Letters to the editor: Museum cost was a shock

Early designs showing how the 'bulk' - the rough size and outline - of the museum ad library building options could look. Images/supplied

Off the couch

I've been off Shane Jones for a while now because of his snout in the public trough with his Pacific Islands diplomatic role appointed by National, and the lazy way he got back onto the political benches. But now that he is leading the charge for working for the dole, I'm interested. Successive governments for the past almost 40 years are to blame for the social mess that stimulates drug and alcohol abuse, wife bashing, kid killing and crime.

I have said previously no able-bodied male of working age should be paid to stay at home. It's not good for the brain or for other members of the family.

Creation of jobs for such people is costly but it is the price we pay for a good functioning democratic capitalist system.

Shane Jones should be given total public and governmental support for making working-age males feel good about themselves and get out of the house (off the couch) and work for their remuneration.

Doug Morris Tauranga

Hate speech or freedom of speech

Rachel Stewart believes that freedom of speech is to be denied to people committing hate speech (

Opinion

, November 29). She has appointed herself interpreter of what she believes qualifies to be deemed hate speech.

She uses the Second Amendment to argue hate speech trumps free speech. She states that the right to bear arms is "no longer fit for purpose in a modern world". Anyone disagreeing with her does not have a brain. The Second Amendment is a "sick joke".

I found a picture on the internet of Rachel actually bearing arms in a Fairfax story.

Is it my understanding that Rachel has also appointed herself to be the only person allowed to have a gun?

Thank goodness for Rachel. She will vilify anyone who expresses an opinion against another group and call it hate speech. She will censor freedom of speech closing down dialectic discourse and debate (as she tells us we do not have brains and therefore could not possibly enlighten each other through debate). ay! Holding the only permitted gun, censoring our right to debate, it will be she who gently guides us into the light.

Mandy Nimick Katikati

Museum surprise

Yes, Terry Molloy, I was certainly spooked by the figures.

A few years ago Tauranga had a fantastic museum at 16th Avenue, mannequin ladies dressed in period costume, a railway shunt engine, complete with a railway line, a horse and buggy, a Model A Ford taxi and an old fire engine. All were popular with children and adults. But short-sighted councillors decided to sell off the railway engine and turn the village into a commercial enterprise. I believe that a tractor identified as ours was recognised by a local gentleman when over Gisborne way.

What happened to the group who started this museum thing off with the statement that there would be no call on the ratepayers for finance?

While the council is digesting this one, could someone please explain why the city library, which had a new floor added on top to remedy a leak in the roof a year or two or three back, has just had a new coat of paint, just before its future is to be decided?

Bill Humphrey Tauranga South