Post by Kiwi Frontline on Sept 5, 2016 5:27:02 GMT 12
Bay of Plenty Times 5/9/16
‘WARS’ STILL CAUSING CONFLICT
Regarding Dylan Thorne’s editorial (Opinion, August 25), let’s start at the beginning with Bill English announcing, according to media reports, a new holiday to commemorate the “New Zealand Wars”.
Last month, he and PM Key backtracked saying only a Commemoration Day would be approved, not a public holiday and would be a locally driven event (a bit like Easter trading).
Clearly, what had happened was the penny had dropped as 80 per cent of Kiwis don’t want a bar of a “wars”’ public holiday.
Mr English also had one other major problem viz. the proposal was being considered (not determined) by a Parliamentary Select Committee last Friday.
Turning to your comments on Guy Fawkes, it is a day informally acknowledged by the public, as is Halloween, not a public holiday and not officially recognised.
I agree with you they are nothingness days to Kiwis. Let me stress there were no Land Wars, or for that matter New Zealand Wars. The uprisings were open tribal rebellions and, as pre-warned, some land was confiscated but most was returned very quickly thereafter. (Abridged)
R P
Matapihi
ABUSE OR EXCUSE?
Child abuse is very much in the spotlight right now and I was shocked to read that Professor Leonie Pihama of Waikato University blames the effects of colonisation as the reason Maori abuse their children.
Colonisation brought better housing, medical care, transport, food and clothing. Where are the fern roots in supermarkets and flax mats in clothing shops today?
Colonisation brought an end to cannibalism, slavery and brutal inter-tribal warfare. A Tauranga chief noted: “If we continue fighting, our race will become extinct.” In short, colonisation was the best thing that ever happened to Maori.
Maori author Alan Duff countered the absurd claims of the professor by saying: “In 1823, Hongi Hika came down from the Far North and smashed my Te Arawa people, who had fled to Mokoia Island. Hongi and his warriors feasted on my ancestors' cooked bodies for six days; they took back an estimated 1000 captives as slaves.
Sounds like worse cultural devastation than being colonised.” (Abridged)
R B
Tauranga
Hawkes Bay Today 5/9/16 (Text Us section)
■ I read a headline in your paper that said ‘‘Charter school for Maori boys’’. If that had read ‘‘Charter school for pakeha boys’’ they would all scream racism. Starting to turn NZ into the South Africa of old.
Wanganui Chronicle 5/9/16
HELP CHILDREN
The new Children's Commissioner, Judge Andrew Becroft, has a preference to use a Maori name for the newly-announced ministry for what was Child, Youth and Family.
The nation's children need to be protected and cherished, but when will Government and their highly-paid representatives realise it is the parents, grandparents and whanau who are the problem. The children are merely the consequences of dysfunctional parenting. Millions of dollars are squandered by culturally PC health, welfare and educational facilities without any proof of positive outcomes for children and tamariki.
All children that come to the recognition of any agency —doctors included — with symptoms of deprivation, malnutrition or abuse should be recorded with the Health Department and the families should be investigated immedi-ately. A name change is not the answer to deprivation. Tough Love and consequences for the parents is.
M J A
Tauranga
The Nelson Mail 3/9/16
SHARED SOVEREIGNTY
So the Maori King is appealing for a ‘‘shared sovereignty’’ ( Nelson Mail, August 22).
Article one in the Treaty of Waitangi says the chiefs of the confederation of the United Tribes of New Zealand cede to the Queen of England forever their entire sovereignty of their country.
So if they signed the Treaty who are they going to share with when they already ceded it?
Non-Maori people have shared a lot with Maori since the Waitangi Tribunal started in 1980. We have listened to a never-ending grievance, blame industry.
Now they have been given a New Zealand Land Wars battle site with Maggie Barry’s blessing.
Bill English has said it was time ‘‘to recognise New Zealand’s bloody past’’ and has earmarked $4 million for commemorations.
Twenty other land battle sites in New Zealand can be claimed by Maori.
