Kupe gas field rig off the Taranaki coast. Photo / File
Kupe gas field rig off the Taranaki coast. Photo / File
OPINION
Rumbles of concern at no gas
Now that the Government has announced it is going to promulgate its climate change procedures, it has already announced its future action regarding petrol driven engines and the like and the gradual reduction of the use of natural gas, sending rumbles of concern throughthe nation regarding the use of gas for heating of homes and the use of gas driven barbecues in the future.
Surely an alternative major announcement would have been to initiate the reopening of the Stratford to Taumarunui (SOL) rail line, not to mention the Wairoa to Gisborne section, which has remained closed since 2012.
The reopening of both these lines would immediately and drastically reduce the petrol consumption being used by the trucks which have taken up the loads that these lines used to handle.
Additionally reintroducing a modern railcar system to the network would invigorate public transport and further reduce emissions from the bus network now operating.
This would be a good initiative from the Government itself to show it is serious in its climate change directions.
One has to ask why this has not been activated.
CLIVE E RIVERS Whanganui
Your letters
Māori wards
We are now confronted with an issue that will cause hand wringing in New Zealand.
That issue is the recently announced legislation concerning Māori wards within local government authorities. Labour introduced regulation in 2001 (or thereabouts) allowing the people to have a say in the establishment of Māori wards and the ability of citizens (by 5 per cent poll) to object to councils' establishment of such wards.
This has been ambushed by the current Government. The people can no longer veto a decision by the council.
Since 2001, 24 councils have tried to establish a Māori ward, but only two have succeeded. Surely this indicates the will of the people?
There are currently nine councils with Māori ward aspirations pending and these will now go ahead with no voice from the public. It is not surprising to see that all nine have a large Māori population except perhaps New Plymouth, whose last try was tossed out by 83 per cent of the voting public.
It would appear that some councils realise that forced inclusion of a Māori representative is not necessarily the best approach, maybe counterproductive, and prefer to have a local iwi representative who can provide the best information from the whole area to the council as required.
Local council administrators and an opinion contributor have stated in articles in the Chronicle (February 3) that this issue is divisive and controversial.
I will go one further and say that in my opinion it is also racist (in the true definition of the word).
As a general miles from the trenches during WWI said ... 'Shall we go forWards or remain here and maintain our position'. You decide. [Abridged]
Regarding Saturday's item on locals dumping in Department of Conservation (DoC) reserves, I do not condone this sort of dumping.
A possible first action in preventing this happening is to point out to everyone that these are not, DoC reserves, these are, "public reserves" and DoC only administers our public land.
As it is our land we should all be protecting it from this dumping action.
