Letters, June 20: Here's to volunteers

Waikato Times

As a member of the Heart Foundation and The Salvation Army, I see only too well the essence of giving from volunteers contributing so much to New Zealand.

I am blessed being exposed to the generosity, goodwill, passion, support, sharing and expertise thousands of volunteers give to their chosen causes on a daily basis. So often these people put others' needs ahead of their own while balancing family life, work commitments, sporting ties and sometimes even ill health.

Anyone of any age can be a volunteer because there is no stereotype or mould that says who can or can't. I would like to think each and every New Zealander volunteers at some point in their life.

What makes their volunteering contribution so important is that many causes would not exist or grow without such help.

Volunteers help create success and they are often the foundation on which others in the community can be helped.

So in Volunteer Awareness Week (June 14-20), I thank all of those volunteers within our community for their kindness and appeal to others, particularly our youth, to step forward and offer a helping hand just as we have all accepted a helping hand more than once in our lives. (Abridged)

ROBERT W DONALDSON

President, The Heart Foundation

 

 

Diesel economy?

Why do some people effectively have to pay $3.12 for 1 litre of diesel?

At the moment the rest of the world is going for economic diesel there is even a Mini with a diesel engine. But in New Zealand those vehicles have been taxed off the road.

An average car that travels 10,000 kilometres a year attracts $400 in road user charges and on top an extra $135 for ACC not that it is more dangerous, as it doesn't catch fire so quickly as petrol in the case of a collision.

There is a diesel hybrid that runs 100km on 2.6 litres of diesel. If we spread the $535 annual cost over the 260 litres used, diesel costs $3.12 a litre nearly twice the price of petrol.

If we take a 6 litre ute with a caravan, boat or a big trailer behind it, in the hills this unit can use easily up to 25 litres per 100km. If we spread the cost over the 2500 litres this vehicle uses, the price is only $1.30 for one litre of diesel.

That's why here economic diesel promotion falls on deaf ears. This is caused by blunt and blind taxation, not calculating the result.

The road user charges should be calculated on diesel use, not on kilometres.

Putting tax on diesel hurts farmers and off-road vehicle users. This is a real sad story.

Hopefully it will change so we can see those cars on New Zealand roads and not only on a brochure. (Abridged)

P SPITTERS

Te Aroha

 

 

Public photos

I just wanted to add my thoughts to those of Melissa Young (Waikato Times, June 13) re the photos chosen for the coverage of the Stage Challenge and then the coverage of the Smokefreerockquest on Monday.

It's a big effort and occasion for schools outside of Hamilton to commute and perform in these events. I know they would appreciate their moment of fame in the big smoke of Hamilton city to be recorded in their regional newspaper.

I can appreciate that the photographer couldn't be there for the whole event but it does detract from the essence of winning or even participating when only one school is given such large coverage. Is it a case for using photos sent in from the public?

JANE FERGUSSON

Morrinsville

 

Editor's reply: Jane, there are a lot of considerations. Do we have the space in the next day's paper? What are the quality of photos like? What other major events do we need to cover?

In the Rockquest case, the event happened late on a Friday night. Because of deadline pressures we ran one photo in the Saturday paper, but followed up with another page with numerous schools on Monday. That's great coverage.

Where possible we use a swag of local faces, and using supplied pictures is one of the options that has been used in the past.

We are upping the game in this regard, but the nature of the beast means we will not satisfy everyone on every occasion.

 

 

Night-school vs private school

While funding for night-school classes has been cut by this Tory Government, it has at the same time increased the contribution of taxpayers' money to private schools by $35 million.This amounts to a blatant transfer of lower income taxpayers' money to the rich and wealthy.

It shows that this Business Roundtable-led Government has no interest in upskilling workers.

Silver spooned Tories might scoff at night-classes as hobby classes but the fact is that night-classes enable many workers to acquire works skills and to further their education.

These ambitious workers do this in their own time so as to increase their earnings to feed their kids and pay their rent.

The evidence is that Education Minister Anne Tolley is not at all concerned at the betterment of working and middle-class workers; she prefers to subsidise schools such as Kings College, etcetera.

The whole thing stinks of well-heeled donors getting their payback.

T JOHN MARSHALL

Cambridge

 

 

Possum/1080 myths

I chanced to read Laurence Gordon's personal attack on Murray Dench for having "anti-1080" views (Waikato Times, June 6).

I cannot comment on Pureora, but have witnessed areas (for example, the Kawekas, the South Island) with a morgue-like atmosphere after 1080, and the elimination of falcons, moreporks, tomtits and bush robins.

Laurence Gordon berates Murray Dench for his interest in deer.

Most deerstalkers' interest embraces the total environment, birds included, for example, the NZ Deerstalkers Association has photography competitions, one category being birds, the other insects.

And what about possum myths? There are not 70 million possums. A Landcare scientist told the Conservation Department this, terming the 70 million figure as a "back-of-a-cigarette packet calculation".

He said that even if the fictitious 70 million figure was considered correct, possum browse was still insignificant to daily forest growth.

The Conservation Department says possums consume 21,000 tonnes of vegetation diurnally. However, scientists reckon forests' daily foliage production is 300,000 tonnes. So 21,000 tonnes "gobbled" by possums each night is insignificant about 7 per cent of 300,000 tonnes.

Re the tuberculosis myth: ferrets, wild cats and particularly a few irresponsible stock movements are the main vectors. The Animal Health Board trade barrier threat is "spin". New Zealand has 0.3 per cent TB infection, Britain and some European Union countries have more than 6 per cent.

TONY ORMAN

Marlborough

 

 

Fieldays milkless

What a great event the Fieldays was but I was puzzled to find that at the NZ National Agricultural Fieldays you cannot buy a bottle of milk to drink. I tried.

I wanted a drink and felt like a simple drink of plain milk. I asked staff at the event where I could buy a bottle of milk for my children and me.

At first they didn't know and suggested we go to the Fonterra site. The staff at the Fonterra site were great. They gave my children small flavoured milk drinks (thanks Fonterra) but were unable to sell or supply us with plain milk.

They said no vendors were permitted to sell milk as a drink at the NZ National Agricultural Fieldays as Coke has the exclusive rights to sell refreshment drinks at the event. I thought this was highly unlikely. How can you have milk sales banned at an agricultural Fieldays? Dairy farming is one of the biggest New Zealand agricultural industries, the backbone of many New Zealand communities. The next few NZ National Agricultural Fieldays staff I spoke to confirmed this was in fact the reason I could not buy any milk at the event. (Abridged)

D REID

Hamilton

 

 

Press council

People with complaints against a newspaper should first complain to the editor of the publication and then, if not satisfied with the response, complain to the NZ Press Council. Complaints should be addressed to the Secretary, PO Box 10-879, The Terrace, Wellington, phone (04) 473-5220. Information on the press council is available on the internet at:

www.presscouncil.org.nz.