Raetihi garden man appreciated

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 6, Issue 315, 28 November 1989, Page 4

Raetihi garden man appreciated

As community voluntary groups, the Community Advice Service and the local branch of the Federation of Family Budget Service would like to acknowledge the contribution Craig Ryland has made for the town of Raetihi and latterly the Waimarino district, in his capacity as Borough Foreman, Urban Overseer and then Reserves and Services Overseer. Firstly, the Raetihi Borough was very fortunate to have Craig's

services. We in Raetihi are now benefiting from the beauty of the gardens planted and the general tidiness of the town in the past four years or so. Craig's job has been no mean feat to achieve in this district of knockers. We wish Craig and Leigh the best of good fortune when they settle in Australia. ■ Our loss is someone's gain.

C.A.S & Budget Service Raetihi

Answers please The article by Donna McGrath published in this week's (21 November) issue of the "Bulletin" regarding the resignation of Mr Ryland from his post with the Ruapehu District Council will no doubt be of some concern to ratepayers in this area, and I for one would like to know the reason why the District Community Enterprises Manager Mr John Murrihy could not be contacted by "Bulletin staff". Some of the allegations made by Mr Ryland in that article certainly call for some explanation, and if indeed these allegations are that founded on fact the "unavailable for comment" approach will do nothing to a overcome the concern of the ratepayers. Come on John, what

about some answers please?

Bea M

Barnes

We are confident that Mr Murrihy was genuinely unavailable when we tried to reach him for comment on this issue. We had only Monday morning and early afternoon to contact him for comment and he was tied up with meetings the whole day. Please see our front page for "some answers" from General manager Cliff Houston. Editor Community service May 1 ask of Tasman Safety Ltd of Hawera, now trading in Raetihi, if they intend to make, as the Raetihi Retailers do, the usual donations to such organisations as the Raetihi School, the Children's Christmas Party Fund, Raetihi Swimming Club, Raetihi Squash Club,

Raetihi Business Assn, etc. I certainly hope that they do and that they don't just drain Raetihi money and leave town. If such donations are made or are forthcoming I would like to congratulate and thank the company and wish them well in our town. Also Sir, regarding the sudden sad resignation of Craig Ryland and Mr Chandler, one must wonder why this was ever allowed to be. Surely the great work in the Ruapehu area done by Craig and his workers (and I know for a fact many hours of unpaid work) have not gone unnoticed. They are great workers who will be extremely hard to replace. Maybe someone of authority could look to an early retirement themselves.

RA.

Scarrow

Editor's note: By way of explaination, Tasman Safety Ltd set up shop for a day in Raetihi recently, selling such ordinary goods as clothing and footwear, then closed up and moved on. Shop days I note that the Ruapehu District Council is running an adver- _ tisement — c al ling — for community organisations and clubs who wish to hold shop days and/or street appeals during 1990 are requested to submit a schedule of proposed dates for approval to Council. What a load of rubbish and a waste of ratepayers' money paying for such a stupid

advertisement. If the new council is going to spend our ratepayers' money on advertisements like this goodness knows what the rate rise will be. Community organisations and clubs who run shop days only do so when they are desperately in need of funds and there is no way they can anticipate whether they will need to run a shop day until the times comes. These organisations do not go to the public lightly for funds, but only when absolutely necessary. Surely it is more sensible for organisations to apply in writing when and if they find they are in need of funds. Council can then grant permission to do so providing it does not clash with other shop days. If it does then permission will be refused and another date should be chosen. Organisations should of course give several weeks notice to council as no doubt permission will have to be given by a committee if not by full council. This is the way that our previous council worked and I know it worked very well. I am on the Crippled Children's committee and we do have one big shop day a year but there is no particular date set for it. The date is decided that will be most convenient for this hard working committee, who all have many other commitments as well. We also have a street col-

lection once a year but as this is nationwide the date is set by the New Zealand Crippled Children's Association and we have no control over that date. I intend to write to council asking that the community organisations and clubs be allowed to apply in writing for a date suitable to them if and when they find that they require funds. These organisations are run by caring people in the community for the community and cannot be tied down like a business venture as the council seems to think they should. Council should be very pleased that there are so many caring volunteers in our communities who are very willing to give their time and effort in this fund raising and not try to bog them down with red tape.

Faith

Wise

Raetihi Manawaru 90th Jubilee Through the columns of your newspaper we are trying to contact former residents and past pupils to inform them that the 90th Jubilee of the Manawaru School and District will be held next year. The Reunion will be held on 30 & 31 March and 1 April 1990. For further information please contact Norma Koch, School Road R D 1 Te Aroha, phone Manawaru 678 or Pam Oliver, Manawaru Road R D 1 Te Aroha, phone Manawaru 706.

K W

Saunders

PUBLICYTY OFFICER