Your correspondent L Kemara wrongfully assumes I know little about the East Coast and I do not know my own local history. Facts are l lived on the Coast for sixteen years and taught school there for several years. There is scarcely a road from the Mata to the Oweka I have not travelled. Anyone who knows the area well also knows that over the last twenty five years the East Coast townships have become a ragged skeleton of former days. Pakeha farmers mostly have sold to the forestry companies and left the area.
The amount of Maori land planted in forestry is infinitesimal in comparison to the total number of acres owned. Only a couple of years ago Dr Api Mahuika Ngati Porou Treaty Negotiator was advocating selling their manuka and gorse for Carbon Credits. One manuka oil plant and a couple of camping grounds is meagre considering the vast area the East Coast covers.
As the area is very isolated and long distances have to be travelled by most to get to doctors schools hospital and get shopping done one wonders how the locals would manage if world oil supplies were suddenly cut. Perhaps a pristine coastline might not seem so important if they had to revert to riding horses long distances again and in particular in bad weather.
(abridged)
Margaret Hills, Tauranga.