ROSS Fallen wants to "end-date" Māori land rights claims (Letters, May 9). Can there really be a time limit on justice?
Our Taranaki Māori ancestors were a very astute and intelligent lot. When money was offered as rent for their wrongfully confiscated lands it was termed "Moni toto" — bloodmoney.
The Taranaki tribes offered three options to the settler government: "Hoki whenua mai, Hoki whenua mai, Hoki whenua mai". Return the land times three.
This stand was upheld for several generations, but the imposition of individual title put an end to it.
The English language was used as a very powerful tool in the ongoing disputes over land. "Waste lands", lands that Māori could not claim to have cultivated, were "acquired" by the Crown, whereby they magically became quite valuable. And "acts of Parliament" became the most popular method of alienating what little land the Taranaki tribes retained.
In response, a great meeting was held at a location near Hawera. That meeting and the location of it was named "Te Tai Poro He Nui" (the stemming of the great tide of land loss), and a vow was made that no more land would be sold between Whanganui and Waikato.
There is much more to this story, and I am pleased to hear the Government is talking about teaching the real history of this country.
In the meantime, I have a message for all Taranaki descendants. When Te Whiti o Rongomai was arrested at Parihaka, he urged the people to return to their kainga and recreate Parihaka.
If we do not uphold all of the above, then we are "mana kore" (without honour and credibility).
So who changed the kaupapa?
POTONGA NEILSON Castlecliff
Life's absurdities
Sometimes my best laughs arise from the recurring evidence that common sense is becoming even more uncommon (as if that was possible). In the last 24 hours I have had mail that tells me Specsavers have moved from the Taupō Quay/Ridgway St block to the Ridgway St/Maria Place block, which is where they have been for many years. They actually did move, but within the same block.
If Specsavers have problems finding themselves, what hope do the rest of us have? This morning's Chronicle (May 9) lauds Countdown initiating a quiet hour — from 2.30 to 3.30! The same time-frame in which parents are collecting kids from school, so do they enjoy 10-minute shopping at the beginning or end of that hour?
Or is the presumption that autistic children do not go to school?
ELIZABETH STILES-DAWE Whanganui
Bully pulpit tactics
I opine, in regard to opinions in "Thought for today", that much of what is asserted there has little to do with the facts of any matter.
President Trump is accused of using his office to promote himself to gullible supporters with "alternative facts". He did not invent these "bully pulpit" tactics, because it is conventional if you attend a religious service, that the preacher has a "pulpit" from which they can "bully" your sense of reason and you have no right of reply.
The Whanganui Chronicle, its policy and practices you would expect to be secular. But by publishing daily the "Thought for today" with its dubious assertions and not giving the same urgency to replies, it is supporting a "bully pulpit".
H. NORTON Kaitoke
Assisted death concerns
Patricia Butler is on weak ground in attempting to rebut Moira Floresta's views on the Seymour bill on the grounds that there have been no calls to reverse the practice in overseas jurisdictions.
There have been plenty of calls — Butler should check out the case of Roger Foley, 42, an Ontario man suffering from an incurable neurological disease who recorded hospital doctors offering him a medically-assisted death instead of homecare support.
We are now constantly bombarded in the editorial section with the utterings of the husband-and-wife team of Kate Hawkesby and Mike Hosking.
Both these people are news readers and active in the radio scene, but does this make either of them qualified to make these constant comments on NZ society?
I was highly entertained when they complained about their difficulty finding a suitable replacement home after the sale of their $8 million house in Remuera.
If these two find that such a complexity in life, I hardly think their points of view (predominantly anti-Government) are worth taking much note of.
C.E. RIVERS Whanganui
Send your letters to: Letters, Whanganui Chronicle, 100 Guyton St, PO Box 433, Whanganui 4500; or email letters@wanganuichronicle.co.nz
