Your views: Readers' letters

Ferry? Be wary

Before writing out my sizeable cheque to the local promoters of the Midwest Ferries plan, I did a few estimates, on the back of an envelope, of potential revenues and ballpark costings, because I'm concerned about the accuracy of the facts and figures that have appeared in the public domain.

With yearly revenues that I estimate to barely reach $15 million, startup costs likely to exceed $50 million and running costs in the millions, this is definitely not our best hope for an economic miracle that would return Whanganui to its former glory.

I hope our council and its economic development arm ensure that not a single dollar of ratepayer money gets anywhere near this half-baked idea.

I also worry that too many residents are being persuaded to part with their dollars by the promoters, who notably include a stalwart member and long-term office-holder of Grey Power locally.

The plan to have these ferries operating around the Motueka Sandspit hasn't got a snowball's chance of getting resource consent. By the time it has had its day in the Environment Court, it's likely the donors' money will have been spent.

The sandspit is considered internationally important (under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands) because of the numbers of bar-tailed godwits, variable oyster-catchers and South Island pied oyster-catchers that use the site.

Most notably, many thousands of bar-tailed godwits fly to the spit each year to fatten and refuel for their return to the Arctic Circle, as they have done for many millions of years.

(Abridged)

P HEWSON
Whanganui

Pike River

On the Pike River mine, I say up Bill English and his Government. Do a Rambo, Bernie Monk. Go in behind enemy lines and drop in by helicopter and surprise them. Do it, Bernie -- you should have gone in on day one.

GARY STEWART
Foxton Beach

Evolution's flaws

In a recent letter, Mandy Donne-Lee clarifies how to understand the Bible. She makes some good points but loses her way when talking about evolution.

She states: "Trying to marry the God of the Bible with evolution fails because a perfectly good God would never have used death to create."

There are a number of good reasons why evolution fails, but this is not one of them. Let me present some of these reasons.

Firstly, evolution extrapolates beyond the limits of its data. To give an example, the kea and the kaka have evolved from a common ancestor called the proto-kaka. To then say, as evolution does, that therefore mammals and birds can evolve from certain reptiles goes beyond the evidence we have. It is easy to see how a parrot can give rise to two different kinds of parrot, but the gene pool and mutations involved in reptiles giving rise to mammals or birds are vastly more complex.

Also, a change from a reptile to a mammal requires a number of genes to mutate at the same time in such a way as to be advantageous to the new animal.

This mechanism has never been demonstrated. So far, all mutations that have been artificially produced have been disadvantageous.

If fruit flies with artificially produced mutations are released into the natural environment, they cannot survive.

The evolution of the eye is another problem. An eye can only exist if all its parts are present.

It cannot evolve from a partially formed eye because the unfortunate animal having this would never survive.

Even with the large time span available, there is still not enough time for randomness and chance (the only mechanisms available to evolution) to produce the results we see.

If pre-existing organisms have given rise to different organisms, there has to have been intervention by an intelligent mind, which we call God.

As Mandy Donne-Lee states, "Either God is, or He isn't.' Each of us has to decide, hopefully after consulting the available evidence, which has to include the Bible.

DAVID GASH
Whanganui

Aramoho School

Did I or did I not read that Aramoho School had closed? If so, how long will it be before it is vandalised?

Wouldn't it be better to have it filled with homeless folk and families now living in cars? Winter is coming.

Just a thought.

PAM NOYES
Whanganui

Real history

Potonga Neilson (letters, April 4) is critical of my reference to rebellion. To him, "All this talk of Maori rebellion is colonial propaganda, not real history."

But it was real. Kingi built an armed fort on the land of others at Waitara.

Warriors came from Waikato to join the fighting, against the wishes of their proclaimed king, Te Wherowhero (Potatau).

Maniapoto warriors drove government officials out of the Waikato, which was declared a separate state, and settlers were killed in South Auckland.

This was no united uprising: it pitted Maori against Maori. Land at Waitara was purchased from Maori who wanted to sell.

Tamati Waka Nene signed the Taranaki peace agreement of Haperona and Ngatiawa as witness for the government, and offered help to fight the kingite rebels in the Waikato.

Government agents there had been provided as an answer to Maori requests, as when in 1857 Potatau responded to the offer by Governor Gore Browne, saying that he would be guided by the governor's advice.

He was a dying man, and should bequeath his people to the governor's care.

This is not propaganda, it is fact.

JOHN ROBINSON
Waikanae