigh far less than export ones, therefore, the draft requirements for vessels arriving in Auckland as opposed to those sailing from Tauranga are different.
The bulk of the containers discharged from Auckland carry, in the main, consumer goods which are considerably lighter per TEU than those being loaded at Tauranga which in many instances have a gross weight in excess of 20 tonnes. Therefore the arrival and departure draft at Auckland is less of an issue than the departure draft Tauranga.
As a result, the Port of Tauranga made provision for a deeper channel due to the higher average weight of the containers loaded, but also already on board from other New Zealand ports.
Furthermore, because a large vessel has been rendered redundant because of the introduction of VLCCs doesn't mean it could automatically enter the New Zealand trade as, unless it had the capacity to carry a large number of reefer containers, it would be of little or no use to our major exporters dairy, meat and horticultural products.
Gavin Baker, Glendowie.

Tunnel vision

I have great sympathy for Bill Reid in his long and, so far, unsuccessful attempt to re-open the Albert Park tunnels (Canvas, November 30).
What a pathetic and blinkered attitude successive Auckland councils have had towards this re-development which has so many usage possibilities. Perhaps if he offered to run an e-scooter service through the tunnels, they might be more cooperative?
Nick Nicholas, Greenlane.

Password purgatory

Your article by Steve Braunias (Canvas, November 9) got my attention.
I am another victim of Apple. Somehow I lost contact with my iPhone and found myself having to "enter" ID passwords, etc.
I do keep a list of passwords for various needs - it seems the world is controlled by secret passwords nowadays.
Anyway I could not remember the correct password and after calling Apple, I was told to go to iTunes. Who the hell wants to go to iTunes in their mid-eighties?
iTunes seemed to be the course to reigniting my Apple phone - that in itself seemed to identify the small mental world some of these IT people live in.
The catch with downloading iTunes to reignite the iPhone was that none of my 50-60 photos I had collected all over the world would be saved.
I know I should have put them "in a cloud" but what's that? There's an assumption the people in their 80s should be just as IT savvy as an Apple employees
With help, I got my phone reconnected but lost five years of photos that meant so much to me and our family.
My beef is why do they purposely have to punish people like that? It must be a specific effort they hope to punish us with.
David Craig, Epsom.

A quick word

The Tūpuna Maunga Authority can't see the wood for the trees. There is room for this established forest to remain, plus extra natives planted too without cutting anything down. Maxine Cross, Royal Oak.

The Erebus memorial should be something huge out near the airport or something tasteful and unobtrusively sized for the rose gardens. Take your pick, Prime Minister. Coralie van Camp, Remuera.

People are not opposed to a memorial. It is the lack of consultation, choice of position and its grandiosity that appals. Jennifer Burcher Spence, Waiuku.

To propose building more jails and jailing more disaffected and disconnected people defies logic. Rita Riccola, Lucas Heights.

What a triumph the just-ended stage production of Les Miserables was. The audience was mesmerised and Victor Hugo's plot just as pertinent as it was in the early 1800s. Mary Tallon, Morningside.

Anti-smoking campaigns have worked really well and now would be a good time for some alcohol education. Christmas spirit doesn't necessarily need to be the liquid variety. Dave Miller, Rotorua.

Surely, the decision on the port is too important to leave to a version of celebrity "Dancing with the Stars", but should be based on a strong business case? Glennys Adams, Oneroa.

The word "methinks" has been around for hundreds of years. Derived from the Anglo Saxon "me thynceth"' meaning "it seems to me; I think". Good for Lizzie keeping the language alive. Gayle Couch, Whakatāne.

If someone assaults people doing their job as ambulance staff, fire, police, whatever then surely there can be no excuses allowed nor latitude for so called "judicial discretion". Paul Beck, West Harbour.

I commend Chloe Swarbrick for wanting to "make a difference" in her political career but I hope she is smart enough to realise that 90 to 95 per cent of the voting population don't want a bar of what she stands for. Chester Rendell, Paihia.

I would have thought the one in five children turning up in our secondary schools unable to read would be in a far greater need of repair than our school buildings having flashier exteriors. Gary Hollis, Mellons Bay.

Why are jail sentences in NZ referred to as "life" when normally a non-parole period of under 20 years is given? Graeme Massey, Manurewa.

Fireworks are still going. How many more animals have to suffer before notice is taken and private fireworks are banned? A J Read, Huntly.

Israel Folau's version of faith seems to be built on a rigid and vengeful ideology that our world would be better without. Andrea Dawe, Sandringham.