Opinion

The inconvenient truth

Wednesday 28 July 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, Are flights always or ever convenient? We leave Detroit, Michigan at 7am to Chicago, wait one to five hours to LAX to wait up to eight hours to catch Air New Zealand to Rarotonga arriving at 6.30am. Some 36 hours after getting up in snowy Michigan. For several years we as Global Volunteers […]

Sad to see Wong publicly crucified

Wednesday 28 July 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, It is good to see Chris Wong’s name cleared with the conclusion of investigations and the announcement that no criminal charges will be laid against him. I have always known that this would be the outcome of the long saga he and his family have had to go through and I have seen […]

Kata - July 28, 2010

Wednesday 28 July 2010 | Published in Kata

Makea Takau penny stamps

Tuesday 27 July 2010 | Published in Smoke Signals

“Are there any keen stamp collectors in the islands?” asks a smoke signaller. “I have come across a Cook Islands full mint sheet of 60 stamps issued in 1893 picturing Queen Makea Takau. The face value is 1d blue. Goodness knows what the value might be! The stamps are mint unused in pretty good order […]

Time for change

Tuesday 27 July 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, Politicians are voted into government by the people, to help the people, to be a voice for the people of the land, but NOT voted in so they can line their pockets with the people’s funds. Conflict of interests, yes they should be ashamed of themselves. They should be forced to pay those […]

Ignorant and irresponsible

Tuesday 27 July 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, To the person that wrote ‘Thoughtless tourists not wanted’, I’m appalled by this careless attack on a visitor to our shores. Doug May was merely giving feedback from his experience and did not deserve such a rebuke. This isn’t a great way to welcome our Australian friends to our country, whether you’re an […]

Battle of the Henrys

Tuesday 27 July 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, I write in connection with a letter published by you recently written by Tupui Henry headed ‘The Good Ol’ Days’. In that letter he claimed that he challenged me in Cabinet in 1983 because I “stripped” him of his “normal” portfolios “of Internal Affairs, Justice Lands and survey and the Cook Islands Broadcasting […]

Why not crucify them?

Saturday 24 July 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, Mataauri Ruta begs us not to crucify father and son over the loans granted to two companies owned by the two MPs who created the scheme. May I ask why not? In September 2007 the fishing vessel Moana sank at sea after operating for five years without a General Safety Certificate. The principal […]

Mangaia was already civilised

Saturday 24 July 2010 | Published in Smoke Signals

“A point for clarification please,” writes a smoke signaller. “The history reference in yesterday’s smokies titled ‘Backstabbing never dies’ paints a skewed picture of the rest of ‘these fair islands’. Mangaia for instance does not share the same history of usurpers as Rarotonga does. She already had her own civilisation and system of governance before […]

Van collides with three-year-old

Saturday 24 July 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Police report that there have been three motor vehicle crashes this week. On Wednesday afternoon in Arorangi, a three-year-old child was hit by a van. The driver of the van alleges she was traveling at 35kph when the child darted onto the road. She said she applied the brakes but didn’t have enough time to […]

Kata - July 24, 2010

Saturday 24 July 2010 | Published in Kata

Muri eyed for sewerage test

Saturday 24 July 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

A meeting will be held next week with the community in Avana-Muri, which has been identified by the Cook Islands Marine Resources Institutional Strengthening (CIMRIS) report as the best site on the island to test run the upgrades of a new sewerage system. The aim of the system is to help improve lagoon water quality. […]

Another audit report bites the dust

Saturday 24 July 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, Another audit report bites the dust! Fantastic result regarding the Wong ‘investigation’. Pity our police couldn’t come with those conclusions themselves, even I could’ve come up with that without burdening the NZ taxpayer with another fantasy allegation by the Audit Office. So, much more important now is that Audit immediately takes over the […]

Wong replies

Friday 23 July 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, This letter is to ‘Gutless’ Concerned Taxpayer. If you are really concerned about where the Chris Wong saga case is going, why don’t you grow some balls and put your name to your letter to the editor? Are you so dumb as to not realise that I cannot appear in court without first […]

Backstabbing never dies

Friday 23 July 2010 | Published in Smoke Signals

A smoke signaller writes: “Poor Chris Vaile, the man can’t understand why liars, arsonists and conspirators are running for Parliament. Chris, you have to look a bit further back in history than the arrival of diesel oil to these fair islands, indeed you have to look back before the arrival of the white man. If […]

Kata - July 23, 2010

Friday 23 July 2010 | Published in Kata

Kata - July 22, 2010

Thursday 22 July 2010 | Published in Kata

Let's look for a solution

Thursday 22 July 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, Someone once said that “if you are able to state a problem it can be solved” and that’s just what the Minister of Finance did. For weeks he had been telling anyone who cares to listen about his difficult tasks of avoiding or minimising his budget deficit. Along came two “strayed” fishing boats […]

What have I done to deserve this?

Thursday 22 July 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, On the basis of allegations made by a convicted criminal, Junior Areai, I had the misfortune, in April 2008, to be charged in the Cook Islands longest running criminal trial. That man, Junior Areai was given immunity by the Crown so that he would give evidence against me – and lie even further. […]

Who else needed a loan?

Thursday 22 July 2010 | Published in Smoke Signals

In response to a letter to the editor yesterday from Business Trade Investment Board member Mataauri Ruta titled ‘Don’t crucify father and son’, a smoke signaller texts in some questions: “Is the writer asking the public to overlook and at the same time condone the collective actions of the Maoates? Big deal if they qualified […]