Letters: Education needed on Treaty

Protests are a common sight on Waitangi Day. PHOTO/FILE

Ah, the annual Waitangi Day controversy has arisen again. This time it has kicked off by our newly minted Prime Minister Bill English declaring that if Te Tii Waitangi Marae don't play by his rules, then he's not going to come.

For the next month we can expect the following sentences to be uttered by the uninformed. "Let's call it New Zealand day", "There's no full-blooded Maori anyway", "ANZAC day is our real national day", along with a whole bunch of reckons starting with "I'm not racist, but ..."

The unfortunate thing about these sentences is that in my view the prime minister is leading the charge. In a direct dog whistle back to the days of Don Brash's infamous Orewa speech, English said New Zealanders "cringe a bit" at the way Waitangi celebrations are played out. It would be disappointing if English is setting the tone for his time in office by playing into the unfounded views of the "I'm not racist, but ..." crowd.

In my view, the controversy erupts as a direct result of a lack of education on the issues surrounding our nation's founding document. Sadly, most will remember the anger seen on the faces of protesters at Waitangi instead of why they were angry in the first place. It should be compulsory for schools to teach about the Treaty, subsequent illegal land confiscation and attempts to abolish Maori culture amongst other atrocities performed by the Government. Only when knowledge is shared by all, will we all be able to move forward together.
RYAN GRAY
Rotorua

I agree with Gwyn Hanson (Letters, January 9).

The traffic delays have become more problematic. When coming in from Tauranga increasing numbers of people turn right before the Te Ngae shops and take the Vaughan Rd approach just to avoid the bottleneck.

Now that way is also becoming congested in the mornings. However, the real issue appears to be a lack of understanding of the rudiments of queuing theory and we have been left with an entirely unsatisfactory traffic flow situation. Forty-minute flight from Auckland to Rotorua then another 30 minutes just getting into the city at peak times is extremely frustrating.

I, too, would like to know when and what will be done about the problem.

E SMITH
Rotorua