Mike Cranstone's article on farming and methane issues was a case in point of an interesting, informative piece, likely to get us thinking.
Seems we need to decrease our herds of cattle temporarily while we sort a solution and spare/repair our earth for our kids/grandkids.
Yes, I know that fabulous cows take a lot of breeding, but "adapt or die" is resonating for me.
Our citizens from five to 95 are passionate and informed, even if of different persuasions to myself. Almost without exception they enlighten, stun or make me laugh out loud.
The variety of letters to the editor is always a great way to start the day and feel the pulse of our darling little gem of a city.
CUSHELA C. ROBSON
Whanganui
Cost of buses
Mark Twain is erroneously credited with the saying: "There are three kinds of lies: Lies, damned lies and statistics".
Nicola Patrick, who is supposed to represent Whanganui in Horizons Regional Council, is correct that smaller buses for Whanganui suburban services would be uneconomic.
But her quoted statistics in support of Horizons bus services in Whanganui are clearly wrong: 140,000 trips per annum equates to 450 passengers every day for six days per week. By observation, that is just not credible, even if one adds in the bus drivers.
Nicola's buses cost Whanganui ratepayers $250,000 a year or, on the face of it, $1.78 per passenger although direct comparison is difficult because of the range of concession fares offered.
In any terms, however, this is a scandalous waste of money and we need less ideology from our avowedly green representative and more downright common sense.
STEPHEN PALMER
Bastia Hill
Travel centre isolated
I am wholly in support of Janet Mace re her concerns as to the state of our travel centre.
It is out of the way, 100 per cent isolated at night and its best-before date is long gone. A major eyesore and colder than a mother-in-law's kiss.
Twice in the last winter months, dementia got the better of me — I unintentionally left my wife sitting alone outside on a cold, wintry night.
She had been away doing what nanas do, babysitting the grandkids in a faraway city.
The last incident went something like this:
Brrr Brrr — Brrr, "Hello, Mike speaking!"
"Where are you?" said my wife's voice.
"I'm sitting by the tile fire reading the Farmlands magazine, and where are you?" I asked.
"At the bus depot, where I have been for the past hour waiting to be picked up."
You see, I had been pottering about out in the garage and didn't have my cell phone with me, so I was unreachable until I came inside.
Shikes, I thought to myself, that error has cost me an early-to-bed and early-to rise-evening.
There is a purpose-built building next to the former Chronicle offices in Taupo Quay. I refer to the former NZR bus depot.
I'm sure it was in the Maori land bank category that Mr Mair and iwi acquired.
What a disgrace it is now — left to the elements to further deteriorate.
Maybe it could be resurrected and used once again for the purpose it was built for.
MIKE O'DONNELL
Eastside
Cyclists tormented
The article about the White Bike memorial near Bulls made for sad reading.
Trucks are not the only vehicles intent on tormenting cyclists.
Many other road users deliberately swerve towards cyclists, reducing the safety margin to a minimum — in some cases with fatal results.
Cyclists are not even that common on our open-road highways, so it is hard to fathom the mentality of a driver who is so incensed by their presence that they need to increase the risk of a collision.
GRAEME SHEPHERD
Patea
