http://www.baybuzz.co.nz/archives/1176 What's new, funny, perplexing in Hawke's Bay Sat, 31 Jul 2010 00:41:02 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 http://www.baybuzz.co.nz/archives/1176/comment-page-1#comment-4870 Duncan Lennox Wed, 01 Oct 2008 21:36:30 +0000 http://www.baybuzz.co.nz/archives/1176#comment-4870 "God works in mysterious ways" could be an apt thought in regard to the current situation with the sports arena. A sports arena built and maintained by council, even with some support from very generous people like Sam Kelt, will always be an unecessary burden to the ratepayers. It is a nice, well-intentioned idea but is not an appropriate thing to have us all pay lots of money for over decades to come. It is ironic that it is the land preservation folk who are an obstacle to "progress" of the project. Are they not largely the same kind people who put a stop to residential development between Hastings and Havelock North? Wasn't the Flamere area used instead because it was considered to be rubbish land? Of course it has since turned out to be superb land for viticulture and it is rather easy for undesirable things to wash through the shingle into the aquifer. It is probably true that all types of land are good for something important at some stage. While we know that our beautiful alluvial soil is very fertile and excellent for growing things like apples, the problem is that currently and for the foreseeable future nobody much wants our fruit. The siutation is similar to our former mutton trade. Times and markets change. If we waited for what might possibly happen in the future, nothing would get done and we could all end up in grass huts with dirt floors. I've lived in Papua New Guinea where that was how things were. They have moved on and have no desire ot go back to the way things used to be. Neither should we. “God works in mysterious ways” could be an apt thought in regard to the current situation with the sports arena. A sports arena built and maintained by council, even with some support from very generous people like Sam Kelt, will always be an unecessary burden to the ratepayers. It is a nice, well-intentioned idea but is not an appropriate thing to have us all pay lots of money for over decades to come. It is ironic that it is the land preservation folk who are an obstacle to “progress” of the project. Are they not largely the same kind people who put a stop to residential development between Hastings and Havelock North? Wasn’t the Flamere area used instead because it was considered to be rubbish land? Of course it has since turned out to be superb land for viticulture and it is rather easy for undesirable things to wash through the shingle into the aquifer. It is probably true that all types of land are good for something important at some stage. While we know that our beautiful alluvial soil is very fertile and excellent for growing things like apples, the problem is that currently and for the foreseeable future nobody much wants our fruit. The siutation is similar to our former mutton trade. Times and markets change. If we waited for what might possibly happen in the future, nothing would get done and we could all end up in grass huts with dirt floors. I’ve lived in Papua New Guinea where that was how things were. They have moved on and have no desire ot go back to the way things used to be. Neither should we.

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