Letters to the Editor

Press, 28 February 1981, Page 14

Letters to the Editor

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Industrial disputes

Sir, — The civil rights of strikers should not fie any greater than those of anybody else. The right to withhold labour, the right to demonstrate, both are accepted if the law is not broken in the process. The current dispute novy concerns an additional right: to break the law in order to ensure the effectiveness of strike action. The Government and especially Mr McLay must stand up against this monstrous proposition. The authority of the police and the judicial system as well as the relativity of rights between individuals must be protected, whatever the short-term cost. The stand the Government must take is clear if they are looking beyond election day: the law must not be changed, and the legal process must not be overridden. — Yours, etc., P. M. WILLYAMS. February 26, 1981.

Si r> — My democratic right’ (among more important rights) is to travel by bus, tram, plane or ship where and when I wish. I cannot injure or murder when I feel like so doing.. Today the democratic right of New Zealanders and that of other sea travellers is denied. The result of so-called democratic rights demanded by a certain group deny the right of the individual to work, travel, conduct business. Keep New Zealand moving forward and justify the . respect and trust of others here and overseas. I am one of the majority of New Zealanders who deplore the activities of those who concentrate on self and not on New Zealand stability, — Yours, etc., D. C. BATES. February 27, 1981.

Sir, — The Auckland aircraft engineers were unable to upset the national salary structure and have a higher salary scale than the rest of New Zealand. Thev decided to hold up air traffic by invading the security area of the airport, thereby breaking the law. Mr Knox and the F.O.L. and adherents support this illegal action to obtain typically Auckland demands for privileges over the rest of the country; and union members, even here in the

South Island, follow like sheep. Baa! — Yours, etc., JOHN BARCLAY. February 27, 1981. Sir, — In this election year,’ the Government, eral, has chosen to throw down the gauntlet to the unions on a fragile and hypocritical pretence that the law must be seen to be sacrosanct. The righteous application of law was not much in evidence when the Government withdrew its charges against the freezing workers when the result of the pursuance of these charges would have embarrassed our fickle administration: or is the AttorneyGeneral only recently aware of his responsibilities? The allegation that the unions would hold the country to ransom on a mere technicality can be applied with equal validity to the rigid attitude of the AttorneyGeneral who, according to his own words, acts alone. • — Yours, etc., ARTHUR MAY. February 27, 1981.

Sir, — Mr Pat Kelly has said, that the Government in denying union members the right to picket, makes us a fascist state. Has he ever stopped to think, that any unions that demand their members go on strike, are denying them the right to work? Cannot he see there is no difference, or does he think he is the dictator of the workers. — Yours, etc., P. G. L. HINDMAN. February 26, 1981.

Sir, — Congratulations to Mr McLay, the Minister of Justice who has shown guts in not surrendering to the ever-present muscle of the trade union movement. It is m.. reassuring to know that no group of individuals will be allowed to become a law unto themselves. Illegalities whether intended to be criminal or provocative cannot be condoned under any circumstances. What are our laws for? — Yours, etc., G. STONE, February 26, 1981.

Sir, — Although New Zealand is well known for its sheep, a special breed of two-legged ones is emerging during the current Air New Zealand engineers’ dispute. Irrespective of reasons or justification, some Big Brother trade union committee directs all unionists to stop work and what do we find — a lot of little kids (or should we say goats) doing just this. Surely in these economically troubled times, with jobs being at a premium, some of the people involved should start acting like adults and save their protests for some legitimate and justifiable cause instead of causing needless trouble and expense for the community and the country. — Yours, etc., DAVE HASTIE. February 26, 1981. Police action in disputes Sir, — If Mr Tait (February 27) is to be believed he would have us think that the police are responsible to nobody, not even the courts, the Ombudsman, etc. Has he ever read a summary of the annual report of the Ombudsman about the number of police matters investigated? The most important people that the police are responsible to are the public. And why not? Would Mr Tait sooner have the public accountable to say the Council of Civil Liberties or some other controversial body? He goes on ■to say that the Thomas Royal Commission was soured by the police. Any person well read on this matter would consider it to be the reverse. It was the commission that “soured” the police. The police know no politics. This is not to say that we do not take a lead from Government, but this- is totally different from "being influenced,” — Yours, etc., R, A. COOK. February 26, 1981.

