Me, myself, I

Joan Armatrading sang Me Myself I. Keeping Stock  used the three words together tongue in cheek to explain his use of we and us.

Both used the pronouns in tandem for a good reason and to good effect.

But why are so many people using myself by itself when they mean I or me, as a bloke on the radio just did?

Please correct me if I’m wrong, a little knowledge can induce you to state something as a fact when it’s not; but isn’t myself a reflexive pronoun not a subject or object one?

If I’m right, it may be used in sentences such as I did it myself or I washed myself. It isn’t interchangable with I or me in sentences such as X, Y and myself dagged 1000 ewes . . .  or those trees belong to myself.

You might say your good self  jokingly instead of you, but I don’t think you’d say X, Y and yourself dagged 1000 ewes  nor those trees belong to yourself.

Higher debt = less control

Fonterra shareholders weren’t keen on a public float of the cooperative because they didn’t want to lose control.

But if a business has a lot of debt, as Fonterra does,  it’s the banks not the shareholders who are in control.

Brian Gaynor says:

Those of us who were around in the 1980s are brutally aware that majority shareholders lose control when companies are highly leveraged and get themselves into trouble. In that situation the lenders take full control and shareholders have limited rights.

This is occurring with a number of companies at present, including PGG Wrightson.

Farmer resistance to outside capital could ultimately weaken their control because it forces Fonterra to borrow more and more and these lenders rank ahead of farmers, both in terms of their supplier and shareholder roles.

There is a strong argument that farmers would have more control of Fonterra if the co-operative issued new capital to outside shareholders, farmers continued to hold a clear majority of the shares and the new capital was used to repay debt.

If outside capital is used to repay debt then farmers are in a better position, particularly as far as their supplier role is concerned.

Cactus Kate also recognises the danger of too much debt:

Farmers are now likely to fund Fonterra’s restructuring after wide-spread rejection of an NZX listing.

We know what that effectively means. Something that was problematic in 1987 to New Zealanders – they will have to borrow more to buy shares.

The overseas banks will fund Fonterra’s restructuring.

She also suggests a solution:

Rather than limit the ownership of shareholding to farmers in New Zealand they could and should widen the issue to beneficiaries of family or trading trusts owning these farms. There must be thousands of such beneficiaries out there with spare cash earned in others sectors of the workforce to plug some of the gap.

That could effectively happen now if beneficiaries lent money to the farms. However, the shares wouldn’t be in the beneficiaries’ names and Kate thinks farmers might be too proud to ask for loans.

 So why not issue shares to the beneficiary instead of a loan? The beneficiary of the trust is related to the farm with an equitable interest in Fonterra, they are not entirely unrelated parties which would be saleable to farmers as there is no control interest lost or overseas take-over attempts possible.

The voting rights could remain with the farm to which the beneficiary is tied to, yet the equity be issued in the name of the beneficiary related. While it will not raise all the money required, surely reaching into the pockets of the wider Fonterra community is preferable to putting individual farms further at the mercy of overseas owned banks with more debt stresses?

She suggests that shares could also be issued to individuals who have an interest in dairy farms through corporate or collective ownership.

That could happen indirectly now if individuals lend to the farm but it would still be the supplier not the lender who owned the shares. Kate’s plan would allow the lenders who are already financially committed to farms to own shares as individuals.

Voting shares are tied to milk production so farmers would retain control but the catchment from which capital could be raised would be increased.

September 21 in history

On September 21:

1792 The National Convention declared France a republic and abolished the monarchy.

1756 Scottish engineer and road builder John McAdam was born.

1834 British troops were used in New Zealand for the first time when they rescued Betty Guard and her children who had been captured by maori after the wreck of the ship Harriet.

1866 English writer H.G. (Herbert George) Wells was born.

1874 English composer Gustav Holst was born.

1897 The Yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus letter was published in the New York Sun.

 

Francis Pharcellus Church, writer of the famous editorial.

 

1902 Allen Lane, founder of Penguin books, was born.

1931 US actor Larry Hagman was born.

1934 Canadian singer, songwriter Leonard Cohen was born.

1937 J.R.R. (John Ronald Reuel) Tolkien’s book The Hobbit was published.

Cover of the 1937 first edition.

