Letters to the editor: Huntly and water restrictions

A reader is upset at how Huntly was described. Photo / File

I wholeheartedly agree with Pauleen Wilkinson (Letters, February 3) regarding the article by Helen van Berkel, How Huntly stacks up, in the Bay of Plenty Times travel section.

To refer to Huntly as "skid marks in New Zealand's underpants" was in extremely bad taste. I grew up in Huntly during the 1940-1950s when it was a busy and thriving township.

If van Berkel had chosen to read At the Coalface, the History of Huntly Coal Mines and District she would have found that Huntly has a long and rich history including keeping our coal-fired nation up and running during World War II.

The article was written apparently to encourage visitors to come to Huntly but would not encourage myself or any of my associates who have read the article to pay a visit.

(Abridged)

Gwyneth Jones, Greerton

Water supply precious

I fell into conversation with a woman while I was buying a garden hose fitting. She commented that because she paid her rates she did not see why she should face water restrictions.

Crikey. She wasn't surprised that she still had a water supply?

Did she ever think; how come, when we have had little rain over the past three months, that the streams feeding our water plant, our stock troughs, orchard pumps and household taps are still flowing?

It is easy to forget that this flow of water comes from the ground. It got there when rain was plentiful and fell on the native forests of our conservation park.

These forests prevented all the rain running off in a flood and directed much of into the soil and the cracks in the rock below. Think of a subterranean storage dam. We and our streams are drawing on that dam today.

If we want constant water supplies, we need to better manage our native forests, otherwise water restrictions will get worse.

Basil Graeme, Bellevue

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