Letters: June 13: Rail not road

One freight train will put about 30-40 truck-and-trailer units off the road. Photo / Michael Cunningham

On a 19km stretch of State Highway 1 last week, I passed nine truck-and-trailer units fully laden with timber, heading no doubt for Marsden Point. I am reliably informed that one freight train will put about 30-40 truck-and-trailer units off the road. Why not extend the rail link to the port, put this timber on to the rail, as is done in the Bay of Plenty, and defer the extension of the highway 1 from Puhoi to Warkworth for a time?

This won't please the current Government, though, which is financed to a large degree by the road transport industry. Marsden Point is strategically placed to take the new cargo ships of 200,000 tonnes displacement in the future, rather larger than the 1000-tonne iron clipper ships of the 1870s.

No doubt the port will be handling more freight in the future, more of which could be sent to and from by rail, and Marsden Point could handle much of the traffic for the whole of the North Island.

And what is this twaddle about a holiday highway? Every highway is a holiday highway when heading out of Auckland.
-Kevan G Marks, Kaipara

Betraying voters
I am a supporter of the HAC, in my opinion it would be a good thing for Whangarei, though whether it will be as transformational as its more strident advocates claim, I have come to doubt. Panaceas share one factor in common, they claim to be "the" definitive solution to the issue that they address. I just love that concept, but I must admit we still have mendacity, obesity, delinquency, insolvency, plus a lack of transparency, to mention a few perennial problems for which there have been put forward no lack of miracle cures.

So, much as I would like it to be, the building of the Hundertwasser Art Centre will not precipitate some kind of new dawn for this town.

This is not gloomy nay saying, but perhaps an injection of a measure of reality into the increasingly fevered debate.

There is another uncomfortable reality that needs to be dispassionately considered. The majority of Whangarei people do not want the centre built. No matter what spin is put on it, those who are either totally against it, or somewhat against it have the numbers over those who are totally for it, or somewhat for it. Of course we do not have the definitive results that would have been provided by a referendum, because providing such an irrefutable mechanism has been deftly avoided by a succession of local governments, including the present occupants of Forum North.

This leads me to think that the project is essentially being kept alive by a minority of people who think that their opinions have more value than those held by others in the community. Our current mayor was largely elected on her commitment to consultation. I would suggest that if the council decides to go ahead with such an unpopular divisive project, this commitment will have been betrayed.

One of things that I love about living in Whangarei is that this "well we actually do know better than you", sort of arrogance is not looked upon at all favourably by its citizens.

I like the idea of the HAC, but I like far less the suborning of popular will by an elitist minority viewpoint.
- GM Tinker, Whangarei

Don't be bullied
Re the HAC project -- Whangarei District Council, take notice of your voters.

There is an overwhelming opposition to this project on all grounds.

Totally out of character with the Town Basin theme.

Get rid of the old Harbour Building as it is now derelict, keep the parking area as it is.

Not many cities have such a great space near their centre -- great for car rallies, ice skating and so on and it will not cost millions that the city does not.

Have so-called Old Men who have lived through many years of cautious living and know the value of money in the bank.

Also sort out the entry to the car park so it is easy to access from all directions. Ignore the above and there will be another clean-out of councillors at the next election.

Don't be bullied by a minority that don't understand finance
- Keith Taylor, Oakleigh

Choose wisely
For what did your fathers fight?

And their fathers before them? Both Pakeha and Maori, they fought for democracy and freedom.

More recently others campaigned to free South Africa from an apartheid system that accorded special privileges only to the minority white race.

It doesn't take an Einstein to see that the exact same thing is happening in NZ, only in reverse, with a brown minority claiming exclusive privileges because of diluted ancestral heredity.

Why are our major political parties now seeking to destroy the democratic way of life; a life that we enjoy only because of the sacrifices of our forbears?

Those old soldiers would weep if they could witness the devastating effects of political correctness, with politicians afraid to speak for all of our people as one nation, cowering instead before the threats of racist accusations from those who themselves are glaring examples of racial bigots.

John Key made a pre-election promise to abolish our outdated Maori parliamentary seats.

Brave words indeed -- until he found that his political survival depended upon Maori Party support.

The Labour Party played a major part in establishing racial divisiveness and continues to do so.

The Greens would have us suffocate by touting political correctness and a divided society as a desirable way of life.

All three major parties seem determined to enforce a system of separate development upon us, equally determined to emasculate democracy as we know it.

But wait. There are three other established parties who aim to abolish all racial references from our legislation and restore democratic government through the wishes of the majority.

These are the Conservative Party, NZ First and Act. Democracy is not yet dead.

Choose wisely.

Your vote will decide - democracy or apartheid?
- Mitch Morgan Kaipara