Not only has the storm damage of June 2015 yet to be remedied but I have also noticed a discernible lack of daily maintenance. If the roading contractor is on a retainer fee, they must be doing very well.
It is clear Whanganui and its local state highways have become neglected since the local office of Transit moved to Palmerston North some years ago. I have urged our council officers to join me in a concerted attempt to bring the NZ Transport Agency to the table to discuss a substantial safety development plan for this highway.
David Bennett Chief Executive Pacific Safety International
Rare birds in peril
Thanks to our eagle-eyed and knowledgeable birders/conservationists Paul Gibson and Peter Frost for sharing Gibson's superb photo of a rare and very special visitor to our Whanganui River estuary (Chronicle, January 6).
That lone eastern curlew, with a crab in its astonishingly long beak, might have been standing sentinel to remind us all that we must protect our coastal and estuarine areas from development and destructive projects like that proposed by MidWest Ferries in Whanganui and at the top of the South Island.
Peter Frost reminded us that populations of eastern curlew, the world's largest shorebird species, are declining rapidly as their habitats come under huge human pressure, and the birds are classed internationally as endangered.
Very few make their way to New Zealand to rest and rebuild their fat reserves for the 10,000km to 13,000km journey back to their northern breeding areas in Mongolia and northwest China.
About a week after the curlew sighting, a Chronicle front-page story reminded readers that MidWest's sole director, Neville Johnson, is still seeking council support for a megamillion-dollar plan that includes massive initial and ongoing dredging of our estuary to accommodate ferries carrying up to 70 container trucks.
Meanwhile, about 10 per cent of the declining worldwide population of bartail godwits are resting and feeding on the Motueka sandspit and estuary in preparation for their epic long-distance commute back to their breeding grounds in Western Alaska.
The spit, with its rich tidal mudflats, is protected because of its international importance as a feeding area for the godwits and other migratory shorebirds.
But MidWest's Johnson has other plans, which include dredging and maintaining a huge channel through the middle of the spit to help his ferries to reach their proposed South Island berthing area.
Johnson is scheduled to meet council staff next week and chief executive Kym Fell has made clear he will need to produce plenty of evidence of the financial feasibility of what - to Fell - looks like plan worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
All those concerned about New Zealand's pivotal role as a rich coastal and estuarine resource will be hoping that pile of fiscal evidence includes an independent environmental assessment.
Carol Webb
Whanganui
Land stolen legally
VW Ballance opines (January 5) that H Haitana´s "claim that (Maori) land was literally stolen" is wrong.
He supports this by referencing an offer to sell land, by an applicant to the Maori Land Court (Wirumu Kauika), to the Government. Here, VW Ballance could be seen to be correct in a narrow sense, because the land was not taken illegally.
However, in the 19th century the Maori Land Court's most consistent outcome showed its primary purpose was to break down communally-owned Maori land into blocks with individualised titles, often isolated "amidst European land".
It often left owners with no viable alternative to selling - in this case to a Government commission set up solely to acquire Maori land.
This was legal, with a self-serving settlers' majority in Parliament passing the empowering legislation despite much being contrary even to their narrow definition of the Treaty of Waitangi.
These laws and regulations worked unjustly in ways not conscionable today. When examining the practices once used in some Maori Land Court hearings to determine "ownership" of Maori land, there are failures that almost define malfeasance.
So VW Ballance is wrong because, in the wider meaning, much land like Mangapapa was legally stolen back then by administrative fiat.
H Norton
Kaitoke
Census senseI was puzzled by the statement
"... The population of the Manawatu-Wanganui region grew by 3400 people in the year to June 2018" (Chronicle, January 9) as the continued threat of incomplete data has Statistics New Zealand again pushing the deadline for Census 2018 results out to August 2019 at the earliest.
Although it is true Statistics NZ has provided population figures since June 2018, these are estimated and should have been named as such, not presented to readers as factual. We in Wanganui all know how far removed from reality "estimated" figures can be.
VW Ballance
Westmere