Letters: Look after our hospital, Whanganui; we're lucky to have it

Hats off to Whanganui Hospital maternity services and staff, says Lorraine Pervan.

Experienced recently the team of professional workers at Whanganui hospital — from the midwives, nurses and doctors at Maternity and the Special Care Baby Unit, the care could not have been better.

Each team of workers was as good as the one before.

Every staff member went the extra mile to ensure my daughter and grandson had excellent care and attention, and my daughter was always kept fully informed at all times.

Even the follow-up after-care can not be faulted.

To the public of Wanganui and the surrounding district, look after out hospital; we are lucky to have it.

LORRAINE PERVAN
Whanganui

Ethical funding

"Learn to pronounce te reo correctly," urges Jane Trask (Chronicle, November 1).

Agreed that's a courteous thing to do — allowing, though, for regional dialects. But to claim that wrong pronunciation is "murdering the very essence" of Maori culture implies that an inadvertent mistake is the equivalent of manslaughter.

What really needs to be recognised as the essence of Maori culture, though currently obscured by fraudulent neo-liberal mantra, is the traditional gift economy whereby available resources were shared equitably with infrastructures inherited by the mokopuna without the burden of debt finance.

What a contrast to the latest news headlines — Mike King's charity now penniless while Health Minister Clark bemoans the fact that the health sector is well over $1 billion in deficit.

This nonsense must stop — and stop now! The gift economy paradigm could be easily applied to our New Zealand financial system today. We have a sovereign Reserve Bank equipped to credit-fund public health, education, railways etc. Budget deficits or surpluses thus become obsolete allowing regressive taxes like the GST to be scrapped, so increasing household disposable income. This is pūtea pai (good/ethical funding). Now, please Mr Editor, place a macron over the letter "u" before I am accused of wrong spelling.

HEATHER MARION SMITH
Gonville

Missing guns

In 1980 two cannon were placed beside the memorial steps leading to the Sarjeant Gallery.

The cannon were salvaged from a ship, the Lady Denison, that ran aground here in 1865.
Today the cannon have gone and only the concrete plinths remain.

Does anyone know what has happened to the cannon?

D.W. PRENTICE
Whanganui East

Road bumps

The new road bumps in Totara St are excessive for the job they were intended to do.

It leads to braking, bumping, accelerating and over-the-top inconvenience. I suggest they should be lower and longer.

NEIL MACKINTOSH
Castlecliff

Right to die

Re the letter from Elaine Hampton, October 31, headed "Right to die": Well done, Elaine. I can see you live in the real world, not under some golden haze.

People who go on about justice select committees or newspaper percentages of those for and against the End of Life Choice Bill miss the point completely.

There is a large block of people out there known as the "silent majority". In my view, being one of them, I would not be interested in knocking out a two-page letter to explain my views to some bleeding-heart Parliamentary committee — or, worse, travel to Wellington to make a submission to them.

Nor would I complete a questionnaire when I go to church.

Having a reasonable IQ, I knew that, with NZ First voting in block, the matter would go out to a public referendum and remove it from the no-hopers in Wellington who have tried to stuff the political process all the way, due to their religion or culture.

Personally, I hope none of them survive the next election and have to go back to their day jobs. I would also guess the Act Party and NZ First vote may jump in recognition of their stance on this bill.

Religion and culture have their place in NZ society but have no place in interfering in the lives of others who are dying and want to die with respect and dignity of their choosing.

BOB WALKER
St John's Hill

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