Forest clearance
Sir,—l challenge your correspondent B. A. Calder (May 9) to prove his claim that 75 per cent of those citizens approached in Greymouth signed the Maruia petition. I suggest that possibly 50 per cent of the 1600 or so signatures purportedly collected over the whole of the West Coast were school children. We have citizens as young as six months whose signatures are included. Students were arriving home from the local high school during a Conservation Week exercise at that time complaining that they were not being told the truth. It is not surprising that at the end of that exercise the Maruia petition should appear. The preamble of the petition begins: “We the undersigned New Zealanders.” Of 56 signatures analysed from random sheets 27 were from overseas. Recently I asked the Minister for the Environment to provide me with details of the percentage of children, of overseas visitors, and of multiple signing. I will now also ask for the percentage of false names.—Yours, etc., RON FERGUSON. West Coast Futures Petition. May 10, 1984.
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Press, 12 May 1984, Page 18
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176Forest clearance Press, 12 May 1984, Page 18
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