This nationally significant project has attracted major investment from outside of Whanganui and is progressing well under expert management.
This nationally significant project has attracted major investment from outside of Whanganui and is progressing well under expert management.
In a manner of speaking
Thank you for the article on mita in Saturday's Chronicle (News, September 19). Dialect speech is a subtle way of letting people know where you are from. Or of stopping them from knowing.
When I worked in Suva and offered people a cup of tea,I never used the usual Fijian "Via gunu ti?" (close to the Māori Hiahia inu ti?). Instead I asked "Via somi 'i?", promping them to reply, "Oh, you have been to Ra?" which gave me a chance to to tell them about my holidays hiking into that roadless mountain region.
I took some sixth formers from Cakaudrove province up to Ra with me one time. At the welcoming yagona ceremony, I noticed the boys' dialect had changed somewhat. Later they explained that Ra and Cakaudrove people were old friends, and teenagers were allowed to play tricks on each other, so they faked the dialect of the Ba people, who had been old enemies.
If the yagona server had known where they really came from, she would have slipped a crushed chilli pepper into the bowl of yagona that each one of them had to ritually drink.
Teenage fun aside, I learnt that the myriad dialects in old Fiji had served an essential function when strangers came to a village, indicating where they were from, so they could be treated with appropriate caution, courtesy or liberties. I guess mita served the same purpose in old Aotearoa, and thus there is no real need for them today. Nevertheless, I'm still going to say I'm from up the W'ang'ehu valley, not the Fanga-ehu.
HONE KAIKOPERE (John Archer) Ohakune
Your letters
Sarjeant report
The Whanganui Chronicle's front page report on Thursday, September 24, unfortunately contained some inferences and inaccuracies about the Sarjeant Gallery Redevelopment project that I would like to correct.
This nationally significant project has attracted major investment from outside of Whanganui and is progressing well under expert management.
The article stated that "The council's contribution will now be $5 million, plus contingencies". This is not quite correct. Contingencies are already factored into every aspect of the project costings and budgeted for accordingly.
Thanks to the strong investment commitment received from central government, private individuals and trusts, along with continuous value-engineering throughout the project, we are confident the council's (and therefore the ratepayer's) commitment will not exceed the $5 million allocated to this project.
I am also concerned that a construction progress update provided by project director Gaye Batty to the council's Property and Community Services Committee has been poorly translated in the newspaper report: loose, sandy soil has not been "flowing into a hole excavated under the Sarjeant Gallery's dome ..."
Rather, work in the basement has been slowed down by the discovery of drier than expected soil and loose sand in the area directly under the dome and readers can be assured that this is being addressed in a considered way by engineering and soil experts.
Finally, I believe it is important to clarify that Tupoho observers on the site excavation do not work for the archaeologist as inferred in the article. They are crucial members of the team on site, separately employed by the project for their specific expertise. [Abridged]
KYM FELL Chief Executive Whanganui District Council
