The Bay of Plenty Times welcomes letters and comments from readers. Below you can read the letters we have published in your newspaper today.
TODAY'S LETTERS
Picture perfect welcome
What a delightful Timesframe photograph by John Borren (April 21) showing the young lady greeting the cruise liners.
I hope there were many passengers on board who saw her and took her photograph.
May I suggest this heart-warming picture be used in promoting Tauranga's welcome to the many cruise liners which call here.
LR SINCLAIR, Matua
Emotional day
I noticed your correspondent Lesley Park's recent letter concerning her disappointment over the way the ANZAC Dawn Service was conducted (presumably at the Mount).
While in prescriptive terms she is correct, in the real world people come together at such times carrying the emotions of the day as well as for the actual event.
As many do not attend church regularly, being drawn towards their Creator-God in this way they may find the need to release the pain or memory of lost loved ones from a number of situations.
I have attended the Mount services for over 50 years, and have been honoured to participate as bugler for the last 40. A myriad of participants have brought as many addresses and prayers over those years, with many major events being referred to.
People still feel very deeply about current tragedies around the world, and if they can find solace at an ANZAC gathering, then good has come of it. Would Lesley withhold giving gifts to her grandchildren at Christmas in order to confine her attention to the Christ-child, or refuse Easter eggs to focus purely on the real meaning of Easter?
DAVID TRAVERS-WATT, Otumoetai
ETS impact
I am concerned about the impact of the Emissions Trading Scheme.
The Clark government went to a great deal of trouble to advance this tax. Under their watch, however, our emissions actually increased. Actions usually speak louder than words.
How much do we pay with respect to this tax? Four cents a litre on petrol plus a government increase of, by Treasury estimates, an additional 5 per cent on power.
Of course the ubiquitous GST will add another 15 per cent. But rejoice, the further increase of 4c in petrol tax on petrol products will not come in until January 1, 2013. (Plus GST!) We sure show the rest of the world we are leaders in this tax.
In fact, almost the only one. Australia, Britain, Japan, the United States - our major trading partners - do not pay this tax at all. No wonder our big businesses have to move overseas. Our exporters are gravely handicapped; they pay taxes the rest of the world will not have a bar of.
And if you argue that the European Union countries do have such a tax, kindly give us the facts.
Harking back to the cost of electricity, it is noteworthy that Mighty River Power generates most of its electricity from hydro power but it is too much apparently to expect them to keep their prices down. No, they are up there with all the rest. And we wonder about inflation of 5 per cent this year. Seek no further.
And what will the Government do with this taxation gathered in the name of an ETS?
Well, I recall Prime Minister John Key saying that it would go mainly as credits to forestry interests. That's great, but what a shame that most of our forests are now owned by overseas interests. It will improve their yield no end.
God bless New Zealand - and the poor who, as always, bear the brunt of gratuitous taxation.
CHARLES PURCELL, Mount Maunganui
Kids in sport
The main reason the Colgate Games are held during January is so family can be together on holiday to proudly support their loved ones in their chosen sport.
Let's help keep families together and children active and healthy.
The event clash argument shouldn't even be considered. There are likely to be many active family members competing in the Port of Tauranga half-Ironman who will also support their family or wider whanau at the Colgate Games.
I trust that if any athletic club members choose to stay in Tauranga motel accommodation in January next year their stay will be a positive one that will encourage their family to return often to this region.
If you stayed in a motel with a motelier complaining that an event should never be held, would you want to stay again?
Many firms have peaks and flows to their income stream, not just moteliers. Do we see a business like the popular Copenhagen Cones at the Mount turning away customers on a sunny day and telling them to come back on a wet and cold day?
Be proud that Tauranga has grown to the population size that it can host two successful events on one summer weekend.
In January, come and see these events for yourself and make up your own mind. Many of these children will be New Zealand's sporting champions of the future.
(Abridged.)
A MARTYN, Treasurer, Colgate Games Tauranga 2012
Games success
Re: Events clash angers moteliers (News, April 12).
An athletics championship for children aged 7 to 14 years has operated successfully over the second weekend of January in the North Island and the third weekend of January for the South Island for the past 30 years.
Sponsored by Colgate, they are known affectionately as the Colgate Games.
The championship is rotated around regions so that all club members get an equal chance to attend, no matter where they live geographically or their financial status.
Sometimes the Colgate Games are held successfully in small centres such as Inglewood, the only criteria being that they have a suitable athletics track.
It is not a pre-requisite that families will stay in motels; often club members stay together in school or marae accommodation or are billeted in a similar fashion to the Aims Games hosted by Tauranga for middle-school sports each September.
In 2006, we hosted the event in Hamilton, as Tauranga didn't have a suitable track. Next year, the Colgate Games will be held in Tauranga for the first time.
Tauranga is now fortunate to have an athletics track and an experienced organising committee with many years' experience organising this event.
It is a credit to the committee that the moteliers know about this event so early.
L MARTYN, President, Bellevue Athletic Club
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