Letters to the editor: Boat ramp fees, fluoride and tyrants

Fees for Tauranga boat ramps were canned.

OPINION

Two recent decisions, by the newly elected Tauranga City councillors, do not in my view bode well for the ratepayers of the city and should raise concern amongst us.

The first was to reverse the decision on boat ramp fees. No one can deny that there is not a cost in maintaining boat ramps along with the areas where the cars and trailers are parked during their stay.

The fact that it has been reported, in the past, that up to 50% of boat ramp users are not Tauranga residents should also raise concern with Hamilton and Rotorua boat users now being able to continue using an asset that obviously has a cost, for free.

The second is the [delay] on the fluoridating of our water supply.

This is a topic that has had many years of debate and was mandated by the director-general of health in 2022.

As there was with the Covid vaccine there will always be deniers but what must be accepted is that New Zealand is one of the few countries in the world that the water does not naturally contain traces of fluoride.

With one council already being denied an extension on fluoridisation I trust that the TCC councillors will be prepared to personally pay the up to $200,000 fine and the ongoing up to $10,000 per day fine out of their own pockets - oh yeah.

Mike Baker

Bethlehem

Do we need a tyrant?

Ryan Bridge’s thoughtful article in the Rotorua Daily Post (Comment, September 12) prompted some very anti-democratic thoughts.

History records some astounding achievements by societies ruled by visionary dictators.

Consider Rome, conquering at least half the known world, building viaducts and roads, some still in use 2000 years later.

Yes, they colonised cruelly, but still the longest surviving commonwealth historically.

Much earlier, tiny Israel under King David then his son Solomon, ushered in a period of peace and vast prosperity unknown in those times.

The Ottoman Empire conquered much that was once Roman and only disappeared after World War I.

For sure there have been unsavoury kings and Caesars and more recently, Idi Amin and Pol Pot.

But it seems that democracy with its “rule by the people, for the people” motto has so many times shown itself to be cumbersome, fostering division with progress squelched by short-sightedness and cross-party animosity.

Perhaps these successful tyrants laid aside personal ambition, pitting self, promoting their nation, their people as the vital components of success.

Do we need a tyrant to tie the good components of this country together and so move forward in an uncertain age?

John Williams

Ngongotahā

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