Letters: All quiet on the ferry front

An artist's impression of Midwest Ferries' plan for the port of Castlecliff.

ANYONE who has "donated" their money to Midwest Ferries Ltd promoters may now be wondering if it has sunk without trace, in view of sole director Neville William Johnson's unwillingness to provide enlightenment.

The last Whanganui heard from him was in mid-November in a rant against the Chronicle, which later debunked a key claim. As for the veracity of his other claims, readers who didn't come down in the last shower could make up their own minds.

Investors planning to take up Mr Johnson's offer of exchanging their donations for his shares might well have been expecting enlightenment via Midwest's 2018 annual return.

But last week the Companies Register carried the following prominent notice:
"This company is now overdue in its obligation to file an annual return. If the annual return is not filed immediately the Registrar will initiate action to remove the company from the register."

Sadly, the annual return, overdue as it is, will not help because according to the Companies Office it "is not a financial document".

The Register's Midwest documents do, however, provide the information that, by the end of 2018, Mr Johnson had issued himself an eye-watering total of six million shares, after registering the company in 2010 with just 100,000.

At least there will be plenty of shares to dish out to those generous donors who responded to the entreaties of Johnson, trustee Graeme Adams and others. They will no doubt be wondering just how much shares might be worth in a company that, so far as we know, hasn't earned a cent but has had considerable outgoings.

CAROL WEBB
Whanganui

Consistent stance

K A Benfell told us clearly (letters, January 6) that embryos are distinct human beings, though he failed to specify what age he was referring to, and claimed this was "incontrovertible scientific fact".

Perhaps he could oblige us with the actual proof as, at the moment, that is simply his opinion.

Incontrovertible proof would then allow us all to agree that "abortion is murder".

He might also oblige us by stating his position on war, since a pro-life position on abortion logically demands that one be a pacifist. Or do circumstances alter cases?

IAN PASHBY
France

Plastic producers

China no longer wants our plastic rubbish, nor Indonesia. We, as consumers within our own country, are left with an ever-increasing mountain of waste, and burning it to produce power for our national grid comes with its own set of toxic issues.

We, the end-consumers, have the problem forced upon us, as nearly every consumer article has a plastic component.

When the onus is on profit, all other consideration goes out the window. Profit is paramount; problems associated with the product are not the producer's primary concern. It's blatantly obvious across almost all industries.

The producers, if held accountable for their disposal of the whole of their product, would change this behaviour, as the long-term consequence cost would command a solution either individually or collectively, saving their margin and the planet.

PAUL EVANS
Te Rapa

Bounty hunters

How to ban 1080 at no cost to our native birds that are being silenced at the present by the use of this man-made, highly toxic wide-spectrum poison with no antidote?

One easy solution that costs very little taxpayer funding and would bring in millions of export dollars and employ many out-of-work people: Allocate large areas to commercial trappers and hunters who could trap and shoot possums and deer etc, and recover the meat and fur.

Just add a bounty payment for stoats.

The helicopters that now drop poison could transport the trappers and shooters in and the meat and fur out.

MERV SMITH
Bulls

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