These owners have to have a WOF through their council, and that's a cost, and are fully equipped to take your vans, so NO more free parking.
The good, responsible van owners will suffer, and that is a shame, but -- like always -- the bad ones spoil it for everyone.
GARY STEWART
Foxton Beach
Slipway woes
There has been some grumbling lately over the pending slipway charges at Castlecliff wharf. The upgrade is well under way and will be fantastic when completed.
These people who use this facility have no problem filling their boats with hundreds of dollars worth of fuel, enjoy their day fishing and return with, equally, hundreds of dollars worth of fish.
They sing the same song as some private aircraft owners who complain of landing fees at the airport.
If they expect the struggling ratepayers to pay for this and subsidise their extravagant lifestyles, they better think again.
CHARLIE ANDERSON
Whanganui District Councillor
Teen rampages
Thank you, Frank Greenall, for another thoughtful article (March 30).
Recent weeks have seen rampaging 11-year-olds in Kaikohe, and rampaging young teens in South Auckland, Hastings and Porirua; serious attempts to kill or maim, dairy owners maimed with iron bars and baseball bats, kids told to stay away from school because school cannot guarantee their safety, etc.
If the young thugs are caught, nothing much happens until they are 18, and then they may get community service or home detention.
Our family, marriage, education, justice and welfare policies have failed these children.
Sir Apirana Ngata foretold that welfare would ruin Maori people (and not just Maori).
I fail to see what pretend work schemes can achieve if young people have never learned to get to school every day, or on time, and perhaps cannot read after 10 or 12 years in school.
I am at a loss for ideas to help the increasing numbers of P babies and foetal alcohol syndrome children in Northland.
I can only repeat Sir Apirana's prayer:
E tipu e rea, mo nga ra o te ao,
Ko to ringa ki nga rakau a te Pakeha,
Hei oranga mo to tinana.
Ko to ngakau ki nga taonga a o tipuna,
Hei tikitiki mo to mahunga.
Ko to wairua ki te Atua,
Nana nei nga mea katoa.
(Grow up O tender child in the days of your world,
In your hands the tools of the Pakeha,
As means to support and sustain you.
In your heart the treasures of your ancestors,
As a plume for your head.
Your spirit given to God,
The source of all things.)
ALAN DAVIDSON
Gonville
Wake up, unions
Rob Butcher of Aramoho cites the decline of unions and the disestablishment of government entities like the Ministry of Works as among the causes of our social decline.
Indeed, I have documentation of how Judith Aitken and Roderick Deane succeeded in scrapping the MOW -- Aitken saying she didn't want engineers making the decisions!
Sadly, our unions continue to support the very financial dogma that dictates government policy, whether under Labour or National regimes.
This is that our public sector be debt-funded, ie. by the Crown borrowing from private investors per Treasury auctions of bills and bonds, or the Local Government Funding Agency borrowing on the capital markets.
All of that causes wealth to flow to the top rungs of the income distribution ladder and means that at least $16 million per day must be allocated from the central government budget for debt servicing.
That figure was quoted by Social Credit deputy leader Chris Leitch in his speech at Waitangi. No one has dared refute it.
"What to do?" asks Mr Butcher. There is only one political party that advocates a proven system of nil-interest credit-funding for our essential infrastructures.
Our sovereign central bank, the RBNZ -- down there on The Terrace in Wellington -- has a proven record of providing such a service.
It did so for the Savage Labour Government before World War II and, more recently, to assist the Australian-owned banks through their liquidity crisis (2007-09).
If our unions really want an economy that serves the workforce (both employed and unemployed), they need to look carefully at who and what they support.
HEATHER MARION SMITH
Gisborne
