Letters: Bus service is essential

The bus service is essential for many people who lack transport, particularly in outer suburbs like Castlecliff and Aramoho.

REGARDING the concern about the decline in bus patronage, perhaps some of the reasons for this are: death of older citizens, young people being transported by their parents, young people having their own cars (have a look outside the high school on school days), or young people biking.

Passengers on the buses mainly comprise mature people, with or without walkers etc, and young mothers/fathers with small children and pushchairs. These groups do not have access to cars for various reasons, so the bus service (and it is a service) is essential for them, particularly in outer suburbs e.g. Castlecliff and Aramoho.

I pay my rates, which support many other services in the community, e.g. the library, the art gallery, the museum, the sports grounds, the swimming pools, most of which I never use but am pleased they are there for others who do. I basically use the parks, the footpaths and the bus service. Horizons rates on top of the others always seem an extra imposition, but at least I can enjoy their buses, their staff and the other passengers.

FIONA DONNE
Aramoho

Liquor outlet bad news

Another liquor outlet means a price war. It means youth can acquire more bang for their buck when purchasing alcohol.

A very bad decision, not well flagged to the public either. Not our democratic process, surely.

Council, this is a monumental fail. I have no animosity toward the actual businessperson.

CUSHELA C. ROBSON
Whanganui

Crunch time for diet

I am delighted that Rod Anderson has responded to my letter regarding us sinful shellfish eaters.

However, he has not mentioned the other unclean animals and abominations listed in Chapter 11 of Leviticus among which are camels. Good grief, who would want to eat camels?

Also mentioned as unclean or abominations are coneys, hares, swine, eagles, ossifrages, ospreys, kites, swans, pelicans, bats etc.

But, interestingly, verse 22 states that locusts, bald locusts, beetles and grasshoppers may be eaten. So while I am sinfully indulging in a meal of raw oysters with a glass of crisp Marlborough sauvignon blanc, perhaps Mr Anderson will be tucking into some delicious crunchy insects with possibly an elegant Otago pinot noir.

By the way, Mr Anderson could advise us as to the preferred method of preparation for locusts, beetles and grasshoppers: alive and kicking, raw, medium rare, or well done, and if a side salad should be on the menu.

Bon appetit.

ELWYN EVANS
Whanganui

Land rights part of healing

Potonga Nelson has me misquoted (letters, May 13). Potonga states that I am seeking an end date to Maori land claims.

In fact, I listed a series of laws passed supporting union and workers' rights, LGBTQI, women and land rights. Under "freedom of speech" and rights, I suggested that if those laws disturbed you then you had every right to take it to court and seek that it be reversed. We are free to do this. I do not support a legal time limitation on any wrongdoing or injustice.

Land rights are part of the healing of our nation. In my ancestry on both sides, I come from lands conquered and taken, forced assimilation, people rich in culture subjugated, people massacred and dispersed, and native language practice discouraged.

I see no time limit in seeking an agreed outcome and to which all are committed to.
Nice to hear Potonga is back.

ROSS FALLEN
Castlecliff

Climate-change opposites

I am fascinated to know whether the positioning of Ian McKelvie's column directly beneath Rachel Stewart's essay on climate change was deliberate or coincidental in your issue of April 4, 2019.

Nothing could have been a more eloquent illustration of the perception problem that has created and drives the whole global-warming debate. To read the two articles consecutively would lead one to believe that their two authors lived not just in two different countries but on two different planets.

But that's the nub of the problem really, isn't it? Us.

L.E. FITTON
Whanganui

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