PUTTING THE P INTO YOUR PAPER

What a year it's been for the letter P, writes the Waikato Times in an
editorial. It's played the leading role in one of the country's most ugly
drug sagas and now it's hit the headlines again.

P, of course, is the common name for pure methamphetamine, the drug that
has been linked to a string of the country's most heinous recent crimes.

Steve Williams, Coral-Ellen Burrow's stepfather, was high on the stuff when
he killed her. Antonie Dixon, the man facing charges over the horrific
Pipiroa sword attack on the Hauraki Plains where two women had their hands
lopped off with a samurai sword, was allegedly high on it. And P hit the
news again when young Hamilton driver Karl Tairi was convicted of the
driving manslaughter of his friend Nicholas Smith.

For your average, every day letter, P has had more than its share of
publicity. Not much of it good.

This week P is again in the limelight. Or should that be p. Letter writers
to the Waikato Times have worked themselves into a lather over the paper's
style for the word pakeha. Simply put, we prefer it with a lower case p.
That is because it is our contention the word does not describe a race or
tribe, but is instead an all-encompassing term meaning non-Maori. It is, in
our view, not the same as Russian, Fijian or Icelander.

Still, it has not stopped the ink flowing on the letters. It is amazing how
often it is the small things in life that provoke the strongest response.
The P (or p) debate has sparked a surprising amount of letters. There has
even been debate over whether pakeha derived from pakepakeha or
patupaiarehe. We don't know and we've seen nothing to make us change our
minds on our style. Besides, what else would Ngaruawahia's Peter Jamieson
and the prolific R E (Bob) Martin have to write about? (Gentlemen, cap your
pens, you've both had two goes on this subject, and that's all you'll be
allowed).

Perhaps it was a slow news week, but the other big issue that got traction
was beer, specifically the price of it at rugby games. The Chiefs had the
temerity to offer a free bottle of beer to punters who bought three at last
night's game with the Stormers.

Instead of $18 for four bottles, it came down to the "bargain" price of
$13.50 for four. The wowsers rose up in unison. It was encouraging boozing,
it would increase misbehaviour, lock up your women and children! Even Mayor
David Braithwaite was encouraged on radio to call for drinker moderation.

Hogwash. Beer prices have been a rip-off for sports fans in this country
for years. The "special" $13.50 price for four bottles of tainted beer in a
plastic bottle was still a rip-off and anyone who believed there would be
sozzled punters dropping around the stadium last night lives in la-la land.

See, what did we say about the smallest issues firing people up?

Still, if all we have to worry about in the Waikato is discount beer and
the letter P (or p), then life must be ticking along quite nicely.