1947 US writer Stephen King was born.

1950 US actor Bill Murray was born.

1957 Australian Prime Minsiter Kevin Rudd was born.

1964 Malta gained its independence.

                 

1968 US talk show host Ricki Lake was born.

1972  English singer Liam Gallagher was born.

1978 All Black Doug Howlett was born.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.

Silent protest

Bhig News and Nhot PC are making silent protests.

I suppose this blog could become Omepaddock in a gesture of solidarity but I’m more in sympathy with Monkeywith Typewriter who says it’s all in the head.

I also think Kerre Woodham  makes a good point when she says:

The “h” in Michael isn’t pronounced either, but it would look jolly funny spelled Micael.

Language is a fluid thing. Regardless of what is decided officially, time and use will be the ultimate arbiters of whether its Whanganui or Wanganui.

Besides, it’s an h of a thing to be getting het up about when there are so many more important things needing urgent attention.

Update: Scrubone has a poll Wanganui – lend me your H’s (in which a pedant might point out there’s a stray apostrophe).

Education priorities

Whether you’re an individual or a government, when your expenditure exceeds your income you’ve got to set priorities.

Education Minister Anne Tolley made it clear on Q&A this morning that her priority for the education budget is younger people.

Well 124 million dollars will still be spent in adult and community education. What I’ve said is we’re going to focus on literacy, numeracy, language, foundation skills – those courses that will lead on to employment. We’re still in an economic recession, there are people out there, particularly young people, who are the most vulnerable, they are the most likely to lose their jobs and the least ones likely to get jobs.

PAUL Yes, but night classes in schools of course as adults – migrants, refugees adults trying to improve their lot – the strugglers.

ANNE Some of them are, some of them are hobby courses courses like belly dancing, ukulele playing. We’ve got courses like pilates and yoga – I’ve attended those classes myself. The average age of people attending those night classes is about 46. What we’re saying I had a half billion debt from the previous government to find in tertiary education what we’re saying is we’re going to put those tax dollars into supporting our young people through the recession.

Tolley said that English language classes will remain and, pointed out what seems to escape many of the critics, that schools will still be able to offer other classes on a user pays basis.

She also countered the criticism about taking money from Adult Community Education while funding private schools.

Economically, private schools save the State system money. I’m looking at a small private school at the moment that’s probably going to close – wants to integrate – currently costs the State around $65,000 a year. If it integrates and comes into the State network it’s going to cost $380,000 a year which is an enormous difference.

That argument might not sway people who are ideologically opposed to private education and think they should be self-supporting. But if it costs the state less to keep them going than to bring them, or their pupils, into the state system it makes sense to take the least expensive option.

Playing tourists at home

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to give the partners of conference attendees a taste of North Otago, the caller told me.

It’s not often I get to play tourists at home so I was happy to accept the challenge to occupy 10 people for three hours. The difficulty wasn’t what to show them but what to leave out.

We started in Oamaru’s historic precinct where attractions include Lavish Soap,  the New Zealand Malt Whisky Company, and the Grainstore Gallery.

Donna Demente is one of the artists whose work is available in the gallery. She’d parked her car downstairs:

Our second stop was Parkside Garden a two acre testament to the creativity and energy of Linda Wilson and Bob Wilson, of Parkside Quarry where Oamaru stone comes from.

A 15 minute drive from the downlands to the Waitaki Valley took us to Riverstone Kitchen  .  Fortified by a sumptuous afternoon tea we then partook of a little retail therapy in the adjoining gift shop:

Sunrise, sunset

The sun rose here at about 6.30 this morning and it will set at about 6.30 this evening.

If you’re in East Cape sunrise and sunset are about half an hour earlier. If you’re in Bluff they’re about quarter of an hour later.

In the normal course of events next week sunrise in Bluff would be at 6.23am  and sunset at 6.52pm. In East Cape sunrise would be 5.45am and sunset 6.08pm. But wherever you are in New Zealand, next Sunday clocks will have gone forward which will make sunrise and sunset an hour later than it ought to be.

