Letters to the Editor: Concessions favour Maori

REPRESENTATION: Are Maori capable of getting voted on to the Rotorua District Council on their own? PHOTO/FILE

A selection of letters to the editor:

I was a member of the original Te Arawa Standing Committee and five years ago wrote a paper on the anomalies of the time as to why this committee was not working.

For example, there was conflict between the different Maori organisations such as occurred with resource consents. On one hand, the Standing Committee was there to be involved and advise and on the other hand, there were kaumatua that the council took its advice from ignoring the Standing Committee in the process.

However, the point I make is that the council is making special concessions in regards to Maori representation and these concessions are not being granted to other ethnic groups, regardless.

In other words, the only way - as seen by council - that I am able to get representation is through special legislation.

In other words, I am not capable of taking my chances on a level playing field. The implication of that special legislation concession, call it what you may, is that I am not good enough to be able to stand on my own representing Maori and I need to be assisted or helped - 170 years after the Treaty?

So what does that tell me and what conclusion do I come to? That there are people out there that believe that I can't make it on my own? That I still have to be helped and have special concessions to enable me to get representation which is not available to other ethnic groups?

JIM GRAY
Rotorua

Impolite girls

What are they teaching young ladies in school these days? Today I encountered three young ladies aged between 10-12. I asked them politely to desist from what they were doing, and got rude stares. Later on they accosted me to tell me I did not own the thing they were previously banging on.

I informed them it was public property, and as I was a member of the public, I must own it. First of all they did not know what a member of the public was, and they then insisted it was okay to bang on it. They were ignorant, rude, arrogant, had no respect for elderly, public property, and I guess the world. So what do they teach in schools I again ask? Definitely not manners, respect, or love for fellow man and woman. They were acting like spoilt brats.

G BRYANT
Rotorua

Get an eye test

I suggest that the writer that wrote in about this (Letters, Days of our lives, July 10) should first visit Specsavers and then read the article again as it clearly states August 2014 has five Fridays, five Saturdays and five Sundays not three as he claims, therefore an interesting piece of trivia.

LEE ROBINSON
Glenholme

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