Letters to the editor: Charities can be just as bad as beggars

A reader asks who is worse: Charities or beggars? Photo/Getty Images

Charity collectors just as bad

The on-the-street homeless person is asking for $4 or holding a sign with what they want and letting you know they are homeless, asking for help. I go to Pak'n Save and get in my face a colourful banner with two smiling, well-dressed ladies asking if I would like to donate, and yes, I get a sticker for my donation. I go off to The Warehouse and get asked: "Would you like to contribute to "Women's Refuge?" I say 'not today' and get greeted with a scowl, which I choose to glare back at. I then meet up with a young guy by Burger King walking toward me: "Kia ora whaea, I am homeless, have you got $2?" I give him my change, about 80 cents. He says: "Thank you, have a nice day." What is begging or asking? Who are the real beggars on the street? Our charitable organisations can be just as aggressive on the street or in stores as well.
Gail Hamilton
Ohuaiti

Improvements needed

There are two main routes going north out of Tauranga. One is via Waihi and Karangahake Gorge, the other is the road over the Kaimais. Road traffic in and through Tauranga, especially commercial, will only increase in future. Any attempt to widen the road and increase the traffic through Karangahake Gorge will destroy this beautiful, already stressed asset. Which leaves going over the Kaimais. The logical through connection coming from the south on SH2 is via SH29A, so avoiding Hewletts Rd which is already overloaded with local traffic. I have run the SH29A route from Pāpāmoa to Tauriko many times and find it relatively easy to travel, with the exception of the stretch between Barkes Corner and the Tauriko roundabout. It is contorted and, in my mind, dangerous, not suited to any sort of heavy traffic flow, especially after dark and in the wet. I strongly recommend that any changes to Barkes Corner include straightening out, levelling and double-laning the stretch of road to the Tauriko roundabout. We need to look to the big picture, easing of the traffic flow around the city centre must be a high priority. This will help to relieve congestion in the city's commercial areas.
Chris Pattison
Pāpāmoa

Abortion kills

Congratulations on your well-balanced article on June 16. However, overlooked is the point that the current Crimes Act 1961 actually safeguards any woman or girl having an abortion from prosecution. Section A, 183 Paragraph (2), after describing unlawful means of procuring an abortion in paragraph (1), says plainly: "The woman or girl shall not be charged as a party to an offence against this section". Section B, 187 A lists circumstances ensuring the abortion is legal - pregnancy to be aborted before 20 weeks gestation; serious danger (not being danger normally attendant upon childbirth) to life or ... physical or mental health of the woman or girl; ... must be determined by two certifying medical consultants". Pro-abortion advocates want to remove abortion from the Crimes Act, claiming it labels them "criminals". Pro-life advocates, aware of overseas experiences of the damage similar changes have made, say it would be safer all round to stick with the safeguards we've got. Meanwhile, the Government has requested of the Law Commission a plausible reason for giving the pro-abortionists what they are seeking. Hopefully, the commission remembers that abortion always kills one of us.
Don Brebner
Omokoroa