Letters to Editor 16 Jan 2009
To the mindless, gutless shooter
Just wanting to personally congratulate the shooter who set out on the night of 8 January till the morning of the 9th to my back yard in Paturau. You have been awarded first prize for the most ignorant, careless, disgraceful shooter. There is no honour to receive this award, as it shows you have a great lack of respect, and have careless and mindless skills in handling a rifle. You are a gutless imbecile and you must take great pride in your cowardice.
Your thoughtless actions did not kill, but you will know this. I found him that morning, still standing on three good legs. Was it worth it? This is not your place to be; this is my back door you are shooting on. It was me who had to deal with the aftermath of your senseless act and have my dear friend put to his rest.
Haleigh Payne
Ed. See article on page 5 this week.
Cryptic crossword
Greengrass sets a mean cryptic crossword. For instance it is easy to get taken in by the anagrams which he/she brandishes with panache. However the unsavoury ones warrant the full stop!
I imagine that there are many others like me who enjoy their weekly word gym exercise. Congratulations to Greengrass and The GB Weekly for providing such a quality mental diversion and good fun. Thank you.
Derry Kingston
Greengrass replies: Thank you Derry, I really enjoy making the puzzles and it's only worthwhile if there are people out there who get some pleasure from solving them. I'm a beginner at this compiling business and I have some very clever proofreaders who keep me on the straight and narrow. It's clear that there are quite a few people who think in a similarly peculiar way to me and that's a relief.
Incidentally, not everyone may know that there probably wouldn't be a community newspaper like The GB Weekly that was closely connected to its readers if it wasn't for Derry.
Tukurua beach access
In the early hours of New Year's morning, four young women who were staying at our place went for a walk to Tukurua beach through the motor camp. On the way home, within metres of the camp gate, they were discovered and made to turn around and go back. They were city girls, unused to dark nights and tides, and forbidden beaches, and had to negotiate the rocks at Tukurua Point in a 4.2 metre-high tide to get round to Parapara beach, walk along Parapara beach, up Parapara Beach Road and then back along State Highway 60 home to Tukurua, all in bare feet. It took them an hour and a half in pitch darkness - there was only a sliver of a moon that night.
This is because there is no public access to Tukurua beach since the owner of the motor camp has decided to enforce his legal right to deny access to the general public over his land, thereby giving himself and the other accommodation places along Tukurua beach their "own stretch of sand" (Cuisine about Tukurua beach May 2008).
This year we have developed a small swimming hole on the creek at our place. I feel a deep sense of satisfaction that we have provided joy and healthy fun for our neighbours, especially now that they can't go to the beach. Never in a million years do I want to join the growing band of land owners who deny children - or anyone - the right to play in the rivers and waters of Aoteoroa.
Melanie Walker
Reply from Bob Perriam, owner Golden Bay Holiday Park: The letter is misleading and contains mistruths. My managers tell me that these girls were extra abusive and it was at 7am. We have to provide security for our campers at this peak time. Do people want to see us close? We don't ban people from our property at all, but ask for some respect.
Notice of rating valuation by the TDC
"...dedicated to meeting and exceeding the needs of customers in specific markets"; so reads the Quotable Value Limited (QV) website https://www.qv.co.nz/.
The site features QV's latest estimate of what your house is worth. For the twelve months ended November 2008 they say New Zealand residential property values have dropped by an average of 6.8%. Nelson region values fell an average of 6.2%.
When my latest QV valuation arrived it said my house has increased in value by 3.1%. I thought about objecting again but my last objection was met by QV explaining that they are right and I am wrong, so there seems little point.
QV is an immensely successful venture, posting a thirty-fold increase in net profit over the last four years. QV appears to be run by Wellington-based bureaucrats for the benefit of local council bureaucrats; a self-serving bureaucratic monopoly with the apparent aim of increasing rates now and forever more.
QV's "specific market" of legalised extortion is inflation-proof, immune from the global financial crisis and is even immune from our falling property values. Well done, QV, and congratulations TDC bureaucrats who will reap the benefits of the higher rates we will now have to pay.
Bruce Collings
Reply from Hugh Fitzgibbon, senior valuer, QV Rating, Richmond: Mr Collings is quite correct in that residential property values have declined in the Tasman District by 6.2% in the last year. The latest revaluation that QV has done however covers the period from 2005 to 2008, not just one year. From late 2005 to late 2007, the district saw significant increases to value, before the fall we have seen in the last year. So therefore Mr Collings' property value has been increased from the previous value which was as at 2005 market levels.
Valuers that completed the revaluation are located in QV's Richmond office, with some assistance from Christchurch valuers. This office is staffed by experienced valuers who live in the area and have extensive knowledge of local property market conditions.
QV is contracted to provide the Tasman District Council with valuation information which is used by the council as part of the process to allocate rates. QV is a totally independent contractor to provide rating valuations only, and therefore has no expertise or role in the setting of the level of rates.
Reply from Murray Staite, TDC corporate services manager: Your correspondence misunderstands the situation. Each year councils prepare budgets to provide services for the community. The costs of providing those services are then covered by a combination of fees, subsidies, targeted rates and general rates.
The general rate component is spread over properties in proportion to the capital value of their properties. Council uses QV values to independently establish the capital value of an individual's property.
The district is revalued every three years and those properties that go up higher than the average district-wide increase pay a bigger proportion of the rate income required, those properties that increase in line with the average pay the same proportion, and finally those properties whose increase is less than the average pay a lesser proportion.
QV values have nothing to do with the amount that councils decide has to come from ratepayers as a whole. That amount is decided by the budgets, and those budgets are put out for public scrutiny every year.
Submissions from the public on what should or should not go in those budgets, are welcome at that time. The next draft budgets will be published about mid-March.
The 6.8% decline for NZ and the 6.2% decline for Nelson mentioned by your correspondent relate only to the last 12 months. The values used for rating purposes are those established by QV at 1 September 2008. The new valuations established by QV actually reflect an average overall increase over three years of 13% in Tasman. As your correspondent's property has apparently only increased by 3.2% it has actually has gone against the overall trend and has declined in value relative to everyone else.
It is therefore likely that his share of rates will go down. However this means that someone else, whose property has increased relative to everyone else, will be likely to pay more."
