Spiering salary
I find it very difficult to understand why the farmers agreed to pay Theo Spiering a salary of that magnitude. They have only themselves to blame.
Poul Mikkelsen, Cambridge
Cropping land
Well done Kerre McIvor on your article (August 18). I've had worry about crop land extinction on my head for so long it's sped up the grey hairs! Like you I avoid a lot of imported fruit — its taste seems synthetic and the fruits are too perfect, as if grown in a 3D printer!
We must look at retaining good soils. Decades of farmers caring for the land will all be wasted if we don't act.
Jay Daya, New Lynn
Abortion law
If the alleged Christchurch shooter saw Muslims as a health issue, would Al Noor have been any less of a slaughter? Then how is in-utero killing merely medical routine? Though sometimes justifiable, abortion belongs in the Crimes Act. It is the health and wellbeing solution of the powerful, and death for the powerless.
David Mafi, Te Atatu South
Catholic Church
Gavan O'Farrell (Letters, August 18) objects to my focusing on the Catholic Church's role in campaigning against the End of Life Choice Bill. He states: "Everyone else lobbies, why must some be silent?" Of course, the Church is free to lobby, but any organisation with such a horrendous track record of child abuse and disregard for suffering at the end of life should not be surprised if its sermons on morality are greeted with derision.
It is hardly contentious to point out that the Church no longer has much moral authority in society for these reasons.
Unfortunately for O'Farrell, the "good the Catholic Church does" has been eclipsed in the public's mind by the grievous scandals that beset it. Having sown so much harm over centuries, it is now reaping the consequences — not least its diminished status in moral debates such as that over assisted dying.
Patricia Butler, Nelson
Ihumātao visit
Jacinda should visit Ihumātao with Dave Veart, a historian and archaeologist who has studied this area for more than 50 years, to explain why it is so historically, culturally and archaeologically important. The difficulty for the uninformed layman is that it looks like "a pile of scoria".
Bruce Tubb, Belmont
Climate change
John Hampson reassures us, "History is full of dire predictions, but most never happen." What happened when politicians ignored "dire predictions" about crucifying Germany after WWI? Secret German rearmament and WWII. When Bush and Blair ignored advice that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction? An illegal and unnecessary war that destabilised the Middle East.
When scientists warned CFCs were destroying the ozone layer? The advent of year 2000 would disrupt computers? Action that forestalled disaster.
Scientists now say reduce CO2 or face an uninhabitable planet. Quoting Paul Little's exhortation, "faith in ourselves" may seem more like "she'll be right" to people calculating the risk of bringing children into a world beyond human recognition or, it seems, imagination.
Dennis N Horne, Oxford
