A beggar on Queen St in Auckland's CBD. Photo / Jason Oxenham
I am proud to be an Aucklander born and bred. We should be proud to show off our city to visitors and let them take away a good impression and fond memories of it.
Sadly, however there remains the ever-present issue of beggars and rough-sleepers.
These beggars are
of course most visible on Queen St and now seem to have taken over the pavements of the full length of this main pedestrian thoroughfare.
Misfortune, is one thing but rude and indecent behaviour is another.
We are told to report threatening behaviour to police but how many of us have time or courage to deal with such matters on a daily basis? We might make a police report, we will probably encounter the culprit or their cohort the next day - not exactly a motivating factor unless you are Chuck Norris or Jet Li.
Many of these sidewalk denizens have drug abuse problems. It seems a dereliction of duty to allow these persons to pose an ever-present threat to citizens using the public thoroughfare.
Retail workers, shop-floor staff, restaurant staff and office workers make our city the productive place that it is and provide us the services, necessities and pleasure of shopping, dining and entertainment. People working in the city spend such a large part of their time there they should be able to do this in safety and in peace.
I hope serious and humane action will be taken to get beggars and rough-sleepers off our streets and allow Aucklanders to live comfortably and safely in their home town.
David Marton, Mt Eden.
I have every confidence in Land Information Minister
(NZ Herald, May 16). We have a minister with a thorough grounding in environmental issues, so that more than just economic considerations now hold proper sway in decision making.
She is a refreshing change from a succession of ministers clutching rubber stamps.
Keith Woodley, Pukorokoro Miranda Shorebird Centre.
As a superannuitant, I had doubts we could continue to fund the universal pension with the often reported increase of our aged community as a proportion of the population.
However, the NZ Herald has eased my mind. According to
on our population growth, life expectancy between 2003 and 2019 has declined by eight years to 68 for males and by six years to 75 for females. My only concern is, I should be dead by now.
John Harmsworth, Warkworth.
New Zealand has been blessed with Prime Ministers who have presented our country well internationally. Peter Fraser at the founding conference establishing the United Nations worked well and stood up for the rights of small nations.
Norman Kirk whose opposition to nuclear weapons and the rights of Pacific nations taking the French Government to the world court of over atmospheric nuclear testing. He sent the frigate Otago into the French Pacific waters as witness to this atrocity. His recognition of the People's Republic of China continues to serve us well.
David Lange's winning performance at the Oxford Union debate entertained us and we felt pride. His banning of the Buchanan kept our waters eternally nuclear free.
Helen Clark for keeping us out the madness of the Iraq was gutsy and was the morally correct thing to do.
Jacinda Ardern with her Christchurch Call meeting in Paris with the tech giants and working jointly with France. Ardern and Marcron were able to bring other larger countries onside and forced these morally deficient communications companies to accept some responsibility. There is much more do with these companies to get them to pay tax and be good corporate citizens.
Ardern has proved to be up there with our greatest leaders and perhaps if she keeps her nerve will become our greatest. Time is on her side.
Gerry Hill, Ponsonby.
I first started teaching in the UK in 1970 and only last year I retired from the job. My first job did not require teachers to do lunch time duties. Instead, the school employed local mums (who were pleased to have a small income) who were trained in first aid to do the playground duty. This gave the teachers time to have their lunch. I remember feeling refreshed and ready to face the afternoon's teaching.
Could we not introduce this into our primary schools to give teachers time to recharge, and have their lunch at lunchtime?
When I told my family that I was retiring, one of my sons said "I don't know how you stuck it for so long." I kept going because I believed I was making a difference to children's lives. However looking back now I realise how stressful the job was. A break in the day is, at least, what teachers deserve and need.
Fran Jones, Waiake.
I was in Auckland for 48 hours last weekend and experienced two collisions with e-scooters. The first incident occurred on a Queen St footpath between 4-5pm, while pedestrian traffic on footpaths is high-density.
The rider clipped me head-on, at speed. The second rider clipped my car during the same time period, weaving through cars, again in Queen St. Both riders were speeding and neither was wearing a helmet. Game on. Hope the Auckland Council has plenty of liability insurance for allowing these dangerous activities to occur. I have a serious dislike for stupid people.
