Kapow!
Cr David Bennett cames out of the blue corner swinging in his Boxing Day letter, claiming the National Party deserves sole credit for providing the funding to allow the Sarjeant Gallery upgrade to proceed. Unfortunately, his wild left hook left him flat on the canvas as he slipped on his own fantastical account.
The truth neither begins nor ends with ex-Minister Chris Finlayson and then MP Chester Borrows' 2016 "announcement" on the Memorial Hall forecourt.
Prior to 2004, supporters, including artists, had already raised significant funding, and Helen Clark's Labour Government (with local Labour MP Jill Pettis) had pledged $2.5m towards what was then estimated as an $8.5m project. Then Michael Laws ran his populist Trump-like mayoral campaign against the long-planned extension.
The Government formally withdrew its offer when Laws continued his attacks on the Sarjeant and its supporters after taking office. However, associate arts minister Judith Tizard told supporters shortly afterwards that the money would, figurately speaking, remain in the PM's drawer until the district had rid itself of Mr Laws.
Then in November 2017 the Chronicle reported that because $16m in taxpayer money for the now $34.9m project was conditional on all funds being raised by December 20 2017, councillors had voted for ratepayers to go guarantor to a maximum $3.9m. Cr Bennett is listed as being present at that meeting.
In a final, preposterous anti-government claim, he dismisses new Arts Minister/PM Jacinda Ardern's role as "merely writing the confirmation letter" for the $10m. It would have been within her government's rights to can National's promise on this project, just as it has for items like the Auckland East-West Link. We are grateful for her support.
It's time for Cr Bennett to throw in the towel and to retreat, nose bloodied, to his corner.
CAROL WEBB
Whanganui
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Pole position
I strongly disagree with John Stephenson's reasoning (letters, December 28) for the replacement of overhead electricity lines and poles with underground installations. His reasoning that if there were no power poles then vehicles would not crash into them is true but ignores completely the fact that if the poles were not there to stop these out-of-control vehicles, they would crash into something else, such as a fence, house, parked car, human etc. As I do not contribute in any way towards these out-of-control accidents, I see no reason to now start paying substantial increases in my already excessive power charges for the installation of underground electricity supply lines just to relieve these drivers of the results of their poor driving.
Currently, the cost of this poor driving is a "user pays" scenario — as well it should be, and long may it continue — but sadly it appears standard practice now for those at fault to claim innocence and attribute the blame and associated costs, to "someone else" or "something else" such as a pole being in the wrong place. i.e "too near the road."
If a vehicle is so out of control that it leaves the road and hits anything not on the road, then I see that clearly as a driver fault, and the issue should be about the right of that driver to drive a vehicle, not about passing associated costs on to others who have no involvement in any way.
VW BALLANCE
Westmere
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Grievances
My father went to his grave with a grievance, it never had a negative effect on his life.
His grievance was that during the war the Government sold NZ dairy farmers product at a cheap price as part of our war effort, a war tax on dairy farmers. He also lost a pine plantation of big trees to the war effort, many sheep farmers lost their trucks and probably much more.
This tax on dairy farmers went on for some time after the war against farmers protestations.
In the end the British Government agreed on a compensation payment of 46k pounds, but our Government confiscated it claiming it was a payment to the NZ people. They used it to build state houses.
Jay Kuten says the worlds not always fair but it's best to move on before it eats you up.
We now have the Maori grievance industry, mostly of made up grievances, but they can't let go and move on because they are making to much money out of it.
G R SCOWN
Whanganui
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