Opinion

Kata: Monitor vapers

Kata: Water free allocation

Kata: Warm up beat

Pet Talk: Recognising pain in pets and livestock

Pain in animals, whether pets like cats and dogs or livestock, can be challenging to identify, writes Dr Rose Hasegawa, medical director Te Are Manu Vet Clinic.

Kata: Water petition

Michael Tavioni: Why are you trying to put a tax on water?

I feel the need to continue addressing the issue of government charging tax on water, especially on the local people and the food producers of Rarotonga, writes Michael Tavioni BEM.

Ruta Mave: Is banning vapes and raising smoking age enough?

Is the imminent total ban on vaping for locals in the Cook Islands on the first of August a little like our health ministry jumping out of the pot and into the fire? Ruta Mave writes.

Kata: Seafloor

Kata: NCD

Thomas Wynne: The hidden scars of our community

Just over 30 per cent of all those who identified as Pacific islanders to the Royal Commission into Abuse in State Care in Aotearoa identified as Cook Islanders, writes Thomas Tarurongo Wynne.

Letter: ‘Holes’ in water tariff report

Dear Editor, Regarding proposed water tariffs: the subject of Ruta Mave’s article (15 July); and the subsequent response from the Cook Islands Tourism Industry Council (Letters, 19 July).

Kata: Cannabis

Letter: Mistreatment of cattle

For years I’ve been concerned about the mistreatment of cattle kept around the town end of the runway. A lot of them are kept in areas where there is no grass but mimosa pudica plants that are toxic to cattle.

Letter: Shipping company’s ‘reckless’ record

Dear Editor, I am shocked by the continued dangerous operations of Taio Shipping.

Letter: Election gimmick or real progress?

Dear Editor, The Sovereign Wealth Fund meetings by Government is a real farce. There is no harvesting, no transportation of minerals to markets, no pricing, no sales, nothing!

Letter: Toa trees

You have reported that construction company T&M Heather Ltd appears to admit to an ‘offence’ under the Environment Act 2003 by cutting mature trees on the foreshore at Tikioki, not only without consent, but after being told by National Environment Service (NES) that the cutting was not allowed. Perhaps a legal type can correct the writer, but is ‘offence’ just a nicer word, at law, for ‘crime’?

Letter: The ‘butchering’ of Toa trees

Dear Editor, Kia Orana. Reading about the major destruction of Toa trees in the Akapuao/Fruits of Raro area, and NES’ comments in the Cook Islands News (20 July, 2024).