Private boxes at New Zealand Post's PostShop in Victoria Ave, Whanganui. The shop is closing.
Private boxes at New Zealand Post's PostShop in Victoria Ave, Whanganui. The shop is closing.
NZ Post communication advisor's corporate masters pay her to apply her spin to bad news stories in the provinces and the googly she tossed Whanganui's way about goings-on at our Victoria Ave branch caught the Chronicle lbw and would've made Kane Williamson proud.
Fortunately, the reliable Whanganui grapevine had weeksago filled in the gaps in the story. Despite the corporate spin doctor pulling the "confidential" label out of her bag of PR tricks, regular customers have been queuing up for weeks to sadly farewell the wonderful, long-serving NZ Post/Kiwibank staff. That's because they have turned down head office's offer of continued employment with the bank in the Victoria Ave premises after the NZ Post side of the business moves to Trafalgar Square in a couple of weeks.
No amount of spin can counter the obvious effect of another business abandoning our main street with the substantial foot traffic it generates now destined for the mall. That includes the many older folk who remain loyal users of postal services and have always received excellent service from the dedicated, caring staff in Victoria Ave.
Businesses and individuals with PO boxes and private bags have also made up a sizeable proportion of traffic in and out of the Avenue entrance. As a long-standing box holder, now paying $180 a year for convenient round-the-clock access to my mail, I have reason to doubt that the new bank-level security will allow us to continue using the Avenue entrance to reach the box lobby at the rear, facing the St Hill Street. Weekend snafus blocking entry via the controlled St Hill St entrance are already a regular event and we've not even had the courtesy of receiving a note in our boxes telling us what's going on.
No post or PO Box customers I've spoken to share the Kiwibank comms manager's "excitement" at the pending changes.
But it is timely to thank the superb staff who've served us all so well and to wish them much aroha, especially for those anticipating retirement. Kia kaha ladies ... you're simply the best.
Matter of opinion The editorial in our Chronicle (September, 17) describes Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren as progressives. How do you describe a devout communist and a socialist, a la Venezuela, as progressive, tried and failed systems? Surely you should be describing them as regressive or are you deliberately being misleading, or worse unaware? Surely we should be able to expect you to get the details right. In the past I have read your statements that the letter page is the most popular page in the paper, yet there seems to be a deliberate policy of taking up the space with things that could be elsewhere or minimised. I tend to believe it is a ploy to control the conversation, no room for letters, something that does not reflect well on our supposedly free press, which is supposed to expose us to all sides of the argument, but obviously you have decided you know best and the rest of us should bow to your superior knowledge. G R SCOWN Whanganui
Editor's note: Readers can be assured there is no such policy and there is the same space as ever. In fact, this is the third letter from G R Scown we have published in the past fortnight.
Govt firm on land How unsurprising that the Maori King and his followers have come up with a half-baked idea that both sides in the land protest want their land back. To say that he had been successful in guiding both parties to a unified position surely is a joke. At best it shows that he and his followers do not understand the earlier land settlement agreement, but again that does not surprise me either. All the Prime Minister's invitation to the Maori King has done has united two warring families and built up expectations that can't be met.
I'm pleased to see the Government Finance Minister Grant Robertson bluntly saying that the Government "has absolutely no intention of reopening full and final Treaty settlements". What a can of worms that would be. Also rapt that Winston Peters and NZ First are not in favour of handing the land back to Tainui, nor the National Party. Who knows or cares what the Greens' position is.
They were the first political party to swarm over the protest site, siding with the protesters. What happens next is Tainui will demand $40 million from the Government to buy the land back in the form of a grant or no-interest loan. Labour, NZ First and National need to be united in kicking back. They need to lift the embargo on Fletcher and get those 418 houses built (48 are gifted to Maori elders).