The benefits of daylight saving compensate for the disadvantages in the middle of summer when temperatures are warmer and days are longer anyway. But extending daylight saving so it lasts from the last weekend in September until the first Sunday in April is giving us so much of a good thing it becomes a bad thing.

Putting the clock forward this early makes it darker and colder for longer in the morning without giving enough extra heat and light in the evening to make much difference. People, especially those in primary production, who have to start work early are disadvantaged without there being enough gain for those who want to play in the evenings to compensate.

LINZ has sunrise and sunset times for Auckland, Bluff, Dunedin, East Cape, Gisborne and Lyttelton.

The Royal Astronomical Society has sunrise and sunset times for Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.

Grump warning: this is the first of what may be several annual complaints about the length of the period in which daylight saving time applies.

The youth of yesterday

Worried about the youth of today?

The Mazengarb report  was at least as worried about the youth of yesterday. The Special Committee on Moral Delinquency in Children and adolescents, chaired by Oswald Mazengarb released its report 55 years ago today:

The Mazengarb inquiry into ‘juvenile delinquency’ blamed the perceived promiscuity of the nation’s youth on the absence from home of working mothers, the easy availability of contraceptives, and on young women who enticed men into having sex.

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

September 20 in history

On September 20:

1519 Ferdinand Magellan set sail from Sanlúcar de Barrameda on a voyage to circumnavigate the globe.

1633 Galileo Galilei was tried by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for teaching the earth orbits the sun.

1946 The first Cannes Film Festival was held.

1954 New Zealand’s Special Committee on Moral Delinquency in Children and Adolescents released the Mazengarb report.

1957 Musician Alannah Currie was born.

1962 The RMS Queen Elizabeth II was launched.

1971 All Black Todd Blackadder was born.

1979 Lee Iacocca was elected president of the Chrysler Corporation.

Sourced from Wikipedia.

Saturday’s smiles

This seemed appropriate for Women’s Suffrage Day:

A couple had made a deal that if one died before the other he or she would come back to let the surviving partner know about the after life.

It was the woman who died first. A few weeks later she popped back to chat for a brief chat with her grieving husband.

She told him she was in heaven and everything there was great.

“What about God?” her husband asked.

“Ah yes, I’ve got a surprise for you,” the wife replied. She’s Maori.”

SFF needs a plan B

Silver Fern Farms is putting a positive spin on the decision to extend the deadline for farmers to take up its share exchange and cash issue offer.

The chairman of the meat co-operative, Eion Garden, said 37% of shares had been exchanged so far and “a significant number” of shareholders had taken up or exceeded their full cash issue entitlement.

The company had hoped to raise at least $80 million, but with a flood of applications arriving before yesterday’s deadline, more expected over the weekend and the clash with lambing, the deadline had been extended until October 9, Mr Garden said.

I don’t think lambing has anything to do with it. The company obviously didn’t get the support they hoped for. The Press  says the maximum that can be raised is $128m but so far only 12 million new shares at $1 each have been bought by farmer-suppliers.

 The extended deadline might pick up a bit more shahreholder support but it won’t deliver the amount the co-operative needs and the directors will have to look for a plan B.

It hasn’t been a good year for the company.

Alliance Group shareholders turned down the Meat Industry Action Group’s plan for a merger with SFF. PGG Wrightson couldn’t come up with the cash for the 50% buy in it had proposed; and the $10 million PGW shares SFF took as part of their compensation for that are worth little more than half that amount now.

The season ahead won’t be easy either.

Demand for lamb in export markets is firm which is holding prices up. But the strength of the demand is on the back of falling supply caused by drought in Australia and New Zealand and the large number of dairy conversions here.

Fewer sheep to kill exacerbates the over supply of killing space. SFF did some rationalisation last year but the industry as a whole still has excess capacity.

It has been a good season for lambing. The weather has been pretty mild and survival rates have been high. Spring grass growth has been good too but most of the east coast is very dry which will put pressure on feed and bring stock on to the market.

But farmers are spoiled for choice when it comes to meat companies and if they aren’t prepared to invest more in SFF it’s an indication they may well look elsewhere for killing space.