Malcolm Haig, Cambridge.
A plea to the National Party: please cease messing around with the Botany electorate. In the short existence of our electorate, we have suffered through Pansy Wong and Jami-Lee Ross. Now we have rumours that we will be the means for National to engineer for themselves a friend in Parliament.
If this is correct, may I plead with the powers that be in National (Wellington and Botany) to leave us alone, give us at least a genuine candidate. Remember, whoever is elected is the only means of representation any of us have, including non-National voters who have now put up with this awful National mismanagement for too long.
Judy Lawry, Golflands.
I recently had family visiting from the UK and unfortunately, due to another passenger coughing and spluttering next to them, they both ended up with flu! Wouldn't it make more sense when the airline hands out the complementary bags of socks, toothpaste etc it included a face mask? Imagine the reduction in doctor visits if sick people were encouraged to wear the masks to keep their bugs to themselves?
Sue Goodwin, Albany.
I recently found myself thinking of a story told to me in the 1960s by a very dear friend in Dunedin. Following the birth of her first child, Beryl became very involved with the local playcentre. Money to run the centre was always tight and the young mothers were continually fundraising.
One of their activities was catering for the morning teas at the town hall when conferences were held there. On one such occasion Beryl was in charge of the money and extracted 2/6 from everyone before they were allowed past. One of the attendees became rather embarrassed when asked for the money and a search of all his pockets came up with nothing.
He suggested that he be allowed to come back later with the money but Beryl stood her ground and very firmly told him that she couldn't possibly allow that as the money was being raised for the playcentre. The poor man was rescued from this dilemma when an acquaintance appeared and paid the 2/6. Some time later, Beryl discovered that she had denied entry to Bob Hawke who was the keynote speaker at the Trade Union Conference in Dunedin.
Judy de Grauw, Birkenhead.
The most significant issue for New Zealand in the recent Australian election was the hope of restoring some fairness in the way New Zealanders are treated there, compared to the much more favourable treatment we afford Australians living here.
I am perplexed, therefore, by the delight expressed by Simon Bridges at the return of the party that has avowed to do nothing to address this inequity.
Doug Hannan, Mount Maunganui.
I have received a letter from Inland Revenue dated May 6, in which it refers to me as a wage and salary earner.
I am an 80-year-old pensioner and haven't worked since I was 75.
I tried all the blue printed contacts on the letter only to find none of them were functioning. So then I Googled for an email contact for IRD. That came up, but told me they only deal with phone calls and not emails.
Have any of you readers had any luck trying to get through to IRD on a phone? I read recently in the Herald that IRD had dumped a large number of staff, and this is the rubbish we get.
Betty Ellis, Beach Haven.
On National
Simon Bridges and Mike Hosking both think they lead the National Party. The party, its MPs and the membership are silent on the matter.
Selwyn Irwin, Hikurangi.
On Trump
Forget impeachment of The Don ... instead, focus on his tax affairs. After all, it worked with Al Capone!
Larry Mitchell, Rothesay Bay.
On Australia
Labor beaten against the odds, common sense prevailed, It augurs well for National next year.
A J Petersen, Kawerau.
"Labour used to be a party for the workers, now it's a party for people who don't work," was a comment made after Labour's defeat in Australia. Exactly the same comment would apply in New Zealand.
H Robertson St Heliers.
Scott Morrison may well have won an election in Australia but he is clearly confused about where he lives. I just happen to know that I live in the best country in the world.
Mike Jarman, One Tree Hill.
On bottles
The best way to protest about the huge wastage of plastic drink bottles is for us to stop buying the drinks.
Janet Boyle, Stanmore Bay.
On Insurance
From chicanery following the Canterbury quakes to recent premium hiking and refusals of cover, we are poorly served by the insurance industry in this country, including our own Government.
Richard Irwin, Te Atatu South.
On PMs
If the Nats persist with Bridges and the PM decides to tie the knot eight weeks prior to the election, we will end up with another term of broken promises, grandstanding and vacuous politics.
Ben Walker, Hamilton.
Ian Dallison details to Parole Board the money woes that left him 'wound up'.