Hoofing it
Your article on ‘Riding for respect’ ( The News, September 19) reminded me of a related experience I had in Hamilton about 70 years ago.
Riding along Bryce Street alongside the new cycleway which is off bounds for horses is Hope Spooner, front left, on Cassidy, her 5-year old crossbred mare. Photo: Mary Anne Gill.
As a member of the Light Horse Club living on the west side of Hamilton, I had to ride my horse through the city streets and across the main traffic bridge to get to the Claudelands showgrounds where the club activities took place. My horse adapted well to walking through a part of the city with cars and cyclists – mostly very accommodating – slowing down and passing carefully and quietly.
However, at one club meeting, a friend told me that her family had been asked to remove her pony from the grazing paddock they were renting as it was going to be sold, and she asked me if this rather feisty ginger pony could share my paddock until she found new grazing, or she might have to sell her. So I took both horses home for a while and one club day, brought her pony back to Claudelands on a lead rope for ‘rehousing’.
As I took the two horses onto the traffic bridge (riding one and leading the other – with both behaving well) a small line of cars pulled in behind us travelling slowly and quietly, until the car driver at the front lost his patience and tooted his horn. Where he expected me and two horses to move to was extremely limited!
My horse ignored it, but the ginger pony’s ears flattened and laid back, her head came up in the air and her eyes rolled, even though she continued to move quietly forward beside my horse.
The horn went again, and I could see the pony stiffening even more. Soon, there was an opportunity for the car to slowly pass us, and this is where the pony took her revenge – by swinging her haunches around and kicking the passenger door of the car with both hind feet! The car did get past – but with two U-shaped dents in its side!
The following car had a driver with a big grin on his face who gave me a ‘thumbs up’ as he carefully passed… and the ginger pony’s ears flicked forward and up. I could almost see the satisfied smirk on her face!
Sylvia Hill
Leamington
Letters to Editor. Photo: Pixabay
Māori wards
There are people for and against Māori Ward seats. May I say that being handed something based on your race, gender, or sexual preference, is just as bad as being denied something based on your race, gender, or sexual preference.
Personally, I believe that whatever you identify as, you should be rewarded for your skill/talent that you can offer the citizens of Cambridge. A place at the table awaits you if you have these skills.
Alan Sayers
Leamington
1080 issue
Clyde Graf
Cr Graf’s anti-1080 rant, yet again, in the regional councillor column (The News, September 19) represents a very small view of a few individuals, and cannot go unchallenged.
If the silent majority who support protection of our native wildlife had listened to his misinformation nonsense, and then advocated to stop 1080 use across New Zealand, many of our taonga species, such as mohua/yellowhead, kōkako, kākāpō, whio/blue duck, pīwauwau/rock wren and titipounamu/rifleman, to name just a few, would be on the brink of extinction.
Former Prime Minister Norm Kirk once said “you can never argue someone out of an illogical position if that’s how they got there in the first place”. So true. We are lucky to have the world class predator free wildlife sanctuary at Maungatautari right on our doorstep. 1080 and other toxins played a vital role in this achievement.
Peter Russell
Cambridge
Bihoro visit
Cambridge Primary School students welcome the Bihoro delegation at the Cambridge Library with Bihoro mayor Koji Tsuchiya in the foreground. Photo: Mary Anne Gill.
Maybe my advancing years are affecting my powers of deduction more than I thought as, having read your report (The News, September 19) about the delegation heading off to Bihoro in Japan a number of times, it is still not clear to me whether the seven person “delegation” are all paying their own way or whether the four elected people involved will be enjoying yet another junket at ratepayers expense.
I have spoken to a number of people who are similarly confused on this point. If they are paying their own way then that is well and good. However if ratepayers are going to have to stump up yet again (as they have in the past for trips to France and paying for people from France and Japan to come to Cambridge) while essential services like unblocking drains, repairing damaged footpaths, improving inadequate street lighting, repairing water leaks (one of which has been wasting water since at least August 20 and probably before) then that is again unacceptable.
In the absence of absolute clarity in your report I lean towards the possibility of a nice little junket. But I would be elated to be proven wrong. Over to you!
Kelvin Dunn
Leamington
Editor’s note: They are paying their own way. Homestay accommodation will be provided in Bihoro as part of the sister city relationship, but travel and other expenses will be funded by candidates, with any council costs limited to an official $200 gift for the delegation.
Arbitrage
Peter Nicholl
The sum of $50 million at event four per cent is $2 million a year, at three per cent is $1.5 million. Where does Andrew Myers get only $400,000 a year (The News September 12) from?
Peter Nicholl’s suggested one per cent lower, being $500,000 a year is correct. Even 0.5 per cent lower it is $250,000 a year, Depending on how long the loan is for and the terms, that cost could carry on for years.
But where does the Waipā District Council get the authority to speculate with money they have borrowed and ratepayers are liable for potential losses on?
Could we have the rate at which it has been borrowed, please? The ratepayers will then be able to ascertain whether or not it has been a good idea or not in April when the term deposits mature and the then borrowing rate for the $50 million can be compared with the rate the council has committed ratepayers to. I hope for the council’s sake that the loan is to be extended in April at the Local Government Funding Agency’s then current rate (presuming interest rates have dropped by then).
Peter Clapham
Cambridge
Editor’s Note: Andrew Myers sourced $400,000 from the council’s media release (30 August), a figure which deputy chief executive Ken Morris had rounded up from $384,000. The council has not provided the interest rate it got from the New Zealand Local Government Funding Agency nor the figures it obtained from the ANZ or BNZ banks. The News has requested it. The agency’s website says Waipā has borrowed $376.7 million from it as at 31 August 2024.
More on the tower
Cambridge Water Tower.
Recently the heritage value and future of the old water tower in Cambridge has been in the news. $800,000 or $6 million, depending on your view.
That started me thinking. How many heritage protected sites are there in Waipā, and more importantly just how easy is it to gain protection for structure?
Conversely how hard/expensive is it to have the Heritage tag removed? There are at least seven with a “National Significance” tag so I suspect removal of that listing may be very difficult.
Readers may be surprised to learn that the list comprises 20 pages In Cambridge/Leamington and the number of protected structures is 107.
There are a further 28 in Karapiro. In Karapiro it seems the entire village of the 1940s is protected. That includes the building locals want to save from demolition (Cambridge News, September 12).
Karapiro school children outside the old building which Waipa District Council wants to demolish.
To my eye most seem to be state houses, no different from the thousands built in that era throughout New Zealand. The big omission in Karapiro is the very unique concrete water tower, still in use.
To me the exercise almost became a farce when I discovered an unremarkable house built in 1962 is included.
I am now left to wonder how many are on the payroll in the department concerned?
Murray Reid
Leamington
