Letters to the Editor
Māori Wards for TCDC
I would suggest that TCDC re-word their statement that they had a unanimous vote with 100% agreement on the issue of Māori Wards. They may have had a unanimous vote with the people present in the room at that time. However, no mention was made with regard to those who were not present.
Māori who spoke out in favour of “thinking this situation through some more” should have been listened to (They wanted more time to discuss it.) No single Māori can possibly speak on behalf of all iwi within the TCDC electorate, the same as no single European can One suggestion to Council could be that creating better working relationship with all Resident and Ratepayer groups -currently largely ignored by Council - could be put to good use. All residents, of all ethnicities, should be able to confidently bring their issues, advice, and information to their local Residents and Ratepayers meetings to be discussed openly and honestly in a situation where we can all work together to achieve a way forward. The Chair should be able to then take this discussion/directive direct to Council taking pressure off individuals, who do not have the confidence, to front Council on their own.
This would need to be an initiative fully approved and agreed on as a way forward between both Council and Residents and Ratepayer Associations across the Peninsula.
This is just a suggestion. If readers can suggest another way forward, please write to The Informer and make your suggestion. We need to go forward together, and numbers bring strength to what we all want for our Peninsula’s environment - both land and sea and building strong relationships in our communities. Together we can make a difference.
Ady Cole-Ewen
Wharekaho
Not koi carp
Further to the article in last week's Informer, here is some additional information which may be of interest to your readers. The correct name for "Grass Carp" is Silver Amur. They will not breed in the wild in New Zealand and become pests. Their release and management is controlled by NZ Waterways which is a NZ wide company specializing in the clearance and management of pond weed in lakes and ponds from Millbrook near Queenstown to the Far North of the North Island. Silver Amur have already been released into the Tauriko Lakes near Tauranga and numerous drainage ditches and ponds in both the Hauraki and Waikato Districts. They are the most environmentally friendly method of controlling weed growth in ponds, not killing off native plants, but grazing the tops. They also eat algae (pond snot). They will not disturb the sediment on the bottom of ponds, thus maintaining and aiding water clarity unlike Koi Carp which grub in the sediment on the bottom and dirty the water. Uncontrolled weed growth in ponds slows down water movement and aids stagnation, helping to cause algal blooms which kill wildlife and can be fatal to pets. Further information can be found on the nzwaterways.co.nz website.
Dave Baardman
Cooks Beach
Pools of Snot
As a permanent resident of Cooks Beach may I thank the Informer for the fair and balanced article that appeared on the front page, with further commentary on pages 2 and 3, dated October 31st.
If I may point out that Cooks Beach permanent residents' have been active for many years assisting wildlife to try and make a comeback.
The pools are not about some entitled old white men wanting to sail their model boats, as the council may think. In fact, there are few, if any Cookies, that do not care about their local environment.
Examples: * The long-established Beach Care group, that has been working for years to remove weeds and plant native bushes and trees. * The group removing rats and other introduced pests, in line with government policy. * The tree planters, working alongside the larger community and other groups, enhancing areas such as Back Bay. * The removal of non-native turtles from the very pools mentioned. * The clean up by locals after the many weather events that we have all suffered, has been outstanding. *The beach cleanup after some officials decided to dump a sinking damaged boat for salvaging on the beautiful beach.
Cooks is a much-favoured area for returning birds and other species.
We are working to resolve the issues. Therefore, Cook Beach residents deserve more than a brush off from the Council, whose attitude, as mentioned in the Informer's article, was nothing but dismissive. In fact, the whole of the Coromandel's residents whom the Council are supposed to represent, deserve better.
Regards
A. Lovelidge
Cooks Beach
Misleading descriptions for Hauraki Gulf Bottom Trawling ‘corridors’
- Still time for submissions against this.
