Today's Letters to the Editor from readers cover topics including mining, challenging opinions and studying the Akatore Fault.
Scaremongering and ill-informed comments
Gail Duncan (Opinion ODT 8.5.26), on a fleeting visit to the area claims that the proposed Bendigo-Ophir gold mine will mar the landscape of Cromwell, Tarras and the Dunstan Ranges and turn this into rubble; that it will impact the power plants and industries dependent on the Clutha River; that it will affect coastal systems and marine life; and will cause ‘‘guaranteed destruction’’, not just locally but ‘‘across the entire Otago Region’’.
This type of patently wrong, uninformed scaremongering does nothing to contribute towards a rational and logical discussion regarding Santana’s proposal.
Additionally David King (ODT 8.5.26) states that: ‘‘all of this gives weight to Ka Runaka’s objection about lack of serious engagement under mandatory Te Tiri obligations.’’
The land acquired by Santana for its proposed gold mining operations is all in private ownership, meaning obligations for engagement with Ka Runaka are not mandatory. Any engagement that Santana has carried out has been done in good faith.
Mr King also asserts that this application ‘‘has blundered ahead as a slam dunk, without consideration to community or environment.’’
This statement flies in the face of Santana’s proposal to avoid, remedy and mitigate against adverse environmental effects and its expansive consultation with the community and relevant organisations.
John Milburn
Wanaka
Wine tasting notes
A glass of Central Otago’s finest arrives with its usual flourish: notes of rose hips, thyme, and stone fruit all jostling for attention - each an exotic interloper now thoroughly at home in the much-lauded pristine Central Otago landscape.
A faint sigh of freshly mown hay drifts through as if to reassure us that even the weeds are curated.
There is, we are told, minerality hinting at some noble geological backstory beneath the vines. One also searches for the grape, another well-heeled exotic player amid this discordant botanical cast, and eventually finds it, quietly compliant.
The finish lingers, reflective, faintly smug. Then the finale, an almost imperceptible but pure note, metallic and persistent from one of the few local players discernible amongst this cacophony of imposters now residing in our celebrated Outstanding Natural Landscape.
Ah... yes, that would be the hero, none other than the native arsenic comfortably residing in the highly manicured vineyard soils as it has for millions of years.
Still, no cause for alarm, the alcohol carefully coaxed from the grapes with celebrated diligence, will almost certainly get to you first.
Steve Munro
Dunedin
Challenging stuff
Myself, and some of my friends have concluded that the opinion pieces by Maori radical Metiria Stanton Turei are beyond criticism and cannot be challenged in the same robust and divisive manner they are written.
Stanton Turei should be strongly challenged in her views. With Stanton Turei and others like her allowed a free rein to publicise their uncontested divisive views we are never going to have racial harmony in this country.
The ODT would be better if they acted like an unbiased referee, instead of the number one supporter of a racially divisive agitator.
Dave Tackney
Fairfield
[Since January 2025 the ODT has published more than a dozen letters critical of Mrs Stanton Turei and her columns. Five of those were written by Mr Tackney. The ODT declines publication of letters on a number of grounds, including length, coherence, relevance, accuracy, legality, and potential to cause offence. We may also edit letters on any of those, or other, grounds, as this one has been. Ed]
Quake zone increase based on sound science
I have just achieved my tenth year as the inaugural Chair of Earthquake Science at University of Otago.
This was a position designed to provide local capability in the South following the devastating Canterbury earthquakes.
Like Canterbury, Dunedin is a seismically quiet area that will one day experience a major earthquake sequence.
My group has now studied no less than 10 Otago faults, including Otago’s most active, the Akatore Fault. The Akatore lies within 15km of downtown Dunedin, and has produced two major (magnitude >7) earthquakes in the last 1000 years.
The increase of East Otago’s seismic zonation from low to medium is a welcome step forward for earthquake preparedness.
I have since heard misinformed criticisms of my work, and “it’ll never happen” rhetoric, but regardless I ask you to have confidence that everything is based on best practice science, and lives will ultimately be saved in the future.
Prof Mark Stirling
Dunedin
Address Letters to the Editor to: Otago Daily Times, PO Box 517, 52-56 Lower Stuart St, Dunedin. Email: letters@odt.co.nz
