Whanganui letters: Council must insist on funding to replace Dublin St Bridge

Photo / Bevan Conley

In the Chronicle's Welcome to Whanganui 2022 magazine the mayor writes, "We are a place where contemporary design and architecture abounds". Above the mayor's message is a picture of the river and Dublin St Bridge.

The bridge is a relic of another time - a 100-year-old box girder railway bridge. Approaching the city from the north and driving over the bridge the first time makes Whanganui seems like a regional backwater.

This appears to have been how the council has seen Whanganui, with a focus on museums and art galleries - rather than essential infrastructure for the future.

Living in Whanganui it's noticeable the surface of the bridge continues to deteriorate, and the queues to get over the bridge in the morning and afternoon get longer all the time.

The bridge is well past its use-by date and it's disappointing the council has not mustered the fortitude to insist the government set aside money to replace it.

MARK McGHIE
Whanganui

Power of monarchy

Rob Rattenbury (Opinion, February 7) misses an important point, glossed over when he tells of taking an oath to her.

The most important aspect of a constitutional monarchy is not its power or influence, it's the power it withholds. An army takeover (as has happened in so many countries) becomes a treasonable offence.

Swearing allegiance to a flag or to an ideal can lead to profound divisions as to who can define what such allegiance means. Swearing allegiance to a reigning monarch does not weaken our ability to have robust discussions about what we want for our nation, but does give a degree of stability and continuity that few other systems of government have achieved.

PATRICIA CUNNIFFE MNZM
Whanganui

Backing political experience

Right-wing pundit Matthew Hooton (Opinion, February 5) claims that Christopher Luxon will be the next prime minister in "600 days".

Mr Luxon has successfully headed the National Party for two months; Ms Ardern has successfully headed a nation and its Covid-19 response for two years. The recent poll favouring Mr Luxon does not reflect the differences in their respective roles. I know whose experience I would turn to for prime minister material.

And Mr Hooton mocks the idea of kindness. What will he – and Christopher Luxon – put in its place?

WARREN SHAW
Marton

Our response to dying

Thanks to Laurel Stowell for her article "Hospice reflects on guiding principle" (News, February 5). The good news is that although Whanganui Hospice stands firm against assisted dying, it commits to abiding by the law requiring it to refer enquiring patients to the Ministry of Health (MoH).

As part of its wrap-around service, I have no doubt the hospice also provides the MoH's 0800 223 852 number, because patients close to dying, "in an advanced state of irreversible decline in physical capability" and "experiencing unbearable suffering that cannot be relieved", are in no fit state to embark on an internet search mission for themselves.

Overseas experience shows us that 80–90 per cent of patients who achieve an assisted death are enrolled in palliative care at the time of receiving the life-ending medication.

We can expect the same findings here when the registrar hands in the first report to Parliament on June 30, 2022. This should most certainly not be read as a poor reflection on our excellent palliative care services, but rather as a realistic recognition of the intractable ugliness of some diseases and of individual responses to it.

There is no "one best way" to die.

ANN DAVID
Waikanae