Letters to the Editor.
Hard questions
Can the Whanganui District Council and, more importantly, the local district health board assure the residents of Whanganui that the water they are drinking is safe?
This assurance is in regards to two issues:
1. Can we be assured that the systemic failure of the spiral welds in our
drinking water mains and major failings that this has produced is not allowing pathogens to enter our reticulation system.
2. That the quality of the hard water from the three bores at Kai Iwi is healthy.
Recent studies have "demonstrated the relationship between the risk of cardiovascular disease, growth retardation, reproductive failure, and other health problems to hardness in drinking water".
These studies published in the International Journal of Preventive Medicine should be a worry to the residents of Whanganui and the health board should either refute them or, if not, the district council should take steps to mitigate this exposure.
JIM WHITE, Castlecliff
Rights for all
On reading Ken Orr's second piece, and noting that its content went well beyond his usual Right To Life platform, I had a quick look at Google and had a long-held conviction upheld.
That conviction was that Right To Life was a fundamentalist Catholic front based in America, and that its basic anti-abortion premise was that the soul was invested in each individual at conception by God.
That doctrine was supported by Rene Descartes' notion that the soul, not discoverable by scientific dissection, resided in the pineal gland and made for the separation in kind between the human and other mammalian species.
This notion, leading to the belief in the separation of mind and body has had a long life, but in the context of the abortion debate runs into the serious objection that, since there are and always have been many more spontaneous abortions (that is miscarriages) than deliberative medical interventions, God knowingly consigns all those souls to an early demise.
Educated 'Right To Lifers' must know this along with other examples of cognital dissonance, like murdering medical staff in abortion clinics. God's work? Pro-life?Implicit in the above comments is a firm belief, embodied in most modern forms of democracy, that there should be formal separation of church and state. Right To life members and spokespersons like Mr Orr do their best to undermine that principle.
They fail to understand that our representatives in Parliament have a duty to ALL their electors to ensure that the best interests of ALL in a dominantly secular society are honestly considered and reasoned through on the basis of the society as it is and not as it was in a past based on much less knowledge.
Getting rid of traditions is always difficult, and some are worth retaining on the basis of careful thought. This writer suggests Trevor Mallard displayed both courage and sensitivity in reviewing the parliamentary prayer, and in doing so took account of our changed society.
The following from Google makes clear the grounds of Ken Orr's statements and thinking: "As at Nov 15, 2010, Ken Orr was presented with the Papal Award, 'Pro Ecclesia Et Pontifice', for his many years of service to the pro-life movement and for his services to the Catholic church'."
RUSS HAY, Whanganui
Holy symbolism
With respect, K A Benfell (Chronicle, November 27) failed to answer Paul Evans' question which was: "As Catholics believe that the consecrated host is the body of Christ, does that make them cannibals when they indulge in Holy Communion?" The operative word is "Catholics".
Official Catholic teaching is unambiguous — "The Eucharist is a sacrament which really, truly and substantially contains the body and blood, soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ under the appearances of bread and wine.
"Christ is present in the Eucharist ... with all his physical properties, hands and feet and head and human heart."
They believe the priest has power conferred upon him to command Christ to literally come down from heaven and enter the bread, which is then eaten.
In contrast, scripture is plain in that the bread and wine, being symbolic, are taken in remembrance of the glorious act of salvation (John 6:63; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26).
The cannibalistic doctrine, in offering up Christ's body afresh each time, denies His once-for-all sacrifice on the cross.
So in this, Catholics and Christians are at odds with each other.
S H FUNNELL, Taihape
Pest control
This is my last piece on kea numbers and 1080 — it is impossible to change the thinking of those who are so blinkered they can't consider both sides of a debate.
DoC and Kea Conservation both state that kea numbers are hard to estimate because of their widespread habitat. However, twice-yearly kea counts are carried out which give more accurate data. DoC estimates between 3000 and 7000 and Birdlife International shows 3300 for the current population.
The perception that nests are abandoned is incorrect, all of the monitored nests have camera surveillance so that the results of nesting are known. I don't believe that stoats would abandon their territory to follow a human trail, and as the monitored nests in Kahurangi National Park are located by a kea dog I think it unlikely stoats would follow that trail.
Both DoC and Kea Conservation state that the kea population — along with other native bird species — would be in a parlous state if it were not for 1080. If 1080 was not used in mast years the native bird population would be decimated.
DoC has planned 26 operations with 1080 to be completed over 2017-18 — go to the DoC website and select 'Battle for our Birds' to see details.
The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment conducted a 2011 re-evaluation of 1080 which concluded: "It is not perfect, but given how controversial it remains, I for one expected that it would not be as effective and safe as it is."
To suggest 1080 is spread all over our land is mischievous — it is dropped over targeted areas for a specific purpose. The old problems of contaminating adjacent waterways is gone.
It is accepted that 1080 is not the perfect answer but it will continue until a better alternative is available, or until monitoring shows that the benefits are outweighed by the disadvantages.
F FOSTER, Durie Hill
Comment: There are food sources that have a stronger attraction for certain birds.