Letters: Tauranga Northern Link funding argument 'a disguise'

A traffic jam on State Highway 2 north of Tauranga. Photo / File

Re Peter H Miller's letter (February 8) on SH2 funding.

I'm sorry the Labour mantra stating that the Tauranga Northern Link had not been funded has gone viral.

This is, in my opinion, a disguise for the unbelievable decision to cancel progress on the four-lane corridor so vital for local commuters and the wellbeing of Tauranga business and the port.

The global financial crisis in NZ, the Christchurch earthquakes and Kaikoura earthquake had no funding but the money came.

Most, if not all, of the Northern Link land purchases had been made, a date in mid-2018 set to start, even a Te Puna preschool moved to make way, with the old school in decay where earthworks could now have been in full swing.

Don't make any further excuses please because I am now going to spend an extra 20 minutes a trip getting to work for three years longer than I was, putting all that extra carbon in the air.

Doug Morris
Tauranga

Don't blame the Brits

In his opinion piece (February 5 ) Buddy Mikaere claims that in the Highland clearances the Scots were "thrown off their lands by English aristocrats".

This is, of course, incorrect: the clearances were carried out almost entirely by the landowning Scottish peerage.

R Rimmer
Welcome Bay

On John Woods

Regarding the opinion article by Buddy Mikaere (February 5).

John Woods was not "another Dunedinite". I understand that there was a competition to compose music to fit Thomas Bracken's poem God Defend New Zealand.

It was won by J J Woods, a Lawrence schoolteacher. Woods and his wife were both very musical.

A map of Lawrence, from its i-site shows "Anthem House". My mother had singing lessons from Mrs Woods.

A poem by Thomas Bracken, which I think deserves to be better known, is "Not Understood" from the book Musings in Maoriland.

Nanette Higgins
Ōmokoroa