Rotorua letters to the editor: Hemo Gorge sculpture a waste of public money

The newly installed Hemo sculpture has been criticised by a reader, who described it as a "monument to failure". Photo / Andrew Warner

How fitting - the Hemo Gorge sculpture.

All over the world, there are monuments to failure.

The Germans kept the horror camps to remind the world of the Holocaust, monuments in London to remind us of the great fire in 1666.

There are the monuments in almost every state to remind the people of the drought, the Indian Wars, the Civil War, the Boer War in Africa, the Changi Gaol, the monuments to victory and the many more to defeat, to mistakes made and paid for in the history of the world.

Now Rotorua has one to mark what in my view is the waste of ratepayer and taxpayer money.

(Abridged)
Jim Adams
Rotorua

Long wait for pensioner housing

Thank you for your comprehensive article on emergency housing (News, September 11).

Wide-reaching though it was, I was concerned to note that nowhere was the lack of pensioner housing addressed.

There is a two-year waiting list for pensioner housing, with a stock of only 152 flats, many of which are old and urgently in need of refurbishment.

Rotorua has an increasing number of citizens aged over 65 requiring assistance.

I know a woman aged 72 who is paying $285 per week for a one-room sleepout. Despite poor health, she is forced to work to survive.

I am shocked the council prioritises what in my opinion are vanity projects such as the newly installed Hemo Gorge sculpture over our most vulnerable citizens - the elderly and the homeless.

Jackie Evans
Rotorua

A happy introvert

What joy the commentary piece written by Rob Rattenbury brought to my household yesterday morning.

I now know I too am a happy introvert, not anti-social as I am sometimes labelled and definitely not weird.

I passed the article over to my partner of nearly 40 years and he read it with a growing sense of recognition of the "happy home alone" woman he lives with.

Thank you, Rob.

I suppose I could have posted these comments on social media but of course that would be way too extroverted for me.

Chris Edginton
Katikati