Paying for the velodrome
I'm another one who's not part of the 83 per cent for the Events Centre.
It's not that I don't want it; in fact I'd like to see it here. But I want to know who's going to pay for it.
In all the over-optimistic Velodrome
Whanganui letters: Paying for the velodrome
Whanganui Chronicle
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It's not that I don't want it; in fact I'd like to see it here. But I want to know who's going to pay for it, writes ID Ferguson.
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In 2010 the council voted to raise $8 million, half the cost of the $16.6 first stage, if the other half came from somewhere else, "sponsorship monies" according to Mellows.
Now, 10 years later, with a roof, 6000 seats and a rebuilt Snell Pavilion, $26.3 million seems an unbelievably small increase on the earlier figures.
The Government has already given us about $24 million for the art gallery, $8 million or so for the port, approximately $20 million for a new police station. That may be about its limit.
I fear that the poor old ratepayer will end up being the major contributor to the velodrome, as usual.
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I D FERGUSON
Whanganui
Legislated discrimination
Really, has anyone knocked on your door, or confronted you in the street demanding an apology for being a bit pale? Being of Irish descent, myself, I understand the grief Māori feel for all the brutalisation inflicted on them since the Crown possessed this land under false pretences.
The Irish were persecuted, disenfranchised, thrown out of their homes, starved and hunted like animals under the 700-year English occupation and I feel some resentment and pain for my ancestors who suffered so greatly, it's in my DNA.
Māori have waited patiently for 180 years for promises made to be honoured. Now is the time for that to happen, co-sovereignty is a must. Never mind Pākehā sensibilities and discomfort, they've consumed the major part of the pie for all that time.
One, very important, example of legislated discrimination is Māori-leased land. Government enacted a law which enabled colonists to use Māori land, at penny rentals, for a term of 99 years. That did not even cover the rates. Many, many forced land sales resulted. Many Pākehā grew fat and accumulated millions on the backs of Māori.
Even now, Māori do not receive market rates for those lands. In 1997 a law was passed recognising this fact, but, because of Pākehā discomfort and greed, the Māori owners are still not receiving market rates for those lands. That process did not begin for another 10 years, 2007, and will increase rates incrementally until well into the 2030s.
Have you, as a Pākehā, ever had Government forbid you to receive proper rents for any properties you own? Perhaps we should apologise, after all, for allowing that legislation to be passed so recently. Did you even care enough to notice? ... That wasn't 100 years ago, that was in this day and age.
DENISE LOCKETT
Whanganui
