Letters to the Editor

To the local users of Manu Bay

The Point Boardriders would like to extend an apology for the 12 day period that Manu Bay was closed for public use at the end of April and start of May.

As a community-minded club, we have the community’s best intention at heart, but the 12 days straight of contests that occupied Many Bay and its availability for public use did not support this.

Some years ago, the popular interest of Manu Bay as an arena to run local, domestic and international surf competitions was realized, and as a result, the Manu Bay Reserves Committee was formed.

This committee comprises of representatives from local Iwi, District Council and both Boardriders and Fishing Club’s to ensure that events and issues specific to the Manu Bay reserve are dealt with accordingly and fairly. Keep Reading

Dear Editor

Where do our Rates go to?

Have you ever wondered if the Council was spending your rates wisely or even if you are getting value for money? Let me give you a for example, I live in Otonga Valley Road at the entrance to which we have a number of road signs, some of which have only recently gone up (12 months) due to road works on the temporary bridge. Keep Reading

Dear Editor,

I was up to no good today, having a good time in an op shop when the kind lady serving me instructed me to write for the Chronicle again.

I visit Raglan occasionally on Sundays and it’s great to see old friends and even making some new ones down there. Keep Reading

Dear Editor,

Thank you for publicising the new buses. The bike rack works fine, though the bike sways around disconcertingly. I look forward to seeing surfboards on the new racks. It looks like they should work well too.

What doesn’t work well is having a gap of over 4 hours in the timetable and going back to a Sunday bus with only 2hrs 30mins in Hamilton, rather than the current 6hrs 15mins. How can NZ Transport Agency describe that as “a high quality transport option”? Keep Reading

Dear Editor

It was with great pleasure and pride that I facilitated the ANZAC Day service here in Raglan last week.

It is wonderful to see our community come together in such great numbers to commemorate those who have served their country and those who have sacrificed their lives in that service.

Keep Reading

Dear Editor,

I am writing in response to Sarah Johnson’s letter to the editor last week regarding the RAS story I wrote recently.

The story was not about a rising school roll – it was about retaining the students it has, that students are staying on at RAS past what is usually considered the primary school years.

I wrote a story in November last year about the rising school roll in Raglan and talked to principal Malcolm Cox then.

At the time he said the climb in the roll corresponded with Raglan’s popularity as an attractive place to live, and he believed it would be even greater if housing wasn’t such an issue in the town. Keep Reading

My wife and I had our first visit to your lovely area and township on January 18 for a couple of days.

We were mightily impressed by everything – except the weather and the dangerous surface at places along SH23 heading into town. Keep Reading

Raglan is still a very small community. Old information used to confirm that a reasonably satisfactory supermarket needed to be backed by about 12 to 15000 people. Keep Reading

Thank you for putting on your front cover the ‘One issue – the future of Aotearaoa’ slogan at the New Year’s Eve Parade. Thank you, too, to the supportive crowd and also to Lions for organising the enjoyable event and awarding a Special Prize. However, they publicised it as awarded to ‘Aotearoa’. That wasn’t its name, nor was it my entry. The entry was by the ‘Raglan Greens’ and the float a joint effort by several Green Party members. The slogan, as on your cover, was based on an old Green Party poster which read, “The Greens – a single issue party – the future of Aotearoa New Zealand”. On the other side, this was how ‘The solution is Green’ slogan looked.

There are often two sides to a story; less often to a photo!

Happy New Year

John Lawson.

Palestine Human Rights Campaign Waikato (PHRCW) would like to thank local businesses and the community for the support given to our December charity dinner for medical aid to Palestinian children. Over $2000 was raised for PCRF (Palestine Children’s Relief Fund) to continue the work led by renowned New Zealand paediatric cardiac surgeon Dr Alan Kerr.

PHRCW also wishes to thank the speaker-panel who shared their eye-witness accounts of the life endured by Palestinian families under Israeli military occupation. Dr Kerr spoke of the devastation in Gaza Palestine which forced PCRF to move its hospital to West Bank, Palestine. Dr Asad Khan emphasised the effects of the strangle-hold of 600 ‘checkpoints’ and roadblocks set up by the Israeli military. (Consequently, what should be a 10-minute ambulance trip becomes a two-hour ordeal for Palestinians.) Sister Barbara Cameron’s testimony was particularly prescient, considering the recent NZ sponsored UN Resolution condemning Israeli settlements on Palestinian land. Sr. Barbara stayed with a family in the Palestine village of Huwara. She related the fear and terror experienced when, on her first night, a mob of Jewish settlers rampaged through the village attacking homes and breaking windows with the intention of torching the local school and place of worship.

PHRCW invites members of the public who wish to assist PCRF’s NZ medical team to continue their life-saving work for children in these grim conditions, to email PHRCwaikato@gmail.com.

Kate Hayward, Secretary PHCRW