Letters to the Editor
How to submit letters to The Dominion Post
Readers are invited to submit letters for publication under these guidelines.
Letter: No room on complacency on keeping the sevens
OPINION: Should Wellington be quite so complacent about keeping hold of the NZI Sevens?
Letter: Insensitive dressing at sevens
OPINION: What a bittersweet experience, to attend the Wellington sevens. As first-timers to the event, my husband and I were quickly swept away by everything about it - the celebratory mood, the great rugby, and the sheer exuberance of the crowd.
Letter: Taking the cheaper option
OPINION: I read with interest about a troubled youth programme (Feb 3) that, far from being an outstanding success, has also been very costly, with estimates ranging from $171,000 to $630,000 per "graduate". A comparison was made with the cost of keeping an offender in jail ($100,000 annually).
Letter: Bad idea then, bad idea now
OPINION: The early 20th-century Spanish philosopher George Santayana observed that those who cannot learn from history are condemned to repeat it.

Letter: Better option than testing
OPINION: I am a parent of two primary-aged children and am also a trained secondary school teacher. I am thoroughly happy with the local school my children attend. At any time I can find out how my children are progressing in terms of numeracy and literacy for their age groups, as can parents at any school, and I believe that national standards will add nothing to this.
Letter: How to get slim
OPINION: The trend towards stomach stapling is a mystery to me.
Letter: The other side of complaints
OPINION: You report ("Call the council, not the neighbours", Feb 2) the statistics on complaints by neighbours made to city councils. Perhaps we have become a generally more complaining society - Kiwis were always good at speaking up when needed - but the media now reports many more complainants.
Letter: The reward for Steven Joyce
OPINION: New broom Steven Joyce has been rewarded. This has happened after his ruthless behaviour to the people of the Kapiti Coast, where he wants to push a 100-metre-wide expressway through quiet communities against their and their council's wishes.
Letter: The message for the Government
OPINION: Don Brash's 2025 Task Force report is the message National doesn't want to hear but that's no reason to shoot the messenger.

Letter: Sevens hypocrisy
OPINION: I find the editorial "Hands off the jewel in Wellington's crown" somewhat ironic seeing Wellington chose to remove the jewel in Nelson's crown when the capital removed the World of WearableArt from its origins in Nelson a few years ago. The writer goes so far as to claim that "along with the World of WearableArt . . . the Wellington Sevens is one of the jewels in the capital's crown". Such a wonderfully one-eyed view.
Letter: Park up the bulldozer and start talking
OPINION: John Key says that two-thirds of schools and 30 per cent of teachers need to pull their socks up.
Letter: Bring on the next council election
OPINION: I read with dismay that Wellington City Council has, in its wisdom, decided to "shut up shop" for the Wellington Community Network by removing funding for this service (Feb 3). I also read that this service has been used by 570 community groups, so I do trust that all elected members of the council have been consulted on this and all are in agreement to stop the funding.
Letter: Personality goes a long way
OPINION: I take exception to Richard Long's poor understanding of the educational process and blind support for national standards (Feb 2).
Letter: Prime minister should get his facts right
OPINION: In his statement about the "misinformation" put out by teacher unions, the prime minister makes three claims about what the Education Review Office found in its report on reading and writing in years 1 and 2 (Time to step up, Key tells teachers, Feb 3).

Letter: Blame the driver not the family
OPINION: It is awful Frank van Kampen was killed by a drunk driver. His baby daughter and partner must be suffering the worst hell but, being the daughter of an alcoholic, I must say that expecting a drunk driver's family to raise her children is unfair. My dad used to come home with signposts on the front of his car on a Thursday night after getting fish and chips. Who knows who he could have killed or hurt in the years he was driving. Luckily, he was never in that position and somehow made it, hurting only himself.
Letter: What was her lawyer thinking?
OPINION: The minimum charge in the Alison Downer case was unbelievable; the inadequate sentencing is unbelievable. Even more unbelievable, however, is the statement by her lawyer, Sandy Baigent, that there was a lack of multiple victims, meaning a more lenient jail sentence was appropriate. She quite obviously has no insight or empathy regarding the enormous suffering, both emotional and economic, being shouldered by Frank van Kampen's widow and children.
Letter: Downer already had three strikes
OPINION: Sentencing Alison Downer to jail was appropriate but insufficient time, given that it was her fourth conviction.
Letter: A three-step plan to cut the number of drink-drivers
OPINION: The tragic loss of a teacher and head of a young family in the Alison Downer case calls for more action.
Letter: A Maori non-Maori replies
OPINION: I read with amusement Vincent Ward's (Letters, Feb 4) objections to being called the "archaic" term Pakeha.

'National won't raise GST' - Key in 2008
Cameras in cabs could be compulsory
Suburbs face crackdown on pokies
Kong movie ship scuttled in strait
Fire destroys newly renovated karate dojo
Plan to claw back $1.7b by axing depreciation tax breaks
PM on knife edge finding the cash to pay for changes
Outrage as Key signals national park mining
Rugby star apologises for groping teenager
King Kong ship meets watery grave
Victim swung gun case 'like a baseball bat'
PM on knife edge finding the cash to pay for changes
Outstanding student - five times over
Outrage as Key signals national park mining
Fire destroys newly renovated karate dojo
Suburbs face crackdown on pokies
Outrage as Key signals national park mining
Conservation land could be mined
GST could go up to 15 per cent
Key announces benefit crackdown
Changing our flag won't make us more patriotic
Beach smoking ban too 'nanny state' - John Key
Story of a suburb: Where people are proud to be Wainuiomartians
Would you be happy to pay more in GST if it meant you paid less in tax?
Related story: $4b in tax cuts coming