Submissions officially closed on bottom trawling in the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park (HGMP) last Monday, 6 November. But due to pressure from a number of interested parties MPI officialdom has indicated that they will accept 'late' submissions until Monday, 4 December. So fortunately, there's still an opportunity to have your say. The HGMP Stakeholder Working Group, including commercial fishing representatives, recommended that destructive mobile bottom contact fishing methods be phased out by 2025 and replaced with more selective and less damaging artisanal methods such as potting and long lining. The response from the Ministry is the introduction of trawling corridors with misleading descriptions. The proposed "corridors" are large areas of the Marine Park where the vast bulk of trawling has occurred in the past and where a lot of fish congregate. Effectively, the proposals maintain the status quo. If we want an abundant and thriving HGMP, these indiscriminate destructive fishing methods need to be removed from our marine park. Ministry for primary industry (MPI) has proposed four options that all promote continued bottom trawling. Legasea has proposed Option Zero, remove it altogether. It's not too late to have your say. Go to the MPI website or simply send an email to fmsubmissions@mpi.govt.nz saying you don't agree with the four options on the table and support Option Zero - ‘No bottom trawling’. This Marine Park belongs to you and me; let's make the effort to protect and restore it.
Dirk Sieling
Ohuka Beach
Rugby World Cup comments – thank you
Well Done Trevor Ammundsen on Rugby World Cup Thoughts, it was the most sensible article I have read in over six weeks of rubbish thank goodness there are still some sensible people who love the game of Rugby as I do yet seem to be voices crying in the wind, and hoping Mr Robertson the new coach will get back to rugby as played by New Zealand who have the best players in the world just need to be coached properly not changed every match by 9 players so there is some light at the end of a long tunnel.
Ken Shelvey
Whitianga
A word for 1080 poison
John Veysey is at it again, trying to be an expert at something he is not, misinforming, misrepresenting and misunderstanding facts about pest control, probably deliberately, in order to accommodate his anarchic, uncontrolled, vision for pig-hunting on the Coromandel.
In last week's edition, he claimed that at Whenuakite, in a land area of over 1400 hectares, trapping could more cost effectively control possums, rats and stoats, over the use of 1080 poison.
Bollocks!
From my experience, I know that it is common, particularly in rough country, for trapping to be over five times more expensive than a once in three years drop of aerial 1080.
This is mostly due to the need for rat traps to be located one for every 50 sq metre, in order to establish effective, long-term control.
Words can be cheap for some, it seems.
Yours faithfully
Dal Minogue
More 1080 damage (not a response to Dal Minogue’s letter)
DOC/WRC is dropping 2 tonnes of 1080 baits over the 1400ha of Whenuakite reserve.
They aim to poison possums because possums are not trapped by DOC/WRC; they only poison ‘em.
Maybe there are a few hundred possums on any given night in that 1400 hectare plot. No one knows the real number. .
One bait contains enough poison to kill one possum. A few hundred well placed baits would do the trick. DOC is dropping 160,000 baits. Just one instance of the hit and miss nature of the operation and the gross inefficiency in the amount of excess poison spread.
John Veysey Colville
Damage to footpath unattended
I have just walked past the damaged footpath on the beachfront by the HMS Buffalo memorial,
and had to take a few photos. This damage occurred 8 months ago and still no resolution.
I am now of the belief that our TCDC has totally failed the residents of Whitianga on this damage and feel that probably 95% of residents would agree. There have been many letters to this paper on this topic, but all the council can do is blame the system.
I have been told that local contractors offered to repair the damage and replace more rocks and that. It would have taken less than I month. Why can’t TCDC ignore all the red tape and to do what’s right for its residents and repair this Eyesore. Will common sense ever return to our councils, I doubt it.
Roger Skipper
Whitianga
Request about lost family members
The Historical Society, Whitianga, through their Secretary, Dick Wilson, received this email recently.
Dick was not able to help with this request, so through The Informer, is asking the public for help.
This is the email received
Hi. I’m hoping you might be able to help me find some relatives please.
My late father had an older brother (+17 years) who moved to Whitianga, from Auckland on retirement. He passed away in 1978 as did my aunt some time later in 1997.
Their names were George Henry Humphrey and Ruby Miriam Humphrey (known I believe as Miriam or Marion). From that marriage, there were two daughters, my cousins, quite a bit older than me., known as Ivy and Jill. I assume they married at some time, but I don’t have detail of that.
The reason for contacting you is I live in Australia and have done so since the mid 80’s. I’ve been trying to trace this side of my family by accessing the NZ Births, Deaths and Marriages registers. Neither of the two girls appear on either the births or deaths registers. This suggests that, according to the listing rules and provided they are still in NZ, they are still alive. They would be 86 and 79 today.
I’m wondering if your society is able to provide a service and assist me in any way to track these two ladies down?
Thanks, in anticipation.
Bob Humphrey
Request: If you know anything regarding these people, could you email Dick Wilson
email: waireka.wilson@gmail.com