LETTERS & EMAILS

ATTENTION: BRODIE STUBBS - NATIONAL EREBUS MEMORIAL UPDATE My father was a passenger on the government owned Air New Zealand flight which crashed into Mt Erebus.

His name is Aubrey Conroy Brough. He was born in 1911 and spent the greater part of his life living and working in the King Country. He died at the young age of 68. He was a hard worker, sowing manure with a scoop and bin, shearing sheep, breaking in a hill country farm, ploughing fields with his draft horses named Juke and Tui. He had a love of the land and the native trees that grew on it.

I can’t bear to imagine what he would be thinking of your idea of erecting a concrete monument in a city rose garden park and putting at huge risk an ancient historic tree. My dad was one of nature’s gentlemen. He would be gutted to know that you are upsetting over 25,000 people who have signed a petition objecting to your chosen site and yet you continue on with your plan.

He wouldn’t want his name on it. He would be gutted to learn of the amount of money you have spent so far on your chosen site - for nothing - at the New Zealand taxpayers’ expense. Over Aubrey’s working life-time he paid a huge amount of tax and after death he continued paying tax in the form of death duties. I, as an Erebus family member, feel very embarrassed and ashamed that you have wasted all that money.

I have questions:

1. What is the cost to date for the memorial? 2. Have the hard working New Zealand taxpayers ever been informed of this expense to them? 3. What has a city rose garden and city dwellers park got to do with a plane crash? 4. Do you not care about the historic legendary Pohutukawa tree that you are about to damage or possibly kill? 5. Do you think that precious tree deserves to have a huge ugly concrete thing stuck in front of it which is going to represent an unforgiving plane crash in the South Pole? 6. Have you ever considered another more suitable site for the Erebus Memorial where it will be wanted? 7. Don’t you think Motat would be a more suitable site? They would excel at telling the story and the tragedy is now historic and very suitable for a museum.

MARGARET BROUGH, Tauranga

P.S. Thank you for your invitation to the memorial service you have planned for the 43rd Erebus anniversary. I will not be attending. I have no desire to attend a memorial service to my late father at dawn at a marae in Auckland. What you are remembering is a plane crash which happened in the middle of the day on a mountain in Antarctica.

EREBUS MEMORIAL PARK WORKING GROUP A proposal for a dedicated Erebus Memorial Park for the National Erebus Memorial. SOALA WILSON Erebus Memorial Park Working Group www.emp.org.nz

SAGE TURNS BACK ON COMMUNITY I am a concerned constituent of the Waitematā Local Board area and appalled by the unprofessional conduct of Gen Sage, who the community voted in on the C&R ticket. The community voted for change this election, yet when I attended the inaugural Waitematā Local Board meeting, I was very concerned, shocked, and surprised by Sage’s self-serving conduct.

Sage “crossed the floor” to join City Vision, revealing that she had done a “deal” with City Vision to secure herself chairperson. The deal was, if she supported them in their attempt to have a City Vision person elected as deputy chair, they would support her to be chairperson; clearly her own team don’t think an ex-airline hostess has the important governance skills required to be chair.

Sage ran under a C&R banner and campaigned on C&R policy, promising to work for the people (constituents) of Waitematā and to provide good governance. Her actions show that she can’t be trusted.

At yesterday’s first business meeting of the board she favoured the City Vision team with portfolios the community wanted in the hands of quality C&R governors.

So, we go into another term of our local board being led by an incompetent chair who does not listen to community. Sage describes the previous chair as her “mentor”; let’s hope she doesn’t mess up as spectacularly as Northey did. JAMES BRYENTON

On 28 November 1979, 257 lives were lost at Mt Erebus. 40 years later, 25 memorials on, but still there’s no single memorial that encompasses all families.

The Prime Minister agreed, work was undertaken to create a national memorial, and Dove Myer Robinson Park was selected as a site by representatives of the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, but that site (Dove Myer Robinson Park) fails to meet the Erebus families’ wishes and has been rejected by large sections of the community due to a flawed process. An alternative site was recommended by the ministry’s experts and the Erebus Memorial Park Working Group proposes a dedicated site at Western Springs Precinct for the consideration of affected parties. · Blessing of affected whanau, and time for input into design elements such as water, plantings and trees. · Landowner approval - Auckland Council and The Museum of Transport and Technology. · Support from Ministry of Culture and Heritage.

Summary of the Opportunity Having a dedicated Erebus Memorial Park in the new Western Springs Precinct ensures that remembrance of the Erebus tragedy is assured in perpetuity through a living memorial associated with the museum and New Zealand aviation history.

School groups and families will be able to visit and learn. There are 1.2 million museum visitors annually (1.5 million visitors to Western Springs Precinct annually) and for the Erebus families – Western Springs would provide a dedicated Erebus Memorial Park that meets their criteria.

A new park and destination for Auckland would result in an educational ‘facility’ adjacent to the museum which could share the full story as part of the Social Sciences curriculum Year 1 - 13.

It would provide opportunities for a permanent exhibition that also would enable families to tell their stories through pictures, video and professional support and be a solution which ensures the time and money spent to date is put to good use. The location adjacent to the Museum of Transport and Technology will deliver benefits to Erebus Memorial Park including passive safety (more people around) and security associated with the museum (cameras, night guards). It is also adjacent Meola Reef Reserve Te Tokaroa.

The Museum of Transport and Technology is open to exploring the opportunity with the Ministry, Auckland Council and Waitematā Local Board.