Letters: New flats could end up as mud flats

John Hay hopes to turn the old Whanganui Chronicle building into residential apartments.

The "Taupo Quay Apartment project: On or off?" (Chronicle, April 8), is a very laudable project, especially with the current housing shortage in Whanganui.

I hope it happens, for the sake of Whanganui people who need accommodation right now.
Many thanks to developer John Hay, who is pushing this project. But this letter raises the question of sea level rise in my mind, and it is relevant to the apartments project.

We are told by reputable scientists that sea level rise is happening now. The evidence is worldwide. Besides, we hear some politicians denying it, therefore it must be true ...

Obliquely, the evidence is John Hay and his tenants will get some decades of enjoyment, and good return, from the riverside apartments until the sea washes over its nether regions. I hope the project goes ahead, for short- and medium-term benefits.

However, the sea must come, and when it does, there, along with the apartments, must go all of Whanganui's low-lying heritage buildings.

This city has paid lip service to heritage buildings for some time. But, starting now, we should think about moving our low-lying heritage to higher ground, or let them all become shipping hazards. How much do we want to preserve heritage? How long-term is our thinking regarding this? Why do those who love heritage (I do too), apparently pay no practical heed to our not-too-far-away future?

There's a big plus, longer term. Sea level rise will bring this city a new, wider, deeper seaport that will create all kinds of employment on land and sea.

And, due to global warming, we will be living in a tropical paradise. What's not to like about Whanganui's warm, wealthy future?

STAN HOOD
Aramoho

Cattle conundrum

I was very surprised to see cows standing in the Whanganui River when travelling on Te Araroa earlier this year.

I wrote a complaint to the Horizons Regional Council and was astonished to be told that only "dairy cows for production" are banned from local waterways under the regional plan.

This is ludicrous. What is it about the effluent from cattle beasts which makes it less polluting than dairy cows? Nothing. No wonder our freshwater rivers and lakes are in such a mess when farmers are exempt with mile-wide loopholes such as this.

JOHN MINTO
Waltham, Christchurch

Terminal illnesses

In response to Robyn Jackson (Letters, April 10), I wonder how you would feel if tomorrow you were diagnosed with MS, MND, Hodgkins or ASL.

These are just a small example of the number of diseases which lead to the person, in most cases, slowly losing their ability to have a "normal life". They lose the ability to control their limbs, until eventually they need 24-hour care, unable to do anything for themselves.

In the medical community these are not regarded as terminal illnesses, as the end can take years to come, instead they are all grouped under grievous (serious) and irremediable (incurable) medical conditions.

This is what you are referring to in your letter, and what the US state of Oregon (after 22 years) are now trying to get into their bill, and good on them.

Don't these sufferers, who lose so much while alive -- even their ability to swallow or breathe on their own -- deserve to be able to choose the option of a peaceful death?

Rather than what the disease would do to them before they die fighting to draw breath or drowning in the mucus in their lungs. If that is how you would choose to end your life with those who love you watching this, that is your choice. But why should it be forced on those who don't want that?

ESTHER RICHARDS
Tauranga

Early beginnings

Ian Pashby just may be interested in the origins of the Western civilisation he lives in. From an earlier letter, try Book of Daniel Ch. 13, Douay-Rheims Bible. This chapter was removed by the Reformation.

For the existence of God, try 2 Maccabees 7, a book removed by the Reformation, where Jews give witness to faith. Then toddle along to Parmenides, part of the Greek foray into reason to arrive at the Unborn, or uncreated. This begins the move to later Greeks, Aristotle et al, who go on to examine cause and effect, there being a First Cause which is uncreated.

The Greeks have been moved out of sight in the last 150 years for various reasons. Communists and socialists don't like them.

Quaerite primum regnum Dei [Seek first the kingdom of God].

F R HALPIN
Whanganui

Send your letters to: The Editor, Whanganui Chronicle, 100 Guyton St, PO Box 433, Whanganui 4500; or email editor@wanganuichronicle.co.nz