Your views: Readers' letters

Bilingual in the '40s

I am informed by a Chronicle correspondent that a teacher at Maxwell School in the 1920s was obeying the law by banning te reo Maori -- evidence indeed that ethnic cleansing was government policy in those days.

My dad and his friends were already bilingual at the age of 5. Pakaraka (Maxwell Pa) was still a bilingual kainga when I lived there in the early 40s. All the kids heard the nursery rhymes in both English and Maori from an early age. They were translated with a distinct Maori flavour and were consequently very funny. "Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle" became, "Hei titotito te kuia me te koroua, etc, etc" to loud laughter. But if we wanted to go into Siddel's store at Maxwell to buy some lollies, we had to speak English.

Some elders became convinced that Maori culture and language were redundant. Many taonga were buried. I watched with sadness as the flags of every marae were consigned to the earth. But I think I know where the carved pillars of our meeting house are, and I am determined to dig them up and put them back before I die. I am still trying to find a legendary "money tree". In spite of being warned off on pain of death if I touch it or the money. What if that's true?

Maybe I'll end up in Hawaikinui Hawaikiroa Hawaiki Pamamamao te Hono i Wairua. Much preferable to the mythical Heaven or Hell that the Pakeha rave on about.

POTONGA NEILSON
Castlecliff

Circle squared

Fred Frederikse has squared the Middle East circle nicely and well researched, but I wish to add the following crucial points: The arc or the millisphere he refers to has always been part of the Middle East history. This arc is the fertile crescent where countries on the periphery such as Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia put pressure on the epicentre: Syria, Yemen, Lebanon Palestine and Israel.

It is also evident that the big winners and dominant powers of the Syrian conflict (millisphere) are Russia and Iran.

There was talk of a "cordon sanitaire" linking Gaza and the West Bank before 2004 but when Hamas chased Fatah out of Gaza in 2007, that option fizzled out.

Today the two-state solution is no longer viable with 600,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank and Israeli control.

A unitary state will be formed with one man, one vote. It will be the end of the Jewish state as we know it. Israel has ceased to be a Jewish and democratic state. Every occupation has a use-by date and Israel is no exception. This is why Palestinians are optimistic about their future.

Israel has neither safety nor security despite withdrawal from Gaza in 2004. But in the eyes of the world, it still "occupies" the strip through its tough measures and very strict control, including electricity, water resources and the impossibility by Palestinians of building a viable economic infrastructure in Gaza and the West Bank. Occupation and economic development are a contradiction.

Gazawis and West Bankers have minimal water, 200 cubic square metres per inhabitant per annum, while Israel has 3000 CSM of water per Israeli per annum. In the next round of conflict with Gaza, predicted within five years, humanitarian aid will not happen. There will only be a legal or moral obligation to provide medical assistance under the Geneva Convention, but with no open corridor for civilians to leave the battlefield.

LEON BENBARUK
Whanganui

Flying squad

Good to read that Denise Lockett has a new crusade to pursue -- a ban on flies (letters, January 14) -- now that the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement has been well and truly zapped.

She will, however, have to watch what is written on the placards/banners -- "Up with zips" and "Down with flies" just might give misleading messages. Perhaps Denise will also have to form a swat team.

Oh well, must fly.

DOUG PRICE
Castlecliff

Flawed histories

H Norton (Chronicle, January 12) uses the false "argument from authority" to justify his wild claims. The statements of most of his so-called "renowned historians" are deeply flawed, particularly Orange, Binney, Kawharu, Belich and Keenan. Robinson's books are not "self-published", as Norton says twice, but by Tross Publications of Khandallah, which has several excellent books to its credit.

Norton omits to say that Robinson has a doctoral degree from the renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his careful mathematical modelling, using all the available data, shows conclusively that the decline in Maori numbers in the early colonial period was due to the huge slaughter of breeding stock in inter-tribal warfare in pre-1840 decades -- work beyond the competence of any historian I know.

I have two master's degrees, one with distinction from the University of London in computer science, and I am a past president of the Institute of IT Professionals (NZ) and Fellow of the Institute of Physics (UK). I hold a Naval Reserve commission, having done much practice and instruction in navigation, both coastal and celestial.

In the work of both Robinson and myself, close attention to accuracy and the available information have been of critical importance.

In our later years we have brought these skills to the study of New Zealand's history, where indeed we have been quite dismayed by the amount of false material in works by such as those listed above and likewise in the flawed conclusions of the Waitangi Tribunal and others in the press, such as Tommy Wilson and Eraka in The Latest Tainui News.

Your readers will make up their own minds about who to believe.

BRUCE MOON
Nelson