Then I strode out to the lorry shed to climb up on to Leslie Kellick's battered old pick-up truck, magic in Day-Glo red and yellow spray paint and bobbing balloons.
At 5pm exactly we emerged from the lorry shed cave and drove down to the hall. I climbed off my magic conveyance and walked among my tribe, dispensing kindness, reassurance and joy to a hard-pressed, anxious hill-country farming community. A very old spirit was moving in me.
A couple of nights later, I was watching Clan of the Cave Bear on TV. The clan was in crisis. From out of a dark cave the shaman suddenly appeared, enrobed in the skin of a bear. I understood immediately.
Today's silly Santa is just a money-making commercial caricature of the real Father Christmas.
JOHN ARCHER
Ohakune
STV voting
Allan Anderson's response (December 8) to my article on single transferable voting (STV) cannot go unanswered because he has totally missed the point about STV and makes spurious arguments to support his claim.
Mr Anderson fails to understand that STV actually reduces wasted votes (even though some voters may currently be confused, when using two different voting systems) while first-past-the-post (FPP) wastes many votes which end up counting for nothing.
The real value of STV is that it gives weight to a voter's second or third choices. It is preferable to have 10 people 100 per cent confident about a candidate than 20 people who lukewarmly support that candidate.
Mr Anderson also argues that STV is convoluted and complicated. To labour the point, while I understand absolutely nothing about the internal combustion engine, neither do I seek to return to the horse and buggy.
No doubt, at the time this new invention appeared on the scene, buggy manufacturers proclaimed motor vehicles as convoluted, complicated and unnecessary.
Why, indeed, do we need email when a handwritten letter and a stamp will suffice? Simply because they are better, as is STV for council elections.
The way we elect our Parliament, using MMP, is also poorly understood by many voters, too, but the majority agree that it is a much fairer system that has improved representation in parliament.
The problem is not that votes are being excluded, as Mr Anderson suggests; the problem is that authorities have not made voting papers clear enough and that we use two voting systems at the same time.
Using STV for both the Whanganui District Council and the Whanganui District Health Board would easily solve Mr Anderson's dilemma and reduce confusion.
Mr Anderson has also exaggerated how many votes are wasted.
The real figure to look for is the "informal" vote, not the "blank" voting papers, because voters have chosen to leave these blank. That is not confusion or a mistake -- it is a personal decision, perhaps even a protest in some way.
Neither is STV a radical change, as Mr Anderson suggests. It is used by a number of councils throughout New Zealand and in many other countries around the world. It makes perfect sense.
STEVE BARON
Whanganui
Great time
I would like to thank the organisers, sponsors and entrants for Whanganui's "Light Up Your Home 2016" event.
I drove seven teens around the homes on Saturday night, radio blaring, and we had a great time.
The efforts of the entrants are incredible -- I was gobsmacked.
Also, the competition was a chance for us to drive around areas we don't normally go to, chat with the owners of the homes and do something late at night.
Thank you so much.
DEBORAH WAI KAPOHE
Whanganui
Rivalling Rob
It's sad for New Zealand that John Key resigned as Prime Minister, but he was rapidly overtaking our greatest ever Prime Minister, Sir Robert Muldoon, and for that reason, I'm glad.
BOB HARRIS
Whanganui