Power charges Sir, — I was very disappointed with the reported agreement reached by the city council delegation to Mr Birch, as regional benefits will be at the expense of other New Zealand consumers. “Such agreements would mean other power supply authorities would have to pay marginally more to allow Christchurch a lower rate.” Labour criticism at the last council meeting, centred on the Ministry of Energy’s acceleration of a capital works programme at a time of electricity surpluses. Mr Birch has settled a situation, politically embarrassing in an election year, seemingly without alteration to legislation or the over-all bulk tariff, leaving the supply authorities to squabble amongst themselves for anj r regional concessions. The delegation’s acquiescence appears a sell-out to the electricity consumers of New Zealand. The Electricity Act must be amended, thereby restricting proposed capital works, being funded by E.S.A. consumers, to those required for their projected requirements only. — Yours, etc., NOEL GOURDIE. February 27, 1981. Power charges by C.C.E.P.B. Sir, — I read in “The Press” of February 18, that the Central Canterbury Electric Power Board accepted the 9 per cent increase in the Government bulk electricity charges without discussion. Could Mr M. P. Gough, the Sockburn .representative on the board, please explain how he can reconcile this, with his election promise of last October. He said then that it was his intention to do all he could to reduce the cost of electricity to the consumer- — Yours, etc., R. N. PENNY. February 18, 1981. (Mr Gough, replies: “At the last meeting of the board it was clear that no member was prepared to second a motion to. defer payment of the bulk tariff.There would therefore have been little point in presenting such a motion. I can. assure your correspondent that I intend to do all I can to keep the cost of electricity to the consumer as low as possible, without resorting to ineffectual gimmickry for the sake of personal publicity. If your correspondent has any constructive suggestions I would be most interested to hear them.”'! Aunt Haysi’s work for aged Sir, — I read with interest your article on Aunt Haysi’s retirement and while she was perhaps better known for her work with children. I wish on behalf of the Canterbury Aged People’s Welfare Council to pay tribute to her work in helping the aged and frail. She will long be remembered by the many old people with whom she was associated in so many ways. — Yours, etc., G. A. MOLE, • Secretary-Manager, Canterbury Aged People's Welfare Council. February 20, 1981. Clean air Sir, — I thank Mr Nearv for his reply to my letter and also Mr A. R. Wright for his useful suggestions. However, my concern (not purely personal) is for the multitude of elderly persons (and others) who may be deprived of the pleasure of their open fireplaces should the Clean Air Society or authorities go ■to unreasonable extremes. I know little of atmospheric pollutants but I consider the public should be informed of the approximate percentage of such pollutants issuing from automobiles, diesel locomotives, factory emissions etc.compared with those from open fireplaces. A comparison of the harmfulness of the various pollutants might also be of interest. As stated, natural clean wood

does not emit sulphur. Surely a wood fire would cause comparatively negligible pollution. 1 lean to the First World War slogan — “Keep the home fires burning,” but should the public not evince stronger interest in this matter, then so be it. — Yours, etc M. W. SIMES. February 26, 1981. Stanley Graham film Sir, — I question the ethics of the exploitation of a local and family tragedy in the making of the film “Bad Blood.” Neither film-makers or reporters seem to show compassion for the surviving family and connections of Stanley Graham in reconstructing an event which occurring less than 40 years ago, must have touched the lives of many still living. No doubt we can look forward to a Mouftt Erebus epic on the lines of “Airport” in the lifetime of the families of the crew and passengers. — Yours, etc., BARBARA B. ROBERTS. February 26, 1981. Second smelter Sir, — Oliver Riddell's article (“The Press,” February 24) is a timely warning about the profitability of the proposed Fletcher-C.S.R.-Aluisse smelter. Once the planned new Australian smelters come on stream it is projected that there will be a world glut of aluminium in the mid to late 1980 s with a consequent downturn in price. The Fletcher consortium will be in a much less favourable marketing position than Australian smelters since the alumina has to be imported from Australia for processing here. Fletchers also will not be able to take advantage of the 90 per cent to .95 per cent energy savings per ton for recycled metal that Australia can. It appears then that the only thing the coni sortium does have to its advantage is that its already low (1.7 c to I.BckWh) electricity price is linked to the world price of aluminium, so that if aluminium prices plummet so will their power price. Are ordinary consumers prepared to make up the shortfall in their power Gills? — Yours, etc., HEATHER J. AIM. February 27, 1981.

