Dining fees leave bad taste
Jenny Mathews (Weekend Herald, October 26) is correct to decry fees for al fresco dining at Mount Maunganui. If you want to kill business, tax it to death. My family and I visit Tauranga – soulless – and Mount Maunganui several times a year and regard The Mount as a major jewel in the Bay of Plenty crown. If the Tauranga City Council, which governs Mt Maunganui, wants to be helpful, it can ban motorbikes from the al fresco part of the main thoroughfare. This will make al fresco dining an even greater success.
David Howard, Pakūranga.
US election ballots
The US prides itself on being the biggest and best at many things. They upsize their cars, their fast food, their people and of course, their guns. With the US election literally on a knife edge, the one thing not needed is upsizing of voting ballots. For the uninitiated, the US voting system is FPP on steroids, and to add to the complexity each state has their own rules and regulations.
I was raised on the belief of the sanctity of our democratic system and our right to participate in it through voting. States are required to mail absentee ballots as least 45 days before a general election, so I was dismayed to receive my ballot 11 days before the election. Having navigated this morass in 2020, I had downloaded my ballot, printed it, and complying with NY state law, had posted it over two weeks ago, while our neighbour Pennsylvania, (a battleground state), allows full electronic voting and not posting ballots which could be lost or destroyed. So, my voting ballot has now been “upsized”, and I don’t wish to test the integrity of our voting system by also mailing the ballot which arrived a few days ago. But here’s the horrific rub: Government data indicates the number of ballots cast by Americans overseas has been greater than the margin of victory.
Will our fragmented and antiquated voting system give credence to Trump’s assertion that the 2020 election was fraudulent and rigged? I fervently hope not, because America can’t afford another January 6.
Mary Hearn, Glendowie.
Hopping mad
I’m intrigued at all this fuss about passenger safety on buses. As an elderly user of buses and as a regular walker on public footpaths I know that I feel a lot safer in the buses. The number of times a scooter or bicycle has missed me by inches with no warning, while I was ambling along, is most annoying. A footpath should be just that, a FOOTpath! Having said that I do sympathise with bus drivers who have to tolerate the less than considerate passengers.
Mike Jarman, One Tree Hill.
Death and empathy
Congratulations on publishing What to do next, in Canvas, October 26. It seems to me that we continue to live in a death-denying society. Kim Knight shares parts of the experience of three women following the death of their partners.
These are profound accounts – personal and life-changing, and shared with courage and stamina. Yet death is a common event and eventually happens to all of us. And we should know what to do next. The person who has lost their loved one may need everything and nothing at the same time to help with their chaos.
Knight quotes Hospice New Zealand which suggests “empathy, practicality, and a genuine approach”. This, I think, is good advice and we need to get better at supporting each other in our communities. In short, we need to talk with each other about death and the nasties of life.
Isabelle Sherrard, Auckland.
Losing our religion
Joyce Callaghan (NZ Herald, October 27) is incorrect in saying ‘New Zealand was founded in the Christian faith’; we were founded by Polynesians hundreds of years before they knew anything about Christianity.
John L R Allum, Thames.
