Post by Kiwi Frontline on May 20, 2016 7:11:07 GMT 12
Waikato Times 20/5/16
MONITOR DEMOCRACY
It is very clear that local government organisations around the country have very often not reflected the views of their ratepayers when it comes to race based seats. Overwhelmingly referendums have rejected proposals and yet some councils have forged ahead with their own agenda against the wishes of the voters.
New Plymouth Mayor Andrew Judd has demonstrated that he has no interest at all in representing the people and has railed against them when he failed to get his own way.
Politicians need to be held to account. Clear undertakings and guidelines from them as to what their views are on important issues must be made.
Democracy is a fragile thing and needs to be defended and monitored constantly. If people do not want to do that then they deserve the results that we have been getting. Demand clear undertakings from candidates in writing before they are elected and expose them if they don't do what they say. At present anyone can stand for election. It may not always be that way.
G F
Tauranga
The New Zealand Herald 20/5/16
RIVERS ALIVE
Anne Salmond’s title gives no weight to any waffle about rivers as “ancestral beings” with “rights of their own”. The next step in today’s make-believe world may be to confer rights on a taniwha or two.
Sure, rivers have character. To me the Buller is majestic, the Grey sullen and the Inangahua beautiful and they need care but I do not need her to tell me not to use them as toilets.
The British did a great job of cleaning up the Thames. We can do the same here where necessary without any Maori input.
BRUCE MOON,
Nelson
The Nelson Mail 20/5/16
TREATY MEANING
Gary Glover’s assertion (May 14) that ‘‘co-governance’’ of New Zealand was written into the Treaty of Waitangi and ‘‘was implicit and explicitly understood’’ by Maori, Busby, and Williams is arrant nonsense. Though that fantasy may tickle modern ears the meaning and text of the Treaty is crystal clear. In return for ceding sovereignty to the British Crown, Maori signatories became subjects of Queen ‘‘Wikitoria’’ to enjoy the same legal rights, status, and protections over their lands as British subjects did.
Neither Queen Victoria, nor the Americans at Russell, nor the French suffered ‘‘co-governance’’ with anyone.
Those war-chiefs knew and understood both the threat and the opportunity as two of the then world’s super-powers came calling. That is why on the night before the signing, Hone Heke of flagpole fame remonstrated with the other chiefs: ‘‘We must sign with Wikitoria, for her hands are tied by her own laws. If we do not, the others will eat us.’’
Co-governance was not on the table then and it’s not on the table now.
J M
Nelson
Bay of Plenty Times 20/5/16
HISTORY LESSON
This week Rosemary McLeod (Opinion, May 19) writes that our history should be taught in schools.
Certainly our history should be taught, but will the truth be modified to suit the agenda of the Waitangi Tribunal?
It has already been conveniently sanitised in an educational booklet called “Network Waitangi” — precolonisation Maori are described as “a highly developed sustainable civilisation, autonomous tribes operated their own systems of health, education, justice, welfare and spiritually” — all warm and fuzzy, but not one whisper of their short, harsh, brutal lives due to centuries of tribal warfare.
Nor any mention of the devastating Musket Wars in which tens of thousands of Maori died at the hands of their own people.
In comparison, about 3000 Maori died in the Land Wars. Chief Taipari of Tauranga referred to the slaughter of the Musket Wars: “If we continue fighting our race will become extinct. In my view, it was the arrival of the missionaries and subsequent colonisation which saved the Maori race from extinction.”
Our history books are being sanitised, and through omission, our young people are being lied to!
R B
Tauranga
MONITOR DEMOCRACY
It is very clear that local government organisations around the country have very often not reflected the views of their ratepayers when it comes to race based seats. Overwhelmingly referendums have rejected proposals and yet some councils have forged ahead with their own agenda against the wishes of the voters.
New Plymouth Mayor Andrew Judd has demonstrated that he has no interest at all in representing the people and has railed against them when he failed to get his own way.
Politicians need to be held to account. Clear undertakings and guidelines from them as to what their views are on important issues must be made.
Democracy is a fragile thing and needs to be defended and monitored constantly. If people do not want to do that then they deserve the results that we have been getting. Demand clear undertakings from candidates in writing before they are elected and expose them if they don't do what they say. At present anyone can stand for election. It may not always be that way.
G F
Tauranga
The New Zealand Herald 20/5/16
RIVERS ALIVE
Anne Salmond’s title gives no weight to any waffle about rivers as “ancestral beings” with “rights of their own”. The next step in today’s make-believe world may be to confer rights on a taniwha or two.
Sure, rivers have character. To me the Buller is majestic, the Grey sullen and the Inangahua beautiful and they need care but I do not need her to tell me not to use them as toilets.
The British did a great job of cleaning up the Thames. We can do the same here where necessary without any Maori input.
BRUCE MOON,
Nelson
The Nelson Mail 20/5/16
TREATY MEANING
Gary Glover’s assertion (May 14) that ‘‘co-governance’’ of New Zealand was written into the Treaty of Waitangi and ‘‘was implicit and explicitly understood’’ by Maori, Busby, and Williams is arrant nonsense. Though that fantasy may tickle modern ears the meaning and text of the Treaty is crystal clear. In return for ceding sovereignty to the British Crown, Maori signatories became subjects of Queen ‘‘Wikitoria’’ to enjoy the same legal rights, status, and protections over their lands as British subjects did.
Neither Queen Victoria, nor the Americans at Russell, nor the French suffered ‘‘co-governance’’ with anyone.
Those war-chiefs knew and understood both the threat and the opportunity as two of the then world’s super-powers came calling. That is why on the night before the signing, Hone Heke of flagpole fame remonstrated with the other chiefs: ‘‘We must sign with Wikitoria, for her hands are tied by her own laws. If we do not, the others will eat us.’’
Co-governance was not on the table then and it’s not on the table now.
J M
Nelson
Bay of Plenty Times 20/5/16
HISTORY LESSON
This week Rosemary McLeod (Opinion, May 19) writes that our history should be taught in schools.
Certainly our history should be taught, but will the truth be modified to suit the agenda of the Waitangi Tribunal?
It has already been conveniently sanitised in an educational booklet called “Network Waitangi” — precolonisation Maori are described as “a highly developed sustainable civilisation, autonomous tribes operated their own systems of health, education, justice, welfare and spiritually” — all warm and fuzzy, but not one whisper of their short, harsh, brutal lives due to centuries of tribal warfare.
Nor any mention of the devastating Musket Wars in which tens of thousands of Maori died at the hands of their own people.
In comparison, about 3000 Maori died in the Land Wars. Chief Taipari of Tauranga referred to the slaughter of the Musket Wars: “If we continue fighting our race will become extinct. In my view, it was the arrival of the missionaries and subsequent colonisation which saved the Maori race from extinction.”
Our history books are being sanitised, and through omission, our young people are being lied to!
R B
Tauranga