There is a battle land site in Wairau, near Blenheim to be put up for grabs.
D S
Stoke
‘WARS’ STILL CAUSING CONFLICT
Regarding Dylan Thorne’s editorial (Opinion, August 25), let’s start at the beginning with Bill English announcing, according to media reports, a new holiday to commemorate the “New Zealand Wars”.
Last month, he and PM Key backtracked saying only a Commemoration Day would be approved, not a public holiday and would be a locally driven event (a bit like Easter trading).
Clearly, what had happened was the penny had dropped as 80 per cent of Kiwis don’t want a bar of a “wars”’ public holiday.
Mr English also had one other major problem viz. the proposal was being considered (not determined) by a Parliamentary Select Committee last Friday.
Turning to your comments on Guy Fawkes, it is a day informally acknowledged by the public, as is Halloween, not a public holiday and not officially recognised.
I agree with you they are nothingness days to Kiwis. Let me stress there were no Land Wars, or for that matter New Zealand Wars. The uprisings were open tribal rebellions and, as pre-warned, some land was confiscated but most was returned very quickly thereafter. (Abridged)
R P
Matapihi
ABUSE OR EXCUSE?
Child abuse is very much in the spotlight right now and I was shocked to read that Professor Leonie Pihama of Waikato University blames the effects of colonisation as the reason Maori abuse their children.
Colonisation brought better housing, medical care, transport, food and clothing. Where are the fern roots in supermarkets and flax mats in clothing shops today?
Colonisation brought an end to cannibalism, slavery and brutal inter-tribal warfare. A Tauranga chief noted: “If we continue fighting, our race will become extinct.” In short, colonisation was the best thing that ever happened to Maori.
Maori author Alan Duff countered the absurd claims of the professor by saying: “In 1823, Hongi Hika came down from the Far North and smashed my Te Arawa people, who had fled to Mokoia Island. Hongi and his warriors feasted on my ancestors' cooked bodies for six days; they took back an estimated 1000 captives as slaves.
Sounds like worse cultural devastation than being colonised.” (Abridged)
R B
Tauranga
Hawkes Bay Today 5/9/16 (Text Us section)
■ I read a headline in your paper that said ‘‘Charter school for Maori boys’’. If that had read ‘‘Charter school for pakeha boys’’ they would all scream racism. Starting to turn NZ into the South Africa of old.
Wanganui Chronicle 5/9/16
HELP CHILDREN
The new Children's Commissioner, Judge Andrew Becroft, has a preference to use a Maori name for the newly-announced ministry for what was Child, Youth and Family.
The nation's children need to be protected and cherished, but when will Government and their highly-paid representatives realise it is the parents, grandparents and whanau who are the problem. The children are merely the consequences of dysfunctional parenting. Millions of dollars are squandered by culturally PC health, welfare and educational facilities without any proof of positive outcomes for children and tamariki.
All children that come to the recognition of any agency —doctors included — with symptoms of deprivation, malnutrition or abuse should be recorded with the Health Department and the families should be investigated immedi-ately. A name change is not the answer to deprivation. Tough Love and consequences for the parents is.
M J A
Tauranga
The Nelson Mail 3/9/16
SHARED SOVEREIGNTY
So the Maori King is appealing for a ‘‘shared sovereignty’’ ( Nelson Mail, August 22).
Article one in the Treaty of Waitangi says the chiefs of the confederation of the United Tribes of New Zealand cede to the Queen of England forever their entire sovereignty of their country.
So if they signed the Treaty who are they going to share with when they already ceded it?
Non-Maori people have shared a lot with Maori since the Waitangi Tribunal started in 1980. We have listened to a never-ending grievance, blame industry.
Now they have been given a New Zealand Land Wars battle site with Maggie Barry’s blessing.
Bill English has said it was time ‘‘to recognise New Zealand’s bloody past’’ and has earmarked $4 million for commemorations.
Twenty other land battle sites in New Zealand can be claimed by Maori.
There is a battle land site in Wairau, near Blenheim to be put up for grabs.
D S
Stoke