34 days ago

WHEN LETTERS TO EDITOR ARE WORTH LESS

Michael from Trentham

This week's Upper Hutt Leader has just two letters to the editor published.
They caught my eye because of the subject matter and of their inaccuracies. The fact is they will unlikely to be corrected in any follow-up.
The first was on a water burst. Ok, the writer says a month has gone by and no fix. I recently brought to the public's attention a water leak in Upper Hutt in a major street that took almost 4 months to fix..

But the letter writer blamed the Upper Hutt City Council. Alright, the Council can take some blame because of complicity but of course Wellington Water are responsible once the matter has been brought to their attention.

The next letter was about the spelling of the Lower Hutt suburb of Petone. Change is afoot to spell it Pito-one. But the writer goes on about Maori language spelling and how it was a European missionary or two who created a Maori "dictionary" because the Maori did not have a written language.

Of course this letter writer has the wrong end of the stick because Petone and Pito-one are pronounced differently with different emphasis. And as an aside one has no meaning and the other has every meaning. Nothing much to do with any spelling.

More messages from your neighbours
1 day ago

Do you volunteer or know someone who does?

The Team from Neighbourly.co.nz

It's NZ Volunteer Week (16-22 June) and we know there are real good sorts in your community.

Often these kind acts and regular volunteering efforts go unnoticed but let's put a stop to that.

Let us know below who is making a difference in your neighbourhood so we can all appreciate them for the great work that they do!

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14 hours ago

Here's another riddle for you!

Riddler from The Neighbourly Riddler

What dies after drinking water?

Do you think you know the answer to our daily riddle? Don't spoil it for your neighbours! Simply 'Like' this post and we'll post the answer in the comments below at 2pm.

Want to stop seeing riddles in your newsfeed?
Head here and hover on the Following button on the top right of the page (and it will show Unfollow) and then click it. If it is giving you the option to Follow, then you've successfully unfollowed the Riddles page.

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4 days ago

DEMOCRACY FALLOUT, FAILING

Michael from Trentham

One watches in horror as the democracy of the USA is all to quickly dismantling. The Supreme Court is the latest in a long line-up to go really rogue. After years of being tampered with politically.

Of course would-be dictator, corrupt and criminal villain Trump and Trumpism has opened up a festering wound that is probably too deep now to successfully patch up.

NZ has not got the American system of democracy thank goodness and has often been internationally ranked first or in the top three as the world's most democratic and least corrupt country in the world.
But there is cuttings at the edges of our democracy not the least displayed by the current Government. Examples are breaking election-gaining promises and even in the one they kept - tax cuts - by borrowing more than the defeated Labour-Green Govt has to cement in the financial shortfall of the tax reduction, and by going further in cutting out thousands of jobs in the public sector which also impacts on the private sector.