Letters to editor: Pupils never in danger

Our pupils were never in danger

Re: AOS and Waipawa Primary School.

Your Text of the day correspondent on November 28 implies that Waipawa Primary School placed their pupils at risk during this incident.

The facts are: the school was not informed of the police action nor was it aware of it until the action had started. Earlier in the day, staff members informally approached nearby police personnel to be told a minor incident was taking place and it would be concluded before pupils were due to be in the area.

It is our belief that at no time were the pupils at risk. If they had been, the school would have been informed.

The school has well-defined procedures to protect the safety of pupils and staff and these would have been instigated had the situation warranted it.

If the correspondent had approached the school staff at the time, they could have been apprised of the situation and been assured of the safety of their child.George MiltChairman, Board of Trustees, Waipawa Primary School.Radiant welcomeThrough your newspaper, we would like to acknowledge the grand welcome and farewell provided for passengers when the Radiance of the Seas cruise ship visited your beautiful area on Sunday, November 27. To see the effort with the vintage cars and costumes was brilliant. The shuttle bus service was excellent and the drivers happy and helpful.

The line of vintage cars and the band playing on the dock as the ship departed was a great touch and much appreciated. To everyone who gave up their Sunday and went to such great effort to make us feel so welcome a heartfelt thank you.

You are all a great credit and asset to your community.

Keep up the great work. Rod and Liza Case AustraliaVoting systemsAt the recent parliamentary election we also had the voting system referendum to consider.

Now the voting numbers are counted, wouldn't it be interesting to compare the parliamentary seat totals using the proposed alternative voting systems.

We have the results using the MMP system but how would a Parliament look if say STV had been the voting system?Richard BarfootNapier

Poor is relativeRelax "JAC" (texter 03 Dec'), no one with an IQ larger than their shoe size is likely to want to stop poor people having "their lives" any time soon. "Poor" is a relative term and poor people are a very necessary and potentially powerful group in any community.

If poor people were to organise themselves into one coherent group and withdraw their services as poor people there would obviously be no one to make the next layer of wealth appear rich and they, the perceived "rich" people, would by default become poor people. And they wouldn't enjoy that one little bit.

As for "rights", poor people have exactly the same rights as anyone else in New Zealand.

They have the right to have families as large as they desire, they have the right to have large "flash" houses beside the sea or perhaps on one of the local hills with a nice view.

And they have the right to have the latest expensive cars in the garage, perhaps the latest Merc or BMW, one for mum and a matching one for dad, if dad is still around or known.

They also have the right to access the same education facilities as the perceived "rich" buggers, with a view to ultimately being able to afford their aspirations.

And, of course, they have exactly the same right as those they perceive as "rich" to expect that their neighbours will finance the cost of the family size, and other dreams, they can't afford.

None whatsoever. D B SmithNapier