Why not set up a Mobile Vaccination Service, asks Lyndsay Morgan. Photo / Getty Images
We've all heard of the Mobile Library Service. Why not set up a Mobile Vaccination Service for families who find the cost of attending a medical centre beyond their budgets?
Notices in local supermarkets, corner shops, McDonalds, etc could advise when the service will visit. Then let's see if the number of vaccinated babies and young children climbs the ladder to success.
Lyndsay Morgan, Tauranga.
About 600,000 New Zealand-born people live in Australia and about 1600 have been deported. One quarter of one per cent is not a flood. According to police the deportees include about 51 gang members or affiliates, a drop in the ocean given we have more than 3000 patched gang members.
C.C. McDowall, Rotorua.
Every day as I drive home from work in Penrose at 5pm up Great South Rd towards Greenlane, I sit in a queue waiting to get into the right lane to turn right into Greenlane East Rd towards the roundabout.
On Great South Rd, just outside Isuzu Cars, is a small traffic island. Almost every day cars drive to the right of that traffic island (into the path of oncoming traffic) and push in front of the queue to turn right. Although I have repeatedly asked the Ministry of Transport/police to monitor this appalling and illegal driving, they continue to ignore this.
They have a camera in the far left lane for drivers taking up the bus lane, yet they turn a blind eye to dangerous and illegal driving. Will it take a crash before someone does something?
J Gill, Remuera.
I can't believe Phil Goff about the paper showered in Queen St.
Did he ever walk around Mt Roskill when he represented us? Rubbish here blocks drains and clutters the streets but we never heard a peep from him then.
Is Queen St more important than the rest of Auckland? Tell him to get off his high horse. I'm all for cleaning up the rubbish and recycling around Auckland but [this] sounds like politicking to me.
Mike Howell, Mt Roskill.
Why does Alabama and some other states punish poor and desperate women, often abandoned and in substandard overcrowded conditions, by condemning them to backstreet abortionists?
Wealthy women have little difficulty in obtaining a safe procedure. A law for the poor and and a law for the wealthy?
For goodness sake allow women to deal with their situations with minimum stress and without unwanted interference from others whose business it isn't.
Robert Coldham, Devonport.
The recent slump in international log prices and the five-fold increase of log stockpiles at Chinese ports possibly accentuates the economic slowdown in China and may prove problematic for our own trade with that country.
Steeped in debt, an unprecedented asset bubble has emerged and together with the US trade war these factors are weighing on their consumer confidence.
Could China suffer a fate reminiscent of the prolonged economic downturn in Japan from 1990?
China's global intentions are of concern and Taiwan, much coveted by Beijing, could prove a reality check if annexation ensues. The Hong Kong street protests opposing an extradition bill that threatens civil liberties was also a timely reminder. Much to consider.
P.J. Edmondson, Tauranga.
Apparently, Kiwis need to start thinking big and grasping opportunities leading up to the Americas Cup (Herald, July 20).
If you own luxury hotels and apartments, ritzy bars and restaurants, marinas, charter services, successful boating refit businesses or have a luxury home to rent out, then I'm sure you'll make a fortune. Unfortunately, for most Kiwis, business opportunities are well beyond their reach.
Taxpayers and ratepayers will fork out $250 million to ensure the Cup goes ahead and for them, there will be little benefit except as [Team New Zealand backer] Matteo de Nora says, they can wander free around the Cup village and watch live, free-to-air TV! The America's Cup is a rich man's sport — a money-spinner but for whom?
Neil Hatfull, Warkworth.
I agree with Meredith Caisley of Speech New Zealand (Herald, July 20).
With due respect to Anne Tolley's critics, there is a vast difference between reading a prepared text and delivering an important message by speaking naturally, especially one "from the heart".
Approximately 10-20 per cent of a message communicated by speech is conveyed by tone (emotion), gestures and body language. All of that is lost when the speaker reads from a prepared text.
We read to our children so they will go to sleep quickly. If we were to tell them a story by speaking naturally they will stay awake all night begging for more.
Reading a prepared text minimises the role of the listener in the communication. Reading from a prepared text deprives the reader of the opportunity to gauge how their message is being received, and of the opportunity to adjust the delivery so the message will be received with its intended meaning and impact. It also deprives the listener of the opportunity to receive the full meaning and impact of the message. Hence the lesson in classes teaching the art of rhetoric: engage the audience.
Reading from a prepared text concentrates the effort on the words on the sheet of paper: speaking concentrates the effort — as it should — on the listener and their need to receive the full meaning of the words.
The more feeling (like sadness) there is in a message, the greater the need to deliver it with eye-contact, tone, gestures and yes, even tears; all of which will be received as fake if one were to read from a text written yesterday, last week or last year. That said, Tolley has made her point and the young lady's message has gained from the publicity.
Dr C G Marnewick, Bucklands Beach.
As a former examiner of the NZ Speech Board (now Speech NZ) and an alumnus of the Linguistics Dept of The University of Melbourne I agree with Meredith Caisley and Anne Tolley (Herald, July 20) concerning the differences between written and oral language. The recognition and implication of these differences is a priceless skill to which every public speaker should aspire.
However, Tolley never should have interrupted a student candidate in the middle of any speech let alone one that was so very personal and emotional.
It could have deterred this student from ever undertaking such a venture again. Empathy and compassion from an examiner should always override technical issues.
Dr Ruth Pidwell, Cambridge
On what was a peaceful Saturday afternoon, from across Cornwall Park comes the loud, intrusive sounds of the internal combustion engine, presumably from cars racing in the showgrounds. Oh for the time when all cars are electric.
Mike Jarman, One Tree Hill.
Fifty years ago I sat in a dingy pub in Redfern, Sydney, in front of an old black and white TV and watched Neil Armstrong step on to the surface of the moon and utter those now famous words.
Not long after the event we were told within a decade men would have a permanent base on the moon and by the turn of the century the first humans would be born there. Yeah, right!
Of course it was never about exploration, science or even adventure, it was simply about beating the Russians, a fact that seems to escape most people today.
Allan Gyde, Tauranga.
When one reads comments from the respective captains of the English and NZ teams following the 2019 cricket World Cup there is a slight sense of relief.
Here we have the diplomatic (and world respected) Kane Williamson referring to his team's understanding of the rules (not "we were robbed"); then Eion Morgan being troubled by the way "the final ended" expressing his view the result was "unfair".
This sportsmanship could perhaps set an example to another country which competed but who shall remain unnamed.
Des Trigg, Rothesay Bay.
Can anybody explain why a health professional, mid-50s, working in an Auckland hospital operating theatre, studying for a Master's degree, who is having to take heavy-duty painkillers to enable her to stand at work all day, does not appear to be eligible for an urgent knee replacement? Could it be that all the non-contributing people who through their own lifestyles have ended up taking all the surgeons' time and need hugely expensive beds, are being prioritised over high contributors to our workforce?
Linda Lang, Henderson.
Sextortion and hidden cameras are growing threats, says Detective Beard.