The Star: October 14, 2021

The Star Thursday October 14 2021
16
LETTERS
The inference I get from Edward
Ellison’s opinion (The Star
October 7) is that he agrees with
changing New Zealand’s name
to Aotearoa, but was not sure
whether to change names sooner
by legislation ‘or allow them to
evolve over time’.
Further, he says ‘It’s a bit
slower, but they do it when the
people are ready’. Earlier in
his comments he mentions the
name has ‘grown on us through
osmosis’.
I call the frequent use of the
name by all manner of means as
‘conditioning’ the population. I
am a New Zealander and always
will be. The harder the Maoris
push to change the names of
our towns and our country
by whatever means, the more
determined I am in a personal
way to reject them.
What would people
of Aotearoa be called?
Aotearoeans?
–Tom Delamore
Bishopdale
Aotearoa /NZ rolls off the
tongue and is all ready on our
passports. It shows the rest of the
world there are two groups of
people in this land.
Ellison’s longer title would
kill it for most people. It is going
to be some time before the
change in town names would be
excepted. It would cost a lot of
money to change road signs and
signs for both the council and
the businesses. Legal documents
need to be exact so this could be
a nightmare.
With the duel problem of post-
Covid and climate change,
money is going to be needed
to get us up and running. I feel
the cost of name changes is a
unnecessary burden at this time
and for the foreseeable future.
–Trevor Sennitt
Avonhead
I ask what is the most
important decision to be made
now to ensure New Zealand has
a secure future? It is vaccination
and Waititi and Ngarewa-Packer
should appreciate this. For a
satisfactory conclusion, leave the
renaming question to a more
appropriate time and concentrate
on full vaccination for all.
Believe in the vaccine so we
can all be safe.
–J. Read
Papanui
I was appalled at a letter to the
editor (October 7) encouraging
us all to ‘stand firm with your
government for they know better
than anyone else the decisions
that need to be made’.
They do not. Last time I looked
we had a constitutional Her
Majesty’s Loyal Opposition. The
very bedrock of the Westminster
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
Name change to Aotearoa not a priority
system is a duality, and over
all the inherent sovereign right
of the citizen to govern, and
to appoint representatives to
its parliament to carry out the
collective majority wish each
electoral term.
We are not a centralised state
(yet) but if the growing rhetoric
from the left is anything to go by,
that is increasingly the desire of a
percentage of the citizenry. I am
not one of them. Never will be.
Government by the people,
for the people is our heritage.
Centralism or its mini me
socialism, is an assault on that
creative, effective and worthy
tradition.
–John Stringer
Papanui
Three Waters
There is almost universal
rejection of the Three Waters
proposals, yet this Government
is determined to bulldoze it
through.
The process to appoint the
governance bodies could not
be more convoluted, indeed
if you ran a competition to
design the most undemocratic,
no accountability and grossly
expensive system, you could not
beat this silly system. No-one
will be held accountable, no
additional pipes will be laid. It is
a farce.
I notice the Government is
reviewing local government.
Regional councils, which are the
perfect bodies to carry out the
functions of Three Waters, are
the logical bodies to have their
powers extended to include these
functions.
Central government could
top up those regional councils
which have a low density of
ratepayers. Surely this would be
a fraction of the cost of the huge
overheads and would be far more
democratic. It is a transfer of
power and resources to private
interests and this government
knows it has until the next
election to undemocratically
foist this on the people.
–Paul Grainger
St Albans
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