In response to Ryan Gray's letter February 10. In the 1980s I was still at school, I started work at age 10 and was paid $2.50 an hour for orchard work on the weekends and working in a dairy after school. I bought my first house in the late 1990s. At times my salary was $30,000, and at times I held down three jobs at $15 an hour while I studied interior design. The houses I purchased were in the $100,000-plus price bracket, and weren't in a good area. I saved a 10 per cent deposit, as banks would lend up to 90 per cent.
I've looked on Trade Me, and there are about 20 houses between $100,000 to $150,000 in Rotorua. I still work an 80-hour week in my late 40s. If you work 80 hours at $15 per hour, spread over three jobs that is $62,400 per annum before tax. If you saved a third of your gross income, in one year, you would have a deposit for your first house in Rotorua.
At times I've stocked shelves in a supermarket, worked in restaurants and bars, knowing I was working and saving for my future. It's no secret formula, you just have to have a work ethic and anything is possible. Maybe a workshop showing people how to work and save towards their own home, rather than asking the government to subsidise people's living expenses and accommodation, would be a better solution to the social problems?
[Abridged]
TRACEY MCLEOD
Lake Tarawera
Dame Susan Devoy would achieve a less racist society if she encouraged every person under the age of 35 to research, read and digest Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the Littlewood final draft, hand written by Busby from Hobson's constructed notes. Those two documents, word for word, convey the true intent between Maori and European on signing The Treaty on February 6 1840.
It would be safe to claim that not many people younger than 35 or 40 know our nation's historical document Te Tiriti o Waitangi in its true form.
History is history and good or bad, fair or unfair, it is history. Dame Susan Devoy and tribal agitators are in my view creating a more divided nation than this country has ever seen before.
[Abridged]
MAUREEN ANDERSON
Tauranga
