THE Northern Explorer stopping at Taumarunui again has sparked conversations about other King Country towns.
Made up news THE headline news on TV1 reporting on the Maniapoto settlement included a clip showing colonial troops, supposedly at Te Kūiti, engaged in battle with Māori. The historical fact is that no such battles ever took place in Te Kūiti. In the colonial period following cessation of intertribal wars, Te Kūiti has only ever known peace. R Young Blenheim
Couldn’t have said it better I WISH to absolutely support G Walker with regard to his letter that reminds us of the damage to New Zealand’s health and hospitals system when National was in power [in last week’s paper]. Is it a memory problem that the public have, or just a lack of knowledge? When I see the total unaccountability of the current National Party and their constant unwarranted complaints of how NZ has been governed and led through a pandemic, while inheriting a country with failing infrastructure both in the health sector and also the issues pertaining to clean water supply, dispatch of sewerage, and social housing sold off without immediate address to what was going to replace this. Additionally, absolutely no attention was given to the urgent need to address fossil fuels and the changing global climate. Thank you, I couldn’t have said it better. KJ Rogers Te Kūiti
Where is social responsibility? INTERESTING article featured by your newspaper regarding the KiwiRail “Northerner” service. Not only Taumarunui but Te Kūiti should be stops, but KiwiRail management seems to disregard their social responsibility in providing competition to the monopoly that InterCity has on long distance public transport. Previous writers in the press have queried why bookings months in advance are essential to even get a seat when all KiwiRail has to do is add more carriages. Fares, however, seem to be set by Air NZ international division. Perhaps the additional carriages suggested could revert back to the old days of third class with more realistic fares charged. Not all of us want food and beverages; we can bring them aboard ourselves. A loo, however, is a must, but the fares have to be a quarter of those listed in your excellent broadsheet. A R Baker Te Kūiti
Fuelling the fire Labour’s decision to empower the Commerce Commission to set limits on wholesale fuel prices as well as introduce minimum fuel reserve requirements in June 2023 aren’t comforting. Nor is its decision to postpone biofuel mandates to April 2024. If anything, they add fuel to “the government knows best” fire — a fire they are intent on stoking. As MP of a largely rural region heavily reliant on both diesel and petrol, the price controls are another “made in haste” remedy that won’t fix Labour’s economic mismanagement. Minimum fuel reserves should have been a must, the day Labour closed Marsden Point, our only fuel refinery. While National supports biofuels, we oppose the mandates to make fuel wholesalers deploy them and they should be scrapped altogether. It’s yet another example of the Government putting ideology before reality. We simply don’t have enough supply and the mandate would have increased petrol and diesel prices by another 5-10c a litre. Labour must wake up to the fact that we are reliant on fossil fuels and will be for some time to come. Barbara Kuriger MP Taranaki-King Country
