Maritime NZ takes all incidents of this nature very seriously, and where appropriate, investigates them. This means if people have information they believe may be relevant to our investigation, we urge them to get in touch with us. As a safety regulator, we understand the risks inherent in commercial vessel operations and the importance of requirements such as maintaining a proper lookout at all times. This is something we continue to promote through our education and regulatory roles.
Steve van der Splinter Manager Maritime Investigations, Maritime New Zealand
ENGLISH GRAMMAR Dear Sir
I always open your pages with trepidation, especially after churning out letters and articles in a hurry before going overseas. Reactions at what appear in print range from, "Did I write that?" through, "I hope no-one notices," to "What a relief!" As a defender of the English language (family and few remaining friends prefer the label "pedantic nitpicker"), I attack errors, but when I make a mistake, the vultures gather. Even now, I can see Mike Sullivan dipping his pen in vitriol. This time, all three contributions to the July/August issue ended with gremlin-generated clangers. Although it sounds wrong, my original sentence on the next chief executive officer of the New Zealand Federation of Commercial Fishermen was written, correctly, " ... as to whom the next … will be."
The final sentence of the Turgid Prose letter is missing a few words which would have made it read correctly. The last anecdote in my conference comment letter read "an eroticism". I actually wrote "a roticism". This term denotes the inability to pwonounce the letter "r" cowwectly. Apply this to the letter, and the reason for the laughter will become clear.
R Lea Clough, Ohoka
My dear friend, I too shake with trepidation after each issue in fear of what we may have done wrong to your copy. This time I will not be taking all the blame, although the responsibility rests with me. I have issued clear instructions to our team not to play with your copy and for some reason it happened. However, before I growl, in fairness to our team I will ask them to respond to you, as they may well be able to offer a justified explanation. In the meantime, I am indeed sorry my instructions have not been followed, as your grasp of the English language far exceeds that of a mere sailor such as I, or as it would now appear, even those who are trained in journalism. Ed…
Dear Sir
I read Lea Clough's letter in the July/August issue and felt it was rather unfair to single out Phil Heatley for his lack of English grammar. Phil has lots of faults of his own, but pronunciation, failure to recognise the subjunctive and a lack of grammar is a more general problem.
I am sure Mr Clough, like myself, came from an era when nouns, verbs, subjects, objects, pronouns, participles and the like were taught at school. The subjunctive in English, unfortunately, is a little like the appendix in the human body – largely redundant in daily use and seldom recognised.
All our current generation of English teachers would of course know how to recognise one … if only that were true! Dave Wooff
VIP.S82
