Rosewood death toll from virus has hit New Zealand hard
Re “Rosewood: inside the deadliest cluster” (May 3) where 11 people have died from Covid-19. However, without the tragedy of Rosewood Rest Home, New Zealand would have had only nine deaths to date, a very low number as a percentage of population. A great result from the immediate urgent action by our Government. Well done and many thanks.
Murray Hunter, Titirangi
Health and the economy
It’s interesting but not surprising that Heather du Plessis-Allan finds duplicity admirable (“Wily Winston hedging his bets”, May 3).
Heather, I think you’ll find it is not a question of trading off between the health of the population and the economy. A healthy population able to operate freely within our borders is a first requirement for a healthy economy, and we appear to be on track to achieve that. Many other nations are failing miserably.
Watch how our economy performs in comparison to others in the next year or two. There will even be business opportunities in being Covid-19 free, which I’m sure we will exploit. Nobody has had to deal with this situation before, and our Government has risen to the challenge. I back them to manage the recovery.
Geoff Dalton, Napier
Go south
For the last 30 years, it has been cheaper to take a packaged family holiday on the Gold Coast rather than a holiday in the South Island. Now is the time to reverse that trend.
Bruce Tubb, Takapuna
Merits of farming the land
Liam Dann asks “Is it time for another economic revolution?” (May 3). I could answer — arable farming. We have evolved into farming for dollars instead of growing for needs.
We import flour while exporting milk because global trade is possible but, as we now know, disastrously erratic in both directions.
We have the land, the climates and the abilities to be self-sufficient in essentials but choose to go with the dollar. I was born in the financial crash of 1929 and we survived the Great Depression of the 1930s with no scars because my father farmed like his ancestors. He grew almost everything we needed and sold only the surplus. It works for a family or for a nation of families.
Look after number one. Grow and make our needs and go overseas only for discretionary luxuries. It worked for all the generations past.
John O’Neill, Dargaville
Importance of trade
Liam Dann’s article favours government subsidisation of private initiative and innovation, not direct engagement in production.
In this Dann acknowledges the role that competition, including through internal and international trade, has on increasing productive efficiency. If we don’t keep an open economy we’ll waste precious resources and foul our environment. Robert Myers, Auckland
Dying with dignity
Responding to Gavan O’Farrell (Letters, May 3) wherein he claims that euthanasia is not dying with dignity, he could well be correct in saying this, but we are talking (or should be) about voluntary euthanasia.
O’Farrell is consistent in his opposition to voluntary euthanasia, but like almost all opponents, twists or omits words wherever possible to oppose the End Of Life Choice Act. He then goes on to say that he sympathises with the desires of the helplessly ill to re-establish control, and use that control to avoid the worst of their hardship. Seriously?
If you do have such sympathy, O’Farrell, why do you so consistently oppose the EOLC Act? Were I in the position of being terminally ill with accompanying constant pain and you offered me nothing but sympathy, I would be inclined to ask you to redirect your sympathy elsewhere.
John Watson, Otaki