Letters: We, the citizens, pay for NZ Post services
Postal closures
The postal administrators have presented the closure of 142 retail postal outlets without its full backdrop and context.
I am, in my work, dependent both on parcel post and letters. I have observed, in central Auckland, the virtual elimination of all full post offices since 2000. By my calculation, eight actual post offices have closed in downtown Auckland and its immediate suburbs.
There is now only one such office in this zone offering a full range of services. That is the Victoria St West office in Hardinge St.
The withdrawal of domestic letterbox deliveries in the same area is major. They have been cut by 50%, from six delivery days to three – which, in practice, often reduces to two such deliveries a week. I also have waited up to 16 days for a letter to reach me from Waiheke Island, and from Dunedin.
In this wind-down context, the closing of so many retail facilities in shops is the last straw. It can take me an hour to reach any services and it seems that any interest in providing a vital service is at an end.
Such services are ours. We, the citizens, pay for them through our taxes and through the ever-growing letter- and parcel-posting costs. The employees of the service are hard-working. The responsibility for this calculated running-down of the institution lies ultimately with the Government. I can only hope that any politicians forcing its further deterioration feel a backlash at the ballot box this year.
Denys Trussell, Eden Terrace.
NZ Post
I completely agree with Anne Martin of Helensville that these retail outlets are effectively doing what NZ Post should be doing. It is hardly rocket science. NZ Post keeps on increasing postage rates – the last increase was 30 cents from the previous rate – so of course the volume will drop massively.
It took a month for one Christmas card I posted to be delivered across to the next suburb; also a card posted from Papakura to Epsom took a month until I received it.
It’s like “spot the post office” these days. The increases in years past were nothing like these days.
As for Christmas stamps, they don’t resemble anything close to the Nativity scene – the whole reason for that season in the Church calendar.
One should expect to go into any bookstore – whether a chain or independent – and purchase stamps, either individually or a book of stamps, and stamp booklets in supermarkets (including online purchases).
If one was to mark NZ Post, it would be a big fat F for fail.
Katherine Scott, Epsom.
Auckland Airport
The multibillion-dollar infrastructure upgrade of Auckland Airport reported in the Herald will undoubtedly benefit future passengers.
In the meantime, at the cost of a few thousand dollars perhaps, someone should slap up a temporary cover for the 100 or so uncovered metres from the main passenger drop-off area to the international terminal.
Last Sunday, it was raining and our overseas visitors got wet just before flying out. This is perhaps not the optimal last impression we wish our foreign visitors to experience of New Zealand.
Joe Como, St Marys Bay.
Flooded homes
Would it not make good sense to build or rebuild homes in flood-prone areas on concrete-block basements? A reasonably inexpensive cost during construction.
Maybe this would result in some flooded basements but there would be no damage to the homes on top, and it would be a reasonably simple job to clean out the basement.
Bob Wichman, Botany.
Brian Tamaki
How can the actions and words of a man who creates a business promoting Christianity, then appoints himself an apostle who advocates hatred and violence, be reconciled with Christian values? I am sure if the major supermarkets presented themselves in the press as charitable foodbanks, they would be prosecuted.
Graeme Mackay, Kerikeri.
Epstein files
The mere release of the Epstein files does not bring a closure to this sordid affair. If this flawed process was to be followed, there would remain doubts over the integrity and completeness of the action.
For even if the release could be considered “complete”, it can be no substitute for a full and complete official inquiry, conducted by incorruptible federal law enforcement authorities.
A considered and comprehensive process is the only way that public scepticism can be allayed over this tawdry and disgraceful matter.
Larry Mitchell, Rothesay Bay.