Letters: Is the rubbish dumping issue that hard to solve?

Rubbish dumped on a Rotorua couple's property. Photo / Stephen Parker

Is it really too difficult for the council to find a solution to the illegal rubbish dumping?

On one hand, the council has said cameras used in dumping hotspots in the past had either been stolen or damaged and powering them could be an issue for rural areas.

On the other hand, the council said illegal rubbish dumpers can be prosecuted but a high threshold of evidence was needed. You mean like CCTV footage?

Rather than put the problem in the too-hard basket, a simple investigation and consultation with local security and investigation businesses would provide the answers.

Dumped material can be used to trace and prosecute offenders. Cameras can be solar-powered or battery-powered, like hunter's cameras in the bush, and positioned high up out of people's reach so they are unable to damage them.

With the council now charging rubbish fees of $45 for a single axle trailer/van/ute (up to 250kg), the problem is only going to get worse.

If the council can supposedly afford to spend tens of millions on the lakefront and the museum and pay to have illegally dumped rubbish collected, then they can afford $5000 on cameras. It is pocket change in comparison and, in my view, more beneficial to health, safety, the environment and tourism.

Come on council, time to get your hands dirty and provide the basic infrastructure the city desperately needs and which the ratepayers pay for. Residents and ratepayers deserve more than a load of rubbish.

Tracey McLeod
Lake Tarawera

No recollection of strappings

A letter on January 1 referred to children being caned or strapped for speaking Māori at school and being forced to speak English.

I do not recall any strapping happening during the time that I was at school and I am nearly 100. I attended a number of country schools during my childhood and this is where one would expect to see this happen, if ever. Corporal punishment ceased in New Zealand schools in 1987.

What I did see when visiting my Māori mates during my school years was a couple of Māori mothers say quite forcefully to their children, "Do not speak Māori here, English is the future for you".

Those days Māori and Pakeha were friendly to each other, but over the past 25 or so years one sees that some people are working hard to drive a wedge between the races. Let us hope that they never succeed.

John Smale
Ngongotaha

More virtue signalling

I was not surprised to read the letter from Tuehu Harris, the acting chief executive of the Māori Language Commission, promoting that to learn te reo you must speak it every day (Letters, January 12).

Other letters this last week supporting te reo at our local library have really struck me as virtue signalling - that is, nice to promote, but in reality totally impractical.

Just imagine if commerce in our city, and our country, was carried out in te reo.

Sure, te reo has a role today in a place like Rotorua to promote our unique cultural difference, plus of course for those people who wish to learn and speak it.

But to have it rammed down your throat at our public library as A. N. Christie experienced is a step too far, in my view.

This example is just the tip of the iceberg here in Rotorua, as there is no doubt in my mind that our council in the past five years has promoted the Māori view more so than any other council in New Zealand.

Mike Mcvicker
Rotorua