<strong>The</strong> <strong>Star</strong> Thursday <strong>June</strong> 4 <strong>2020</strong> 12 LETTERS Rates increases Brace ourselves for the traditional round of moaning over any rates increase. In our home, rates costs around $2.50 per day per person. For this we get fresh water delivered to our taps for washing, drinking and cooking and our sewerage and wastewater taken away (how much would you be willing pay for this alone?). We get footpaths to walk on, roads to drive on, cycleways to bike on and parks and reserves to play at. We can visit pools and recreation centres and borrow books free from libraries. We also get public transport should we want it. With all this cheap stuff available we don’t have the time or energy to moan. People always want to knock councils as they are an easy slow moving target but no one has ever come up with a better system to provide services to the community. Sure things could be better but how much would private enterprise charge for each of the services we get? Expecting zero rates rise is daft considering ratepayers are clamouring for more and more services. – Lindsay James, Bishopdale City car parking I see in <strong>The</strong> <strong>Star</strong> (May 28) that Lianne Dalziel reports she was “gobsmacked” to learn that Christchurch commuters have been using the recently available free off-street parking in the central city for their all-day parking. I am gobsmacked that that behaviour by motorists was not anticipated, given the deplorable state of parking in our central city that has been permitted to evolve. My understanding is that central city business people want more customers in that area, to spend money in their businesses, and to keep them there for more than an hour or two. That seems entirely reasonable. High cost, short-term, inner-city parking is hardly likely to satisfy that objective. <strong>The</strong> time for smart thinking about parking is overdue. <strong>The</strong>re’s been little evidence of it to date. – Gregory Lee, Avonhead We want to hear your views on the issues affecting life in Canterbury Send emails to: barry@starmedia.kiwi Letters may be edited or rejected at <strong>The</strong> <strong>Star</strong>'s discretion. Letters should be about 150 words. A name, postal address and phone number should be provided. Please use your real name, not a nickname, alias, pen name or abbreviation. winter HeAt PUMP SPeCiALS Phone now for prompt expert advice and installation Heat Pump Specials GE35 4kW Heat Pump from only $2,299 GE50 5.8kW Heat Pump from only $2,749 FH50 6.0kW Heat Pump from only $3,499 INCLUDES INSTALLATION. CONDITIONS APPLY. 379-3589 Technology <strong>The</strong> coming week in our history <strong>June</strong> 4, 1943 – <strong>The</strong> Cromwell to Dunedin express derailed while rounding a curve near Hyde in Central Otago. Twentyone of the 113 passengers on board were killed and 47 injured in what was then New Zealand’s worst rail crash. <strong>June</strong> 5, 1847 – <strong>The</strong> Auckland Savings Bank opens for business. Its formation was encouraged by Governor George Grey, who hoped it would attract business from working men of both ‘races’ and become ‘an immediate and active agent in civilisation’. <strong>June</strong> 6, 1996 – New Zealand’s first wind farm became operational in the hills of Wairarapa. Named Hau Nui Farm, meaning Big Wind, this location was wisely chosen due to the ideal wind currents that are funnelled and accelerated from nearby Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range. first drive-throughs opened the following year in Auckland and Lower Hutt. <strong>June</strong> 8, 1987 – New Zealand goes nuclear-free through the New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act that was passed into law, establishing this country as a nuclear and biological weaponfree zone. <strong>The</strong> Act was passed in the aftermath of the mid- 1980s nuclear ships stand-off between New Zealand and the United States. <strong>The</strong> nuclear-free movement, however, had its roots in ideas that emerged in the 1960s: a push for an independent, ethical foreign policy, which had grown out of opposition to the Vietnam War; and environmentalism, which sought to preserve New Zealand as a green unspoilt land. <strong>June</strong> 9, 1869 – Beginning of Tītokowaru’s war. Ngā Ruahine warriors led by Riwha Tītokowaru killed three settlers near Ketemarae, north of Hāwera, provoking a resumption of fighting in south Taranaki. <strong>June</strong> 7, 1976 – McDonald’s arrives in New Zealand. <strong>The</strong> golden arches opened at Cobham Court, Porirua. Big Macs were <strong>June</strong> 10, 1886 – Eruption of priced at 75 cents, cheeseburgers Mt Tarawera. Lasting six hours 40 cents and hamburgers 30 cents. the eruption caused massive More than 100 eager customers destruction. It destroyed several were queuing outside when the villages, along with the famous doors opened at 10am. New silica hot springs known as Zealand’s second McDonald’s the Pink and White Terraces. Heat restaurant opened in Pump Queen St Approximately 120 Spec people, nearly in Auckland in July 1977. <strong>The</strong> all Māori, lost their lives. 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Thursday <strong>June</strong> 4 <strong>2020</strong> <strong>The</strong> <strong>Star</strong> 13
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