Friends and family of Leigh Rhodes and Kenny McCrae, express their upset at the "light" sentence handed to Nicole Reynolds, jailed for killing Ms Rhodes and Mr McCrae while drugged driving.
Friends and family of Leigh Rhodes and Kenny McCrae, express their upset at the "light" sentence handed to Nicole Reynolds, jailed for killing Ms Rhodes and Mr McCrae while drugged driving.
"We need to improve road safety in this region because we have had the worst vehicle accidents and deaths on our roads in 10 years. Appalling results we should all be ashamed of, and we have to improve our performance.
Read more: Grieving families outrage at drugged driver's sentence "So why would a judge give such a lenient decision to a person who drove into innocent people and created life-long suffering to innocent victims? Even worse to allow the person with a chemically drugged rearranged brain, to be given such a light prison sentence, sends an appalling message to the community.
"I for one, am saddened, disappointed in fact appalled at such a dreadful decision. We all have to do better, courts included."
Margaret Murray-Benge Bethlehem
"River's identity In reply to the letter by Bryan Johnson about the personification of a river - I, along with the rest of clear-thinking Kiwis also find it ridiculous.
"As a new person, and to welcome it to the world, I would like to invite the river to my next birthday - quite a trip from Whanganui to Tauranga but "people" do it every day.
"I just do not know where to post the invitation!"
"Rates rises Here we go again, our council seem to have forgotten they work for us, not us for them, They want a 3.8 per cent rates rise and now a rise of at least 3 per cent to pay for water. Why? Because the infrastructure needs upgrading because of extensive growth in the region. Growth that most citizens of Tauranga don't want because of massive cost hikes that come with it.
"I have already said I will not vote for any of the current council again. We hired them after listening to their promises to keep rates down. I agree with Ken Evans and his call for a democratic council and public consultation.
"Let's start with a public review of the councillors' individual performances to date. Question 1: have you listened to the people who voted for you? Question 2: have you kept rate rises down?"
Gary Horan Bayfair
"Knowing history Readers who research this history online starting with papers past and the Waitangi Tribunal report WAI 215 will find a far more complex picture than that painted by Tommy Kapai, (Ngati Ranginui/Pirirakau).
Te Tuinga Whanau Support Services executive director and Bay of Plenty Times columnist Tommy Wilson. Photo/file
"His blaming the "Crown" conceals the fact that government forces generally consisted of settler militia and volunteers, some British, and a similar number of Te Arawa Maori.
"Kapai also throws in the claim that the "Crown" wiped out whanau when relatively few people died on either side.
"Maori accepted that some land confiscation was inevitable but argued over how much of which land - Ngai Te Rangi and Ngati Haua (east of the Waikato), for example, making competing claims.
"Added to this was government muddling and delay plus a complex mix of beliefs, fears, and ambitions of settlers, kingites, Hauhau, Pai Marire, and "friendly natives". The "grand narrative" Kapai attempts to build is not our history." (Abridged)
