When I was a Member of the Waiheke Community Board there were from time to time meetings of the Community Forum, in which the views of leading Waihekeans were canvassed as part of the Board's statutory duty to consult with its community.
At one of those meetings a woman perfectly expressed what Matiatia is to the island. She said, 'My home doesn't start at my front door or my front gate. It starts at the wharf.'
Matiatia is the front door to our island, the front door to our island home, the front door to every home on the island.
But now a select few want to take a third of it for themselves, they want to possess it, they want to exlude everyone else from it. They want to change for ever the look and special quality of our front door. They want to turn a public place into a private space. They want to mutilate our frontage for personal gain.
If they came and demanded a third of my front porch for their own purposes and to enlarge their income I would tell them to get lost. Scram: this is mine, this is my front door, this is my home. The island and the Council should tell these greedy narrow-minded people to get lost, we should tell them and the specious
arguments by which they vindicate their cupidity to get lost, we should tell them to get lost so completely that they will never again chuck this foolish, selfish, ugly proposal at us.
(If they are to get a marina, let them have a little bit of our back yard at Kennedy Point. Not spread over a large part of our front porch.)
At one of those meetings a woman perfectly expressed what Matiatia is to the island. She said, 'My home doesn't start at my front door or my front gate. It starts at the wharf.'
Matiatia is the front door to our island, the front door to our island home, the front door to every home on the island.
But now a select few want to take a third of it for themselves, they want to possess it, they want to exlude everyone else from it. They want to change for ever the look and special quality of our front door. They want to turn a public place into a private space. They want to mutilate our frontage for personal gain.
If they came and demanded a third of my front porch for their own purposes and to enlarge their income I would tell them to get lost. Scram: this is mine, this is my front door, this is my home. The island and the Council should tell these greedy narrow-minded people to get lost, we should tell them and the specious
arguments by which they vindicate their cupidity to get lost, we should tell them to get lost so completely that they will never again chuck this foolish, selfish, ugly proposal at us.
(If they are to get a marina, let them have a little bit of our back yard at Kennedy Point. Not spread over a large part of our front porch.)
