Letters: Treat China as a valued friend; a nutritional kick-start for kids’ breakfasts

This image released by the Australian Defence Force shows the Chinese frigate Hengyang off the Australian coast.

Letters to the Editor

Chinese warships, trade and naivety

China is New Zealand’s biggest export market, with dairy products, wood and meat currently worth $18.4 billion.

China is Australia’s biggest export market, with iron ore, petroleum gas and minerals currently worth $132b.

The value of these exports are vital to the economies of both of our countries. Bearing this in mind, could someone please explain why the HMNZS Aotearoa and the HMAS Sydney sailed through the Taiwan Strait last September? What some might consider deliberate provocation?

Now we see Defence Minister Judith Collins and her Australian counterpart upset that China currently has three warships off the coast of Australia. I would respectfully suggest naivety here; that they would think we can sail military ships off their coast and seem surprised they are doing the same thing now.

Evidently, the New Zealand Australian Governments view China as a “strategic competitor”, which is insane in my view. Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says we need a “reset” of our relationship with the Cook Islands.

One-hundred times more importantly, we need a reset of our relationship with China. They should no longer be considered some sort of enemy.

Instead, we should consider them a valued friend. Our very economy – and Australia’s – depends on that.

Glen Stanton, Mairangi Bay.

Incapable defence

Our capable Defence Minister Judith Collins rightfully says China sending three navy ships into the Tasman Sea serves as a wake-up call. This is of course quite correct, but we should not forget that in an unnecessarily provocative action last September, a Royal New Zealand Navy frigate sailed close to China through the Taiwan Strait.

A Chinese response is therefore understandable, but serves also to highlight our totally incapable defence systems.

Hylton Le Grice, Remuera.

Kids’ kickstart

The heated discussion around the school lunch programme at times raises the issue of breakfast for hungry kids in schools.

We already have this running in New Zealand – it is called the KickStart breakfast programme, run by the Ministry of Social Development, Sanitarium and Fonterra. It provides milk and Weet-Bix to about half the schools in the country. Any school can apply to be part of the programme and the supplies come regularly to each school involved. Schools simply have to organise a space and time for students to eat.

Certainly, it is easier to do this than run a bespoke lunch programme with different meals every day, but it does illustrate what is possible when a government partners with businesses wishing to give back to the community.

P.J. Houlahan, Titirangi.

Nostalgia lesson

As a school student until 1953, I was never lucky enough to experience any free school lunches.

There was, I think for a short period of about one year, free milk available in our country primary school. As there was no shortage of cows in the country, this was not a huge advantage.

Admittedly, there were no fees for those fortunate enough to advance to university, but only the brightest of students appeared to be able to take advantage of an enhanced education. Many parents would force their children to leave school and get a job after their child reached 15 or 16.

Most parents struggled to provide for their often large families, but nobody seemed to ever complain about the poor quality of food or teaching practices. The students of today don’t know how lucky they are, as arithmetic was taught by rote and memory, and teachers mostly used the strap and cane to enforce their own set of rules.

Bruce Woodley, Birkenhead.

Recycling pile

Auckland Council rates are exorbitant and the cause of much discussion and stress.

But one good thing that is included in the property rates is an inorganic rubbish collection focused on “reuse, recycling and diverting waste from landfills”. Once a year, Auckland ratepayers can book a collection and will duly be advised when this will occur.

Ours is this week, and gradually piles of approved items will begin to appear just inside the property’s boundary as close to the driveway as possible. These items are stacked neatly, and no more than one cubic metre of inorganic material is allowed. Job done.

Come morning, what was a neat pile the night before will now resemble a miniature bomb site spread over a much larger area, as people will have rummaged through the discarded items looking for anything useful.

This, of course, is also recycling, but no doubt many of the items that found a new home one year will be in a recycling pile the next.

Lorraine Kidd, Warkworth.

Supreme Ko

Correspondent Larry Mitchell suggests high jumper Hamish Kerr was the unlucky contender for the Halberg Supreme Award (Feb 22).

How can a high jump gold medal even remotely compare with Dame Lydia Ko winning gold in a globally competitive sport such as golf, and of course her winning the British Open two weeks later at the home of golf St Andrews?

There is just no comparison with regard to how much greater Ko’s achievements were in the global arena.

Garry Wycherley, Awakino.