Sir. — Oliver Riddell, in his article on the second smelter, mentions that the difficulties of the WinstoneSamsung pulp mill is perhaps causing the consortium of Alussuisse, C.S.R. and Fletchers to rethink. The difficulties associated with this thermomechanical pulp mill should also be causing concern amongst C.S.R. officials involved in C.S.R.-Bai-gents’ proposed thermomechanical pulpmill for the Nelson region. The Karioi pulp mill, which has now lost some $lO million, is the closest “living relative’’ of C.S’.R.-Baigents’ proposal. Hopefully the Government will be more cautious in giving final approvals to C.S.R.-Baigents’ plans. Information on the financial viability of C.S.R.-Baigents’ proposal should be made public, before final approvals are given, so independent assessments of .its viability can be made. After all, if C.S.R.Baigents strike similar financial problems it is likely to be New Zealand taxpayers who bail the project out with increased subsidies arid incentives. — Yours, etc.,. DEREK SHAW. February 25 1981. Upkeep of track Sir, — Further to the recent criticism of the state of the Arthur’s Pass tracks, . I wish to mention the poor state of the track to Walker Pass which one can reach from the nice Hawdon Hut. This hut' will become a “white elephant” if there are no decent tracks leading tc nice vantage points. There is a nice turn just before Walker pass but one has to scramble over land through ■the notorious sub-alpine scrub to reach it. Walker pass is a nice area too. As trudge Col is also reached

from this hut it would be helpful if instructions were displayed as to which side of Trudge Stream one has to follow to reach the Poultei River, the alpine scrub is even worse here and one can easily get “bluffed” too. I believe the park board employs eight rangers and so it should be possible that all tracks are at least walked by one of the rangers once a year, placing cairns in the strategic places etc. — Yours, etc., P. A. VAN DULGTEREN. February 25, 1981. Arms to El Salvador Sir, — From your article “Tonnes of arms sent to Salvador” (February 25) it would appear that the United States State Department has started a campaign to soften up public opinion for another illegal Vietnamstyle military intervention. The fact that most of the “captured” weapons were ofi Western manufacture and therefore could have come from anywhere, of course did not deter our intrepid allies from accusing the Communists (who else?) of arms smuggling. I note the lack of State Department discussion of its own unsavoury' role in El Salvador, this including the training and arming of many of the dictatorship’s 30,000 strong murder squad at the United States military base in Panama. It is indeed tragic to see the lesson of Vietnam forgotten so easily in the United States. Genocide die not work then and will not work now. It will only delay the day of revolution — and cement its inevitability. — Yours, etc., A. MOORE, February 25, 1981. Crushed mail Sir, — Today. I received a Scottish Field Calendar from my sister in Scotland. It is a most beautiful calendar and has'l2 of the loveliest scenes anyone would ever wish to see. Would you believe that the mailman crushed it into the mailbox. He did not even roll it up; he just squeezed it in any old way, I honestly think that the postal service is very inadequate especially when one considers the high cost of stamps at this time, Whatever has happened to' the old postal service? — Yours, etc., PEGGIE FILSHIE. February 25, 1981. Social Credit and Douglas theories Sir, — Mark D. Sadler has ignored the advice of his comrades from British Columbia to Social Creditors to bury their antipathy to foreign investment. All govern-

merits in the post-war years have increased the deficit on invisibles and a Social Credit government would do the same. New Zealand was, however, a creditor nation under National before the last Labour Government. Our credit rating is now so high that costly concessions to foreigners for loans are unnecessary. Mark D. Sadler’s contention that our small nation should be giving more food and other aid to less fortunate countries ignores the market resistance to our efforts and our continual industrial disruptions. —• Yours, etc., J. F. GARVEY. February 25, 1981. Springbok tom* Sir, — Angus MacLeod (February 27) should read more carefully. I do not accuse the World Council of Churches of “callous indifference,” only, and quite rightly, his own attitude in his previous letter. As for • the World Council of Churches’ grants, close examination shows some interesting facts. For example, according to “The Tablet” October 10, 1980, the World Council of Churches gave $150,000 to the African. National Congress. This Communist organisation is outlawed in South Africa and trains guerillas in neighbouring countries, it aims to overthrow the South African Government. “The Press” (January 30, 1981) reports the arrest of a senior Soviet K.G.B. agent, Major Alexei Michailovitch Kozlov. Major Kozlov admits that the African National Congress is funded and otherwise supported by the Soviet Union, Examination of HART’s own newspaper “Amandla” also shows significant contact with this same Soviet W.C.C. financed group. Meanwhile the W.C.C. remains silent and inactive about aggression and persecution committed ‘by the Soviet Union and its close — Yours, etc., E. SUTHERLAND; February 27, 1981. Unemployment Sir, — Although M. Francis (February 25) has missed the point of my letter, I thank nim for demonstrating the prejudice that prevents the young from proving their potential. The hundred thousand who pay secondary tax on their superannuation must include a good percentage of people holding down jobs desperately needed by the young. I repeat, if this pay out was “means tested” or even “job tested” a good number would be persuaded to ■ retire. — -Yours, etc., W, P. JACKSON, February. 25, 1981.