Letters to the editor: Prisoners should work and earn their keep
18 May, 2021 09:00 PM
3 minutes to read
Rotorua Daily Post
I have just received a communication from Amnesty International asking for help - which I am happy to give. The organisation discusses the appalling conditions faced by many in the NZ prison system. I agree and have for a long time thought that just locking up miscreants and keeping them in cells for 23 hours a day is a silly waste of resources.
I preferred the American system of making them work.
Since there appears to be a marked reluctance among Kiwis to earn an honest crust - preferring, as they do, to help themselves to others crusts, and with the amount of work that needs doing - roads, railroad tracks that need widening, crops that need harvesting, why not have the prisoners work and earn their keep?
Report from RNZ by Robin Martin
After the indignity of being labelled a ‘zombie town,’ Whanganui is now experiencing a growth spurt that has seen it fall victim to that most metropolitan of scourges – traffic congestion.
And one pinch-point raises the heckles more than most – the more than 100-year-old Dublin Street Bridge. Opened to trams, vehicles and pedestrians in 1914, the historic two-lane steel bridge connects State Highways 3 and 4 via central Whanganui.
It cost $75,000, took two-and-a-half years to build and contains 1000 tonnes of steel, and 30 tonnes of rivets.
But controlled via roundabouts at each end, the Dublin Street bridge is struggling with the 5000 new residents Whanganui has attracted over the past few years.
Whanganui s Dublin St bridge causing bottlenecks . and headaches
10 May, 2021 08:29 PM
4 minutes to read
Traffic congestion at the Dublin Street bridge. Photo / Bevan Conley NZME
RNZ
By Robin Martin of RNZ
After the indignity of being labelled a zombie town Whanganui is now experiencing a growth spurt that has seen it fall victim to that most metropolitan of scourges - traffic congestion.
And one pinch-point raises the heckles more than most - the more than 100-year-old Dublin Street Bridge.
Opened to trams, vehicles and pedestrians in 1914 the historic two-lane steel bridge connects State Highways 3 and 4 via central Whanganui.
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It cost the princely sum of $75,000, took two and a half years to build and contains 1000 tonnes of steel, and 30 tonnes of rivets.