Good on you David but proper funding is better
Ian Griffin (Opinion ODT 4.2.26) eloquently laments the need for David Hutchinson, chairman of the museum’s trust board, to swim the Cook Strait as a fundraiser for the museum’s sprinklers.
Good on David for his commitment. Tūhura Otago Museum absolutely deserves government and public support.
Tūhura Otago Museum is one of Otago’s outstanding cultural institutions. Its magnificent collections tell stories of the people and places of Otago and beyond.
The museum showcases Otago’s unique geology, flora, fauna — past and present — making a visit to the museum essential for international visitors. My overseas guests have been unanimously impressed.
Feedback from the hundreds of thousands of visitors who participate in programmes, explore galleries or attend exhibitions or special events is overwhelmingly positive.
The Friends of Tūhura Otago Museum welcome anyone who wants to support the museum.
[Emerita Professor Nancy Longnecker is the president of the Association of Friends of Otago Museum and serves on the Otago Museum Trust Board. Editor.]
Salvation is at hand
Vice-Chancellor Grant Robertson has expressed his view in his opinion piece (ODT 30.1.26) that universities aren’t being funded enough from the public purse.
I am more than prepared to assist Mr Robertson in solving the financial issues and it will hardly cost him the proverbial bean.
The role of universities is quite simple. To teach students, to conduct appropriate research and to provide community engagement. Any business will return a profit when its income exceeds its expenditure.
While I fully realise that the University of Otago has more than its fair share of ex Labour party politicians in positions of power and influence within the management of the institution and as a consequence the ideological position may be to spend more without measuring effectiveness and make up deficits by taxing more or borrowing, I am offering to conduct a thorough review of all expenditure department by department for a flat fee of $1000 per day. Might take up to a month.
That review would identify wastes of expenditure such as pointless research, travel to attend meetings with no results other than the chance to attend sporting events, positions established to satisfy ideology and excessive bureaucracy.
It’s a bargain and I eagerly anticipate being contacted in the next few days.
Local legends
I was delighted to read Te Rūnanga o Moeraki upoko David Higgin’s telling of the cherished Te Araiteuru legend and the Moeraki boulders in The Weekend Mix (ODT 31.1.26).
My research around this tradition reveals it is connected with the mokai (taniwha) named Araiteuru that accompanied Kupe’s voyage to New Zealand. This Araiteuru was given as a place-name to what is now South Head of Hokianga harbour, while the Koutu concretions further up the same harbour no doubt recalls the Moeraki boulders themselves.
I believe the Araiteuru legend was first planted on the North Otago landscape by the Rapuwai people, who were from the original Ngāpuhi peoples in Northland. Forming a substratum, other tribes in Otago added to the Araiteuru story over the ages.
This myth, and the one dealing with the doomed Takitimu waka in Southland, appeared to have served as mnemonic maps for our Māori forbears to navigate and traverse these vast lands.
Walks a fitting legacy of a southern pioneer
I am glad that William Cargill’s walkway to Tunnel Beach has been restored and rates as one of the most popular walkways in New Zealand. Will the Cargill’s Castle Charitable Trust make a clifftop walk from Tunnel Beach to the ruins of Cargill’s Castle? I think William Cargill is a proud name for the South, being a city founder of both Dunedin and Invercargill. It would be fitting to remind people of his old pathways.
Heritage rep in danger
Thank you Lois Galer (ODT 29.1.26) for continuing the fight against those who are destroying our heritage.
It seems that those in power have no sense of the importance of our city’s history or apparently no ability to help protect it.
When 284 Stuart St is plucked from its appropriate site it will be replaced with something that just won’t fit.
Shame. Like all houses that are demolished it’s not just the loss of an historic home but a tooth pulled from the culture of the area. In other countries this destruction of heritage would not be considered because it would be seen to be idiotic.
Change is a constant; it’s coming again
For over 50 years our Central Otago Lake District landscape has been changing.
Our beautiful wild Cromwell Gorge became a lake providing electricity for the country. Sheep and beef farms, replaced with vineyards. Large irrigation pivots for dairy farms. Back country areas planted in pine trees.
The drive approaching Wānaka no longer provides a mountain vista as boundary plantings on lifestyle blocks cancel the view.
Instead of open areas surrounding our lakes there are houses, solar farms in Maniototo , bike trails around what were pristine rock faces.
The family holiday feel of our area diminishes as cribs are knocked down and large houses built. Change happens, and in most cases provides benefits through employment and revenue. In this case it will pay wages well above the current rate and on a full time basis, not seasonal. It will also provide revenue for services for us and our country.
Why try to sabotage an opportunity for our young for well paid employment? Will the lure of higher permanent pay pull workers away from their ventures?
Why distort facts regarding the safeguards in place for a well regulated mining industry, and forget the spraying of chemicals used in viticulture and horticulture and contribution of tourism to carbon depletion in our atmosphere?
The locals of this region have seen our landscape change over the decades. We have not protested about these changes as they have been progressive and provide diversity and employment.
Why then are people (many new to the area) protesting now? I hope their protests are not self-regarding nor reactionary, but motivated by genuine concern for the success of our people and Central Otago and the Lakes District.
Address Letters to the Editor to: Otago Daily Times, PO Box 517, 52-56 Lower Stuart St, Dunedin. Email: letters@odt.co.nz
