It is gratifying to see Mr Fell taking time to reply to some of the city's controversial issues. But, for me, he loses credibility when he starts to slag off the media.
JOHN NEWTON
Whanganui
Don't blame river
I was disappointed by Paul Brooks' editorial on April 4. If it was meant as a joke, it fell very flat, especially given the nerve-shredding three days prior.
To have the same legal rights as a human person is not to say the river IS a human or has human emotions, as Mr Brook asserts.
A river functions to carry and move water. How can we blame the river, when it is simply doing what a river does? Even as, by our collective actions and inactions, its banks are eroded, topsoil is washed off our hills into it, chemicals and toxic levels of nutrients harm or kill the life within it, its streams are forced into culverts? And it is asked to transport ever greater volumes of water because of extreme weather events brought about by human-made climate change?
If the river were sentient, with petty human emotions, it would be entirely justified to be very mad at us.
Paul's editorial reminded me of the meme that did the rounds after the June 2015 floods, about charging the river with breaking and entering. I would write all this off as being silly if it didn't also read as a underhanded dig at the historic and laudable decision to enshrine the rights of the river in legislation and to appoint advocates to speak on its behalf.
This is something to be proud of, not mock.
R K ROSE
Whanganui East
Old ideas die hard
A couple of good examples in your issue of April 18 of how hard old ideas die, if at all, in Aotearoa.
First, on the front page, Garth McVicar's rant at Chester Borrows for wanting to advance sentencing policy now he is no longer bound to the party line.
Then, in the opinion correspondence page, John Robinson's classic of post-rationalisation justifying land confiscations by our settler government.
As a former prison officer, I can assure you that prisons are a waste of money, at best a very expensive way of creating employment. If the money being presently spent on new prisons was being spent on police instead, it would make more sense. The best punitive tactic is to increase the odds of getting caught.
As to the fundamental causes of crime, social policy is the answer. To change that, we all need to look to our consciences.
As for the land confiscations, they show what an iniquitous time-buying farce the Treaty was. Taken in the context of the times (1840), I am sure the Maori who signed it had no concept of the real consequences of placing themselves under the dubious "protection" of English law.
What followed is now history; why can't we still come to terms with it nearly 180 years later?
L E FITTON
Whanganui
Double standard
D Partner (letters, April 25) misses the key part of the double standard, its gender.
MANDY DONNE-LEE
Aramoho
Stock effluent
Stock effluent problems being aired in our Chronicle are a problem, even if minor.
Quite a bit of the problem can be sheeted home to farmers. Cattle need to be stood off grass for at least 12 hours to empty out prior to trucking, but this is not often achieved.
Cattle truck much better when they are empty of grass. They stand easily; full cattle get uncomfortable and often go down.
Truck drivers try to do their best for the wellbeing of the cattle, but are not going to tell the cockie: "Stick your cattle, we are not going to load them". They are in a difficult position.
Some farmers think they will lose weight as they lose effluent, costing them affluence. Or perhaps farmers don't want their yard to get shitty; better to let the trucks have it.
With bulls it is a bit different, as they can be testy in yards, but a paddock with no feed is an alternative.
G R SCOWN
Whanganui
