With so much gorse around today we could easily have a fire in Rotorua as severe as the Christchurch fire, says a reader. Photo / File
Rotorua's citizens will have a lot of sympathy for the people of Christchurch over the loss of life, property and livestock in the devastating recent fires.
Gorse was the major culprit in these fires.
Sixty years ago, I am told, there was no gorse in Rotorua. With so much
gorse around today, we could easily have a fire in Rotorua about as severe as the Christchurch fire.
It amazes me that the Greens can go around disparaging dirty dairying as the reason for our unswimmable rivers and lakes. It is not an alternative fact that one hectare of gorse puts as much nitrogen into our rivers and lakes as one hectare of dirty dairying. The difference is that dairy farmers are trying hard to prevent this happening, whereas no one is trying to prevent gorse from spreading, let alone getting rid of it.
Controlling and containing gorse will help clean up our rivers and lakes as well.
JOHN COLE
Rotorua
Comments confirm crisis
I reply to Kylie Bronlund's letter (February 18) which disparagingly concluded that "I am not sure his 'fears' are founded in any sort of reality" about short-term rentals.
If Kylie cares to check she will find that my description of the crisis in Rotorua's short-term rental market on the Rotorua District Residents and Ratepayers Facebook Page has reached 8342 people to date, had 72 responses, 20 shares and 74 comments. It clarifies the foundation of my description in a context of multiple and yet widely shared realities. I never used Kylie's word "fears". The comments confirm that Rotorua has a crisis.
While I respect Kylie's personal opinion based on her experience, she missed the main points of my analysis; that "community values are clashing with entrepreneurial business values, with local governance lagging behind in its duty to regulate behaviours in the public good ... Council needs a new policy-making process and to implement fresh, fair, legal and reasonable regulations. Not do another Lumbercube." [ABRIDGED]
REYNOLD MACPHERSON
Rotorua
