The Bay of Plenty Times welcomes letters and comments from readers. Here you can read the letters we have published in your newspaper today.
Scepticism unfair as Bay does its utmost
It is interesting, and annoying, to read the misconceptions about the inhabitants of cities outside Auckland voiced this weekend by the likes of the opinionated Paul Holmes and the rather woolly Bill Ralston.
Holmes declared that the people in New Zealand were not in the slightest bit interested in the fate of the Rena stranded in the Bay, or the murder of Gadaffi, but totally wrapped up in the Rugby World Cup.
We all know that Aucklanders are totally unaffected by anything beyond their borders but I can assure Holmes that the intelligentsia of New Zealand are more interested in world events than rugby.
I can also state that people in the Bay are more concerned about the oil damage to our pristine beaches and precious wildlife than the All Blacks' narrow victory over France.
Ralston alleges that the Government and people of Papamoa "committed acts of sublime stupidity" by standing around for days wondering if the oil was going to leak from the Rena.
In fact men were on the Rena struggling to mend the broken oil pipe which had to be done before any oil could be removed.
Since then, the salvagers have worked day and night to pipe out the oil and volunteers have worked tirelessly to clean up our beaches.
Mary Brooks, Tauranga
Open for business
Every man and his dog - and kids - seem to have been at the beach at the weekend. No oil. Please saturate the social media showing yourselves on our beautiful, clean beaches. We need to show the world that the Mount has the problem in hand and we are still a beautiful place to be.
Please post as many wonderful photos on websites to prove we are still open for business.
Our businesses need your support.
We don't need negative people trying to prove their political point - that will drive our tourists away. Frances Denz Tauranga Down the gurgler The Labour Party's proposal to give an extra day's holiday when statutory holidays fall on a weekend is another nail in the coffin in terms of productivity.
Presumably this means when Waitangi Day and Anzac Day fall on a Saturday or Sunday.
That concept has been around since those holidays were introduced, so nobody has been deprived in the past despite the bleatings of unfairness that we heard from some quarters earlier in this year.
New Zealand is steadily going down the gurgler in its economic relationship with the rest of the world and a measure such as this reduces our competitiveness in terms of goods and services.
Labour's policy shows the same shallow thinking as it did a few years ago when introducing the fourth week of holidays for employees.
Labour should concentrate on policies which relate to sharing the cake, not destroying the ingredients.
New Zealanders should take a hard look at what is happening in that once noble country of Greece.
Their people are now suffering the awful consequences of past economic policies.
Maybe their governments bought votes too.
Bill Capamagian, Tauranga