Doc not always access-friendly

One of the reasons cited for surrendering pastoral lease land to the crown is that the public will have better access than when it’s under private control.

However, that’s not always the case.

Friends went through tenure review. Part of the land that went back to the crown had been used for an annual mountain bike race. It had been run for years and the farmers had never charged the organisers.

Once the land came under Doc control the race organisers were charged for access which meant they then had to charge race participants more. The race then became too expensive for some people and the organisers were considering canning it.

Doc may well be acting in a fiscally responsible manner in trying to offset some of the costs of looking after the vast tracts of land which had been taken back under public control. As a taxpayer I don’t have a problem with that, but it does show that when it comes to access the theory that public ownership = good and private ownership = bad isn’t necessarily so.

Apropos of this, the ODT reports that film makers are complaining that filming on land administered by DOC is becoming increasingly fraught.

Filming on conservation land is becoming so difficult that some parts of The Lord of Rings movies would not be able to be filmed if they were being made today, Film New Zealand chairman Julian Grimmond says.

That film and others which showcase New Zealand’s stunning scenery are wonderful advertisements for the country which attract tourists. It would be a pity if access problems compromised this wonderful opportunity for free publicity.

Not all of land suitable for filming is under Doc control and film makers may be able to find alternative sites. But given the transient nature of filming you’d think it would be possible to allow access without compromising any conservation values or causing any serious conflicts of interests with other visitors.

Aaarr me hearties

Shiver me timbers, they’re all making a fuss about giving women the vote but  let’s not forget it’s also International Talk Like a Pirate Day.

10 reasons why women should have the vote

Over at In A Strange Land Deborah has a list of 10 reasons why the women of New Zealand should have the vote.

They came from a leaflet published by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and include:

4. Because women are less accessible than men to most of the debasing influences now brought to bear upon elections, and by doubling the number of electors to be dealt with, women would make bribery and corruption less effective, as well as more difficult.

5. Because in the quietude of home women are less liable than men to be swayed by mere party feeling, and are inclined to attach great value to uprightness and rectitude of life in a candidate.

6. Because the presence of women at the polling-booth would have a refining and purifying effect.

7. Because the votes of women would add weight and power to the more settled and responsible communities.

8. Because women are endowed with a more constant solicitude for the welfare of the rising generations, thus giving them a more far-reaching concern for something beyond the present moment.

9. Because the admitted physical weakness of women disposes them to exercise more habitual caution, and to feel a deeper interest in the constant preservation of peace, law, and order, and especially in the supremacy of right over might.

How could you argue with that?

Women’s Suffrage Day

We’ve come a long way since September 19, 1993 1893 when Governor Glasgow signed the Electoral Bill  giving women the right to vote.

                                                 

Another 20c for milk?

Agrifax has revised its forecast for Fonterra’s payout up 20 cents to $4.85 per kilo of milk solids.

It’s giving the credit to booming prices for casein and anhydrous milkfat which could offset lower milkpowder prices.

In case you were wondering, casein is a protein which is used in other foods as a binding agent. Anhydrous milkfat is made by removing almost all the moisture and nonfat solids from cream. It’s used in bakery, confectionery, ice cream, other consumer products and for recombination with skimmed milk powder to produce liquid milk and other milk products

September 19 in history

On September 19:

1893: New Zealand became the first self-governing country to grant women the right to vote.

1911 English author William Golding was born.

1933 Scottish actor David McCallum was born.

1941 US singer Mama Cass Eilliot was born.

1948 English actor Jeremy Irons was born.

1949 English model Twiggy was born.

1970 The first Glastonbury Festival was held.

1983 Saint Kitts and Nevis gained independence.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.

Three step process for Fonterra’s restructuring

Fonterra has announced a three step capital restructuring process:

 1. Strengthening the Share Structure. Farmers would be allowed to hold shares up to 120% of their milk production (for most farmers, the current limit is closer to 100%) and there would be enhanced incentives for them to hold shares even if their production falls. The rules about the pricing of end of season share transactions would also be tidied up.

 2. Restricted Share Value. The way Fonterra shares are valued would be adjusted to reflect that share ownership is restricted to farmers only. As this would likely result in a lower share value, there would be a transition process to deal with any impact on the share price.

