Shame - but no worries, they only laughed at us for a short time before they left to return to their homes, shaking their heads at our quaint provincial ways.
Does anyone know why this facility was unavailable during the course of the Masters? We do have two whole years to get this stuff right.
PS: We all really appreciated the new water fountain.
RIK JONES, Whanganui Central
Thank you
Thank you Whanganui for a great Masters Games - and the hospitality was fantastic. As this was my first time I may consider attending again in 2019.
GARY STEWART, Foxton Beach
False claims
Columnist Jay Kuten would rather push his particular ideological narrative than consider the facts, especially with regard to anything to do with US President Donald Trump or the Republican Party.
His nonsense would be entertaining if it wasn't full of attacks on people he disagrees with.
Jay makes all sorts of false claims, many of which should be corrected or at least contrasted with the facts by your newspaper.
In a recent column, Jay stated the well-refuted claim that Trump adviser Steve Bannon is a "white supremacist" - ie. that he is a racist and anti-semite.
Are we supposed to believe that Jay would know better than all those Jews and Muslims and people of colour that Bannon hired and worked with at Breitbart who have made it quite clear that Bannon is not racist or anti-semitic, or in any way a "white supremacist"?
This latest claim of Jay's is simply unacceptable and he should immediately retract it and apologise.
K A BENFELL, Whanganui
Enough Jay
For how much longer do we have to be subjected to Jay Kuten's personal fixation with all things political in the US of A, and his religiously based beliefs?
His articles have no relevance to current issues in New Zealand.
One week he attacks Trump and then the next he has a go at Obama. I honestly think the man has a reality problem, despite his claims to professional expertise in a very "airy-fairy" field.
Is it not time that we let this bloke enjoy his fishing and unburden him from his obligation to write rubbish for the Chronicle?
D PARTNER, Eastown
Love and care
I'd like to correct a statement I made in the article on my work - "Artist explores the sounds of colour" (Chronicle, January 31).
I misspoke about Edith Collier. In my mind, "genuine care" means "love and care" but not necessarily actual physical care, which some have assumed I meant.
It would have been more accurate to just say "family duties" rather than "the enormous task of taking care of 37 nephews and nieces".
Apologies for the confusion.
SUSAN FRYKBERG, Tylee Artist in Residence
Economic option
Good news for Barry Garland.
He asked (Chronicle letters; February 4) if there was an alternative (and authentic) branch of economics not wedded to the "crude concept of endless, mindless growth".
Indeed there is - and it's now global, added to almost daily by highly qualified, anti-austerity academics. Australia alone has given us Steve Keen, Bill Mitchell and Steve Hail, among others.
Like myself, and other Kiwis, they are members of Economic Reform Australia (ERA) and all aver that a sovereign government has the authority to fund public infrastructures without borrowing at interest from the private sector.
It means you don't have to keep clear-felling forests, overstocking grazing land, applying toxic chemicals to increase harvests in order to service accelerating debt-servicing demands.
Renowned 20th century Quaker economist Kenneth Boulding used to insist on the
concept of "development" rather than "growth".
In New Zealand, the first Labour government employed sovereign money to build state houses, bridges etc but eventually abandoned this policy to the neo-liberal insistence on borrowing on the capital markets, now supported by all our current MPs.
No wonder that around 20 per cent of government revenue, which could be spent on protecting our environment, goes to the owners of Treasury bills and other securities.
The 1975 Values Party manifesto supported the market mechanism as the best way to allocate resources but with strict controls and taxation reforms. Its leadership opposed Social Credit's call for nil-interest Reserve Bank funding.
But attitudes have changed since the 2008 global financial meltdown. Barry Garland's questions are evidence of this. We need more thinkers like him.
HEATHER MARION SMITH, Gisborne
No immigrant
Re: Chronicle, February 7 and Hamish McDouall's comment that "we are all immigrants" in New Zealand - bollocks.
Most New Zealanders have families going back at least three generations - plus post-generations of grandchildren and great grandchildren.
To call these people immigrants is an insult.
It seems that anyone who has been here five minutes has the right to tell us Kiwis how to live, and who to let in to this country.
I am not an immigrant, I am a New Zealander, and I object to this word being used to describe generations of Kiwis who have been born here and fought for this country and made it what it is today.
A BARRON, Aramoho
