Letters to the editor: Old chestnut rears its head, racial separatism and Treaty interpretations

Old chestnut

The old vehicle headlights-on chestnut idea is getting an airing again, when our own New Zealand Road Code available free online adequately covers the situation for the bewildered. The headlights-on countries oft-mentioned but not named lie in 50-70 degrees latitudes where gloom is a fact of life for motorists and having headlights on during the day and night now makes total sense. New Zealand is on the 40 degrees line putting us on a par with sunny Spain, Sardinia and Turkey, countries not known for producing carelessly overthought cars nor requiring headlights to be locked on when driving. Could not concerned parties be diverted to promote periodic eyesight tests for motorists instead?
Colin Adams
Te Puke

Racial separatism

I have followed the Maori wards debate via your newspaper with interest and would like to respond to Peter Dey (Letters, December 20).
Those that subscribe to the group Maori are New Zealanders and have the rights and representation as such, anything else is racial separatism, which in my view Mr Dey obviously supports.
Geoff Parker
Whangarei

Treaty interpretations

Bruce Moon (Letters, December 28), in my view, is seriously ignorant about the Treaty of Waitangi. Claudia Orange's book The Treaty of Waitangi records that Governor Hobson sent official Maori and English copies of the Treaty to Britain and these still exist in British archives. The Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975 legally requires the government to honour both these Treaties together. Because of this, my view is that Bruce's claim the English Treaty has no constitutional significance is not credible. Bruce claims that the Maori Treaty applies to "all the people of New Zealand", and gives no special preference to Maori, but he ignores the English Treaty which applies only to "the chiefs and tribes of New Zealand and the respective families and individuals thereof". By failing to consider both Treaties together Bruce is, I believe, giving us a selective and discredited interpretation.
Peter Dey
Welcome Bay