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:
Action taken to counter freehold confiscation
When the Tauranga City Council's recent city plan was unveiled, many freeholders learned for the first time that back in 1997 council had taken away their unencumbered freehold over that part of their property lying within 15m of mean high water springs.
The idea that something legally owned could be taken away by the council without affected parties knowing anything about it seems unreasonable and undemocratic.
I and my community therefore submitted at the 10-year plan hearings that this 1997 confiscation of freehold rights without effective consultation and notification was invalid.
Unfortunately, this concern appears to have fallen on deaf ears. Since then the mayor, Stuart Crosby, and senior planners have indicated that they too are not prepared to discuss this issue.
Consequently, I have been forced to lodge an appeal to the Environment Court and in this I have strong support from similarly disaffected members of the Welcome Bay, Waimapu and other estuary-side communities.
In contrast to the council's position, a Government minister has opined that the quality of consultation is a vital component of local body democracy and has suggested we refer this issue to the Ombudsman.
If you have owned property lying within 15m of water from before 1997 and would like to comment on your experience of the 1997 "consultation", feel free to contact me at r.rimmer@xtra.co.nz
R Rimmer, Welcome Bay
Deal suspect
I recently read an article by Winston Peters wherein he was warning of the problems of a proposed free-trade agreement with India. His main problem was that we would lose a lot of jobs as we would outsource so much manufacturing because of their incredibly cheap labour and tens of millions of unemployed.
Do they really believe that countries with over a billion population care about what we think when our total population is not half of that of one large city of their own?
When Australia got a free-trade agreement with the United States they found that their great hope, sugar, was excluded. So Americans have to pay at least twice as much as Aussie could supply, but it is not permitted.
When we had an agreement with the US to export a fixed tonnage of lamb to them, one year they welshed and would not allow the contracted amount into their market.
The latest negotiation looks as if it may well be at the cost of Pharmac. We don't want that.
Big countries have the upper hand when it comes to the test.
Their job is to look after their own citizens, and tiny countries don't have much clout. So let us be cautious and carefully scrutinise any forthcoming deal. It will be better in the long term.
(Abridged)
Charles Purcell, Mount Maunganui
Pride in language
I write in response to A. Wakefield (Your View, August 1). His statement that "It is they [Maori] who want to keep their language alive" is so deeply hurtful, offensive and divisive that I am surprised it was even published.
Maori is a beautiful language, and a national treasure that we should all take a pride in sharing, nurturing and learning.
We are surrounded by Maori road names and placenames, we take a pride in the haka and te reo Maori is an important part of New Zealand culture.
There are many wonderfully descriptive words and phrases in te reo Maori that we can all enjoy using in daily life if we take the trouble to learn a basic vocabulary. It is encouraging that National Radio uses Maori introductions and correct pronunciation of Maori placenames.
There are many ways to learn te reo Maori at no cost. Learning a new language has been shown to have have many benefits.
If we allowed te reo Maori to die out it would be a national tragedy. I would also remind A. Wakefield of the phrase: "United we stand, divided we fall."
Heather Shaw, Papamoa
Museum a must
The Bay of Plenty Times editorial on August 3 commenced with reference to "Tauranga's infamous museum-over-the-water saga", although it was about the much more alive topic of Boobs on Bikes.
In fact it was a timely reminder that Tauranga, New Zealand's fifth largest city, still does not have a museum which locals and visitors, especially our increasing number of tourists, can visit. Councillors have washed their hands of it by setting up a board of trustees charged with the responsibility of bringing one into existence.
Now, well into a year after the trust was set up, nothing is being reported in your paper about this matter.
The issue of a museum for Tauranga is not going to go away.
The council cannot escape its responsibility to see that the city has a museum.
Would the chairperson of the board of trustees inform the public what action is being taken to bring a museum into existence and what timeframe the trustees have developed for that to happen?
There are many Museum for Tauranga supporters eager to become part of a friends of the museum organisation which would lend support to the trustees.
(Abridged)
Basil Kings, Ohauiti
Rates too high
Is the Tauranga City Council trying to force us all out of the city with their huge rate increases? They state that we have some of the cheapest rates in New Zealand. I don't think so - our rates have increased 100 per cent since 2004.
The latest 10 per cent increase ($271) is unacceptable. The rateable value on our property has dropped 5 per cent yet we still have to put up with this increase.
Our cost for living in this city is: rates $2665.35, water $243, rubbish $257, total $3165.35.
This would have to be one of the most expensive places in New Zealand to live and I would like to know what the council is going to do about these unsustainable rate increases.Doug NoffkeTaurangaPayback poserI see that once again our legal system does not dish out justice equally. One woman, on her second fraud charge, has to pay back $41,000 at $25 a week, with 200 hours of community service thrown in. Not even a decent bottle of wine to someone in her socio-economic group.
Will this woman still be around to make the final instalment? I know she had a sad story to tell the judge, but crime is crime after all, no matter who she might be.
On the other hand, someone from a lower socio-economic group has to pay back $50 a week to clear his fraudulently gotten gains - from our taxes, through the domestic purposes benefit - of $60,000, plus 300 hours of community work. He didn't seem to have a good story to put across.
On the other hand, I know a young man who, on his second offence of petty theft, was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison. Go figure.
R Smith, Tauranga
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