We hear of several service stations docking wages after "customers" doing a "drive-off" without paying. One boss actually asks that his workers "try to do their best" to stop petrol thieves doing a runner. Sounds reasonable enough but, in reality, how can you physically stop a determined driver - short of throwing down road spikes or chaining his car to a bollard - from escape?
One attendant (who would be better off looking for another job) has been docked between $50 and $150 five or six times in two years.
Other workers around the country complain of similar instances.
Because of the overwhelming number of scum with whom we share our roads, the only practical solution I can see is to beef up the pre-pay stringency which most gas stations have.
Oh for sure, it's a pain queuing at the counter to pay before going back out to your car to gas up, but this is part of the harsh reality of the society in which we live.
Usually, after catching the eye of the cashier, he will give me the thumbs up without having to prepay, for which I am grateful.
Occasionally, I'm not so lucky and the cashier chooses to stick to the rules, despite how honest I look. Not a problem for me.
In the end, if he or she values their job to that extent, then we must accept the inconvenience. Never ever berate a gas station employee, as I saw a pressed-for-time customer do a couple of weeks ago.
Our gas station people do a great job - and what's the big deal if you have to wash your own windscreen and spend a few more precious minutes gassing up when you only have to do it every couple of weeks?
Anna Osborne wants "some form of justice" for her husband and the other 28 men buried in the bowels of the Pike River Mine, which exploded four years ago.
As feared, the decision for a re-entry to remove the bodies is not to go ahead.
"It ripped my heart out," Osborne said. "I won't accept that decision."
She wants to see charges laid over the tragedy.
Osborne and an associate whose son died in the mine, have asked the High Court to reopen the case against former Pike River Coal chief executive Peter Whittall, despite charges against him being dropped a year ago. Osborne says her son and all the other Pike River victims are on her mind constantly and her life is like that of a broken record, stuck and unable to progress. While she accepts that some families want to move on because they need to get on with their life, she is resigned to not doing so until she gets her son home and/or justice has been done.
"If it's the last thing I do, I'll fight to bring my husband home."
Four years have now passed since this terrible mining tragedy and it's pretty clear that every avenue has been gone down, to extract the remains of those 29 workers who perished.
Any attempt would be simply too dangerous and risk the lives of others.
It is time for the families (many of whom are already doing) to look ahead.
Enough pain has been suffered and any further blame or bitterness must be put to rest.
There is so much to live for and there comes a time when every day spent dwelling in the past is a day wasted.
Time to move on.
-Brian Holden has lived in Rotorua for most of his life and has recently celebrated 10 years' writing And Another Thing.