 3. Trading Among Farmers. Fonterra would move to a system where farmers buy and sell shares among themselves, rather then transacting through the Co-operative.

Opposition from farmers to a public listing has restricted options for the company. This plan retains farmer control but also depends on farmer funding at a time when dairy farm debt is high and the payout lower than it’s been in the last two seasons.

Fonterra Chairman Sir Henry van der Heyden said :

“The options we are discussing with farmers would strengthen the capital structure and make Fonterra more adaptable and competitive in the international marketplace. They seek to encourage farmers to maintain or increase their equity in the Co-operative.”

. . . He said the key to improving Fonterra’s capital structure was reducing and eventually eliminating redemption risk. Redemption risk occurs because Fonterra’s share levels are related to milk production and the Co-operative is responsible for buying shares back off farmers when they want to redeem them. After milk production fell during the 2007/08 drought, for example, Fonterra had to pay out $742 million of equity to farmers via redemptions.

“To be successful and achieve the best possible payout for farmers, Fonterra can’t afford to have hundreds of millions of dollars washing in and out of the balance sheet every time milk production fluctuates, for whatever reason,” Sir Henry commented.

“We need certainty in our equity base to invest in dairy processing operations so as to drive a higher payout. These investments require capital and are long-term commitments – the stainless steel of a new processing plant, for instance, has a useful life of more than 30 years.”

Sir Henry said the success of the suggested capital structure changes would ultimately depend on how much additional capital farmer shareholders were prepared to commit to their Co-operative. It was difficult to estimate how much new equity might be raised from farmers, but the Board believed it should be enough to fund Fonterra’s needs for about the next five years.

 Shareholders will be consulted on the options which will be put to a vote. They will require 75% support before the co-operative can proceed with the changes.

A Five Day Cow

This was sent to my farmer with no indication of who wrote it so I can’t give any credit to its creator.

A Five Day Cow

I long for a cow of modern make

That milks five days for leisure’s sake;

That sleeps on Saturday and rests on Sunday,

To start again afresh on Monday.

 

Oh! For a herd beyond suggestion

Of staggers, bloat or indigestion;

That never bothers to excite us

With chills or fever or mastitis.

 

I sigh for a new and better breed

That takes less grooming and less feed;

That has the reason, will and wisdom

To use a seat and flushing system.

 

I pray each weekend long and clear,

Less work to do from year to year;

And cows that reach production peak

All in a five-day working week.

 

Oh why don’t the scientific bods,

Firmly entrenched in their cushy jobs,

Show these ignorant breeders how

To propagate a five-day cow?

Click goes the keyboard

Jamie Mckay is running a competition with a prize of a $1500 broadband package from Farmside on the Farming Show.

Last week’s winner was South Otago farmer, poet and singer Ross Agnew.

As the Farming Show’s North Otago correspondent, I’m not eligible to compete, but penned an ode to the internet for my contribution to Jamie’s show this week.

In doing so I’ve taken a bit of poetic licence and ignored Paul L’s facts which got in the way of the good story about pigeon post beating email.

Alone in his office the grumpy farmer sits,

Trying to get his mind round megabytes and bits.

The computer is chugging out the things he needs to know

But the internet is hopeless when it goes so jolly slow.

 

Click goes the key board, click, click, click,

They say it’s the way to make the business process slick.

That’s okay in town where broadband makes it fast,

Out here in the country we’re dialling up the past.

 

The farmer prods the key board and peers closer at the screen

Only half a message though half an hour it’s been.

Ten emails are coming, the message brightly flashes

But attachments are so slow the system often crashes.

 

Click goes the key board click, click, click,

If the computer was a tractor it would get a hefty kick

The farmer knows the internet should keep him up to date

But with dial up the messages always come in late.

 

Invoices could be sent and bills all swiftly paid

If only transmission wasn’t frustratingly delayed.

Killing sheets and milk reports should easily be downloaded

But minutes turn to hours as patience is eroded.

 

Click goes the key board, click, click, click.

The computer age is on us but rural internet is sick.

The tyranny of distance means we need the service most

But email is still slower than old fashioned pigeon post.