Letters to the editor: Census, elections, Maori wards and same sex marriage

A reader has no faith in the validity of the information gained from the 2018 online Census. Photo / File

Census concerns

Further to Bryan Johnson's letter (Letters, March 5) re Census and Maori ancestry.
My husband filled in the question re Maori ancestry ( which hasn't been in the previous Census ), entering his iwi. He completed the whole form and submitted.

The next day a member of his family informed us they had just found out the iwi they thought the family had ancestry with was incorrect.

My husband tried to go back into his form to edit and correct his ancestry but found he couldn't.

After emailing how to edit a form we had a reply informing that once a form had been submitted it couldn't be edited.

I find this ridiculous – surely there will many people for different reasons who have needed to correct their forms once completed. This would have been possible with a paper Census until collected from the household.

I now have no faith in the validity of the information gained from this 2018 online Census.
M Marriner
Papamoa

Dismayed over decision

I was so upset to see the decision of the Christchurch Anglican Church to bless same-sex marriages (News, March 3). Is this a church which takes the Bible as the Word of God? Surely not, for this is specifically said to be a sin in God's sight. What next, I wonder?
B. Guernier
Hairini

Different person

Among the people standing in the by-election for Tauranga City Council (News, March 6) , I read MJ Anderson has put his/her name forward.

Whilst I gratefully acknowledge the numerous people who have congratulated and contacted me in re-entering local body politics, I wish to firmly state that it is not Maureen J Anderson, Pyes Pa, but someone else.
Maureen J Anderson
Pyes Pa

Special privileges

Geoff Wane (Letters, March 6), in my view, does not understand the relationship between
Maori and the rest of us New Zealanders.

Maori have ways which are special to them, like the rest of us Kiwis have ways special to us.

My spelling of Mr Dey's name change to Mr Day was that so he could see the light of day with his badly designed arguments.

A Kiwi saying!

You ask me to give special privilege to Maori over others but I believe in treating everyone the same and I am against race-based legislation and special privileges.

I believe in democracy which, in my view, Mr Wane does not.

I consult Maori through the council, who are each paid $260 a meeting, 74
cents per km in mileage. Not bad money in my eyes and paid by ratepayers who do not get special privileges.

Anyone who wants help, I am happy to do so.

Anyone who bemoans increasing Maori life expectancy by 50 years and wishes to create conditions for the destruction of racial equality has little place in this society in my eyes.
Mike Lally
Te Puke