Whanganui letters: A salute to Ross Mitchell-Anyon

Former Whanganui journalist John Francis remembers his old mate Ross Mitchell-Anyon (pictured) who died last week. Photo / NZME

Hey mate. When I think of you, the first thing I see is that big gap in your teeth, that you never bothered to get fixed, because you had more important things to do.

That toothy gap just made your rascally grin broader. But it was a gap the size of a pin head compared to the massive hole you've left behind in the River City.

Your riverbank home, with that glorious collection of salvaged treasures from the St John's Hill convent and dozens of other demolition sites, and the pottery studio all your mates would occasionally help sandbag at flood time, should become an auxiliary visitor centre.

Every time seagulls cruise by atop a log of the sort you used to tow ashore for your kiln, they will salute you.

And a battered old van should regularly be driven around the Whanganui heritage precinct, and circumnavigate the old wool stores, in homage to all the Victorian-era buildings you saved with your hammer, and your hard-nut determination.

You were just one man. But fair dinkum, you lived like you were a whole army.

With love

JOHN FRANCIS
Melbourne, Australia

Dealing with youth crime

Scaremongering by opposition MPs for political gain (most notably Mark Mitchell) is more of a crime in itself.

It is time that media rightfully informed the public that youth crime has dropped by 51 per cent since 2015/16.

Government initiatives and programmes are working and should be celebrated, rather than "soft on crime" allegations levelled at it.

The present ram raids are a spike, most likely fuelled by stress on families, and needs to be addressed and stopped, offenders dealt with and, most significantly, businesses protected.

But a purely hard-line "lock them up " approach is not the easy answer and is too simplistic and well off-target.

There must be concern also that, if elected, would a National/Act Government abandon all the programmes that are now working, in favour of much more punitive measures that statistics show do not reduce crime rates?

KEN CARVELL
Whanganui

Thanks for caring

Please may I express my gratitude to the kind people who came to my assistance when I had a fall in the Caltex Victoria Ave on Wednesday afternoon. Luckily no broken bones but bruised knees and the wind knocked out of me. I am so thankful that others saw my dilemma and cared to help me. Bless you each and every one.

ROSEMARY THOMPSON
Whanganui East

Trapping bird predators

A story in the Chronicle (April 2) mentions some Mitre 10 shops will have kits for dealing with killers of birds. We've been waiting months for a cat trap from the council: it seems demand is too high. Let's hope the Mitre 10 kits include traps for our worst predator.

ANGELA STRATTON
Whanganui