Poll tax

Native logging

Teachers on strike

Teachers walked off the job yesterday to ask for a pay rise and better resources. They marched all over the country with signs such as:
This wouldn't happen at Hogwarts
Can you read? You're welcome
Don't make me use my teacher's voice

The local strike started at the town square went down to Damian O'connor's office and back.
Teachers want more support, better conditions, more staff and better resources.

Teachers are thinking about a second 2-day strike. I think it is a good idea because some teachers are tasked to control 40 students a day. Teachers also have to pay for resources out of their own pocket.

Vietnam War

Chess

Yesterday I went to a chess tournament, it was heaps of fun and I won three games and got four points. My friend Griffin from St Pats got first and a kid from our school got second. Our school won the junior, rookie and intermediate sections. As a prize our school has qualified to go to the national championships in Auckland. Sadly I didn't get picked to go but I did get two badges, one for winning in four moves and one for winning in twelve seconds.

I also participated in a competition to see who could build the tallest tower. I started off by myself and stacked the pieces up to sixty centimetres but then Toby, the kid who got third, came along and we made one sixty-four centimetres tall! I let Toby have the badge because he's a better player than me.

In my second game, I was really nervous because my opponent had a rating of five hundred and my rating was negative two hundred. Luckily I won but it was quite stressful. It was an awesome tournament and I'd love to take part again.

Ban mining on conservation land

It is vital to our existence that we ban mining.
The mining ban isn’t that bad because of these following reasons.

About 50,000 people said we should ban it. Have 50,000 said no to the ban.
Some people have said no but nowhere near that amount.

They are destroying the habitats of native animals and killing the bush,
so something needs to be done.

Its conservation land the conservationists can choose what to do with it.

There will be public input on the specifications of the law so there may be some loopholes.

You can still mine just not on conservation land where some mining takes place but not all of them.

It won’t affect many people as most mines are not on conservation land.

No NEW mines so you can continue mining on the ones already established.

Trees produce oxygen which we breathe,
and mining destroys trees so to sustain life in this country we need to ban mining.

If we ban mining we can still export coal from other countries that do commercial mining.

Banning mining will result in tourism rocketing, as there will be so many more sights to see in NZ.
Instead of spending money on mining,
we can focus our attention on preserving New Zealand’s stunning natural wonders.
(The seven plus natural wonders of New Zealand)

Because of the above reasons you can tell that without a doubt,
mining needs to be banned from New Zealand if we want to keep our country beautiful.

Debate reflection for term two.