Letters: More funds needed for Parapara

With too little money available for making the Parapara Rd safe, further closures because of major slips are likely, says a reader.Photo / File

AFTER travelling from the Waimarino to Wanganui for the past 40-plus years, it was great to hear that part of the $20 million being spent by Government is going to be used on SH4.

However, $20m being spent over three regions means the Parapara Rd improvements will be minor safety only.

My concern is that Site 15, which is a very bad dropout, seems to have had no serious work done since the floods that caused it some years ago. The road has had a lip where the road is slipping into the river and the opposite bank carved out to enable the traffic through.

I realise that some serious engineering is needed to repair the road, but it would seem that the time taken to do this has been inordinately long. Another decent flood could take out this road at this site, and then the Parapara would be closed again for some time, which does nothing for Wanganui.

NZTA needs to get on to this, as the minor safety works to be undertaken will be a waste of time because the road will be in the river.

CYNTHIA DOWSETT
Ohakune

Appeal collectors wanted

With one in five Kiwis dying from heart disease, the Heart Foundation needs more people to join with it by volunteering as street collectors for its Big Heart Appeal 2019 next month.

Every year more than 6500 New Zealanders die of heart disease. While the time commitment involved as a volunteer for a few hours on one day is small, the reward is huge and will play a vital role in the fight against New Zealand's single biggest killer, heart disease.

Funds raised during the Heart Foundation's annual appeal are used to support heart-related research and specialist training for cardiologists. The Heart Foundation is New Zealand's leading independent funder of heart research. Since 1968, it has funded more than $70 million in research and specialist training for cardiologists. Additionally, we perform a wide range of activities to help support people living with heart disease, and their families, and provide educational programmes and campaigns that promote heart-healthy living.

The Big Heart Appeal street collections will take place on Friday, February 22 and Saturday, February 23, and we need volunteers in all regions. To find out more about volunteering for the Big Heart Appeal and to sign up, visit https://www.heartfoundation.org.nz/volunteer

GAIL MCINTYRE
Fundraising manager, NZ Heart Foundation

Different takes

People certainly have different takes on everything. I refer to your front page story in the Chronicle on Monday, January 14 regarding "The little house on the prairie — oops, I mean Putiki".

If someone was converting a boat hull into tiny accommodation on a section next to my home, I would be excited and glad to observe something innovative being erected. As for bringing more people — especially visitors and tourists into the area, as well as, lord forbid, the odd caravan — they would be most welcome. Would make a change from your bread-and-butter neighbours (no offence meant to my good neighbours — Mr Jones, please put down that shotgun).

These days there seems to be a surplus of people complaining, looking for faults or just being totally negative. I suggest they try lightening up and making the most of the limited time all of us have on this earth.

DOUG PRICE
Castlecliff

Excellent metaphor

I'm pleased John Milnes (Letters, January 15) found resonance with a metaphor I recently used, namely: "Heating the house by burning the furniture". This was with regard to trashing the environment to fuel the economy.

Just to acknowledge, though, that this excellent metaphor is not a special little creation of my own.

Space limitations usually prohibit giving due accreditation for all sources.

That said, I have used the metaphor at least once previously (given its appositeness), and duly accredited it to the source in which I first encountered it.

This was Marilyn Waring's seminal work, Counting for Nothing, where she addressed the issue of the contribution unpaid women's work makes to the wider "economy".

Also having said that, I wouldn't be in the least surprised if the metaphor had an antecedent back in Plato's days.

It contains a timeless message that the human family seems incapable of taking on board.

FRANK GREENALL
Bastia Hill

Send your letters to: The Editor, Whanganui Chronicle, 100 Guyton St, PO Box 433, Whanganui 4500; or email editor@wanganuichronicle.co.nz