Not good enough to blame it on farmers
I was rocked to read that the Hatea is the third most polluted river in New Zealand. Since I was a nipper holidaying with my gran back in the 1950s I’ve had a generally happy association with this waterway. I’ve swum in it and caught frogs in its eddies, watched mullet swimming upstream from the Mair Park footbridge and seen the whitebaiters filling their nets at the same spot.
Not now.
I mean, there are plenty of rivers actually much wider in parts than the Hatea. So how come that a river 17km short can be so fouled up?
It is not good enough to simply blame it on the farmers — when I was young there would have been possibly even more farm run-off as there is now. I can’t remember it as being pristine, but it was a heck of a lot cleaner than it is now. Iamnota climate boffin like some of the class acts we have round town who can tell me what my carbon footprint is, but I have a pair of eyes, and I see a lot of dirty water draining into the river from real estate developments, industrial areas and city streets. Springs Flat water flows under the Vinegar Hill bridge and drains into the Hatea.
Walk through big park at Tiki, some seriously stinky stuff coming down open drains there. Look over the fence where all the housing estates are going up, lot of unclean flow off there as well.
Just seems to me that instead of prioritising our carbon feet prints, foot print, whatever you want to call them, or it, the council would improve our collective environmental space far better by investing in effective measures to clean up our river.
Now that would be a good example to the nation, and even the world. GMTinker Whanga¯rei
Tantamount to bullying
I too cringe and feel uncomfortable when a word or name is pronounced incorrectly over and over again, be it Ma¯ ori or English both of which get mangled every day. But unlike Jane [Trask] I find that anyone who attacks
another for doing so is being arrogant and rude. If someone wants to pronounce any word in their special way that is their choice and shouldn’t be made to feel inadequate or stupid it is tantamount to bullying. Why should one language be considered for special attention . . . they should both be given the same respect.
Mrs Brown
Whanga¯rei