Your views: Readers' letters

Prison work

On February 27, Winston Peters said in a radio interview that prison sentencing these days was not working, inmates were not learning anything and should be made to do manual work.

I have worked in prisons for many years and have an idea. Inmates could be made to earn their way through their sentences.

What if the sentencing judge required the offender to earn, while in prison, a certain sum of money?

It could work as follows: Each inmate is given manual work to do with certain targets to be achieved. He would be paid weekly according to his achievement. He could earn as much as $65 each week. He can go off sick if he is not well and be cared for during that time but not paid.

If he earns $20 in the week, that goes to Corrections. That is his board. If he fails to earn that much he goes on a No1 diet in the next week.

If he earns $40 in the week his second $20 goes to his family, his partner or parents. No doubt they will lean on him if the payment doesn't arrive.

If he earns $60 in the week his third $20 comes off his sentence. His money target will be reduced by $20.

And if he earns $65 he will be able to buy some sweets or something as a reward.

To work, the system would have to be strictly followed. No cheating allowed. Each inmate must learn what it is to earn board and lodging, support his dependants, pay his bills and then know the reward of doing so.

All that being said, it is a fact that some inmates are trustworthy enough to work in the community. And there are many courses offered whereby inmates can update their schooling and learn to live a positive, healthy lifestyle.

But we are often working with very manipulative people who will, for example, happily join an AA group because it looks good on their record, and then not really attend the meetings if they can loiter outside smoking.

TOM PITTAMS
St John's Hill

Dismay at 'H'

I read in the Wanganui Chronicle (March 1) with dismay that 10 of Horizons councillors out of 12 voted to change the spelling of Wanganui and put the "H" into it. Councillor Wiremu Te Awe Awe and John Barrow who both live out of Wanganui, decided our spelling should be changed.

What made you 10 councillors decide it was a Maori name? It belonged to a group of people known as Waitaha, who were not Maori and arrived about 550 AD, just like the Wanganui names in the South Island, where most of them now live.

I congratulate councillors David Cotton and Bruce Gordon on their stand.

IAN BROUGHAM
Tawhero

Water problem

Donald Trump is often condemned for wanting to build his great wall to keep the Mexicans out.

However, Trump is faced with a real problem: the Mexicans are pouring into the US because their own country is running short of water and the dry soil cannot support the ever-growing population.

The Middle Eastern and sub-Sahara countries have similar problems and the US (and Russia?) is busy throwing bombs at them. Surely time has come to look for a more rational and permanent solution.

The answer is, I think, that all nations including New Zealand should have a firm population policy. Worldwide we already have all the necessary statistics. We know the rainfall, the area of arable soil and how many people each country can support. We also have a wide range of contraceptives and technologies to keep population growth within bounds. To implement population policies will be much cheaper than any form of modern warfare.

Above all, at least one half of every nation should be left to nature. Only nature can assure us of fresh air, clean water and the endless creativity which has made our planet the amazing cosmic miracle it surely is.

As things stand now, people are doing their damnedest to destroy it, but I think we can do better than this.

Perhaps the big "Save the Earth" pro-science marches in the US (planned for April) can spread to other countries and provide the turning point.

NICK PYLE
Whanganui