Reading the accounts of the 49 cows which died on Motutapu Island, the cause of the deaths and subsequent burial has raised yet another problem.

The cows died after eating fruit from sycamore trees and were buried in a hole dug by the farmer. The farmer consulted a map showing protected sites, and as none were shown where he dug the hole, what is the problem?

In the Hawke's Bay a winery built a track on their land after gaining consent from the relevant councils and they are now being persecuted for their actions.

It would appear as if both incidents were carried out legally and in a ‘normal' society would be praised and everybody would get on with their lives.

But no, not in New Zealand. A group of Maori can raise merry hell about a rubbish tip, which may or may not have been used by ancestors, and another group can demand a track be wiped out because of some superstition.

In the past we have had major roads held up because of taniwha, and we have given a river and a mountain the status of a human. I really cannot see where we are going with all this rubbish.

P Burrell, Katikati (Abridged)