Nadia Lim and a goat on her farm in Central Otago.
Reasons to be grateful
I was delighted to read “9 questions with Nadia Lim” on Tuesday and her answer of “Grateful” to the first question. I think that comment alone is a key element of her success.
Gratitude is a wonderful thing as it leads to optimism. Optimistic people look for the good in situations and are inevitably happier people and draw the same to themselves.
Here I’d like to segue to a completely different but common opportunity to express gratitude that is missed by some people.
I am thinking of situations where drivers give way to others on our streets — through chicanes, allowing drivers into queues on busy roads and merging traffic and so on. We are generally a considerate lot and letting others have right-of-way is an important part of driving in a busy city, or anywhere there is a build-up of traffic.
What is not so common is the recipient driver acknowledging that generosity. It takes so little to raise a finger from your steering wheel (first finger that is), a wave in your rear vision mirror, or a flash of your hazard lights, to let the other driver know their actions are noted and appreciated. Like a smile, these acknowledgements cost nothing to deliver and make both parties feel better.
Nick Rowe, Greenlane.
Māori seats
We forget our history. Auckland has had Māori seats before. At the 1986 local body elections, the Auckland Regional Authority elected its 26 members from across the region using parliamentary boundaries. Included were two Māori seats — Northern Māori and Western Māori. The boundaries of the Regional Authority were very similar to the Auckland Council boundaries of today.
When the Auckland Council in 2024 reviews its representation I hope it decides to elect the whole council from Parliamentary boundaries including at least two Māori seats .
Brian Lythe, Greenlane.
TMO role
Referees are human and not infallible. Generally they are right but sometimes they are wrong. Players accept this and, in the main, so do coaches. The most important thing that came out of the Rugby World Cup and needs desperately to be reviewed is the role of the TMO.
I have always considered the role of the TMO is to assist the referee where the referee is uncertain and asks for help. It is never, or should be never to overrule the referee. There should only ever be one person in charge of a game and that must be the referee. Anything else is chaos, as it was in the final.
Gerald Payman, Mt Albert.
Flood damage
Owners of flood-damaged homes in Auckland are still waiting for the council to make a decision on the category of their homes. If their property is to be bought out, they will only receive 95 per cent of the January 2023, pre-flood value.
While the council makes slow progress, property prices are rising and homeowners will be buying in a market that has increased prices and values.
Auckland Council, get a move on and sort it out — eight months has passed and these homeowners are still in limbo.
Pauline Murray, Henderson.
Health education
If money is to be put into healthcare, an obvious starting point should be to provide our own home-grown doctor/nurse trainees a free ride.
Surely this would be money well-spent, reduce language barriers, and provide ability to identify with our culture. The tremendous cost in recruiting from overseas could be saved and put into a programme here for training our own.
There was absolutely nothing wrong with the system in the 1970s, providing accommodation, uniforms, salary, and education for nurses.
The same could be set up for doctors as well, and not just be a potential elitist profession, for only those who can afford it.
A challenge to the incoming Government could be to change “the system”.
Margaret Dyer, Taupō.
Moving on
Dr Hylton Le Grice’s letter (NZ Herald, November 2) demonstrates yet another way Auckland Transport are not fit for purpose — unlawful prevention of disabled access.
Removing the AT board is not enough. Replace AT with a new organisation with new people who will manage for the outcomes Aucklanders want. I suggest a new name — Moving Auckland.
I felt sorry for Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown talking to Mike Hosking about flood-damaged home payouts and precedents. The mayor is caught between a rock and a very watery place with empty pockets. Let’s wish Phil Wilson, the new Auckland Council chief executive, all the best for a great working relationship with Brown so they can start to get Auckland back on track, as economically as possible.
Gary Carter, Gulf Harbour.
Rugby rules
Looking back on the Rugby World Cup final last Sunday, I was most disappointed not only about the outcome but how it came about. A yellow card can prove a nuisance and might provide a small hiccup in the game. But in this case, a red card used so early proved a major upset. It changed the dynamics of what was supposed to be the greatest game this year to a one-sided battle.
Ian Foster has suggested a red card could be worth 20 minutes off the field. I would like to suggest that for a yellow card, three points would be taken from the score and for a red card, perhaps eight. The offender would remain playing and the game could be much smoother. As a spectator, I want to see the game played with two full teams.
I say keep the players on the field and provide us with the game we can enjoy.
Foul play? No sweat. Hit them hard in their pockets. A decision to be made by a committee of rugby experts a week later.
Ralph Williams, Pahi, Northland.
Money-go-round
George Williams says he is poorer now than he was six years ago and thinks others will be the same. However for the 77,000 children and their parents no longer in poverty, for the thousands newly housed, for the thousands of businesses that didn’t go bankrupt as a result of Labour stewardship and the tens of thousands who have jobs now who didn’t before and soon won’t under National, the view is very different.
The New Zealand economy is larger now than at any time in history so we’re all sorry your correspondent missed out.
Mark Nixon, Remuera.
Good sports
The NZ Herald editorial (November 1) is a salient reminder of an honourable way we may conduct ourselves. RWC 2023 produced some excellent contests, with often unexpected results. Great rugby. This must be a primary reason we follow sport with such interest.
The great South African writer, Laurens van der Post, whilst incarcerated in an Indonesian POW camp, often told his fellow prisoners, “There is a way of winning by losing, a way of victory in defeat which we are going to discover.”
He is suggesting that to exercise self control when events do not unfold as desired, is the true mark of equanimity, maturity, and, dare I say, magnanimity.
Thank you Ian Foster. Thank you All Blacks. You are magnificent. Well done, South Africa.
Martin van Zonneveld, Westmere.
Out of control
The average Auckland house price of $1.27 million and climbing means more people will never own a house. In retirement they’ll have higher rents, and growing medical and dentistry expenses, but insufficient money. That’s a crisis caused by three decades of high immigration, allowed by politicians.
Meanwhile, has our 5 million population definitively contributed to changes in global climate? Any notion we could change the way of life of the other 8 billion globally allegedly affecting climate is pure fantasy. Please, Mr Shaw and supporters, detail how New Zealand ditching fossil fuel transport and energy, the bedrocks of our economy, would be viable and what the alternatives are given the huge mining required for EVs, and given how essential personal transport is for our modern living?
The crises we could fix are a choice of practical realities over unrealistic dogmas. The greatest crisis is demonstrably the cost of living, led by housing caused by excessive population growth. Our ability to control weather is zero.
Rod McIntyre, St Heliers.
On fireworks
Luxon must be crackers not to consider banning fireworks — not a good start given 73 per cent of Kiwis think they should be banned.
John Roberts, Remuera.
On Gaza
The harrowing reports of Gaza children’s immense suffering from burns and fractured or severed limbs should be of deep concern to us all. In the name of humanity, a pause in hostilities is essential to treat and ease their pain and suffering. Man’s inhumanity to man is the sad reality of all war.
Larry Mitchell, Rothesay Bay.
On RWC
Another World Cup is finally over for another four years (feels like four weeks). Please can we now move on and stop the endless wall-to-wall coverage and hand-wringing? There is (so much) more to life!
R Howell, Onehunga.
On election
New Zealand is in limbo awaiting final election results. It’s actually a good thing as both parties have stopped the pre-election BS that seemed to last months. Now we just have to find some way of paying for all these promises.
Ian MacGregor, Greenhithe.
On violence
I’m no defender of Oranga Tamariki. but they are generally the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff of family violence. Why does not the finger be pointer at the cause, usually much closer to home?
Tony Sullivan, St Heliers.
We're celebrating the best of New Zealand as we head into the 2024-25 summer.