September 25 in history

On September 25:

275  The Roman Senate proclaimed Marcus Claudius Tacitus Emperor.

303 On a voyage preaching the gospel, Saint Fermin of Pamplona was beheaded in Amiens.

1066  The Battle of Stamford Bridge marked the end of the Viking invasions of England.

1396  Ottoman Emperor Bayezid I defeated a Christian army at the Battle of Nicopolis.

1513  Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa reached the Pacific Ocean.

1555 The Peace of Augsburg was signed in Augsburg by Charles V and the princes of the Schmalkaldic League.

1690  Publick Occurrences Both Foreign and Domestick, the first newspaper to appear in the Americas, was published for the first and only time.

1694 Henry Pelham, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, was born (d. 1754).

1725 Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot, French steam vehicle pioneer, was born (d. 1804).

 

1764 Fletcher Christian, English Bounty mutineer, was born (d. 1793).

 

1775  Ethan Allen surrendered to British forces after attempting to capture Montreal during the Battle of Longue-Pointe. At the same time, Benedict Arnold and his expeditionary company set off from Fort Western, bound for Quebec City (Invasion of Canada (1775)).

 

1789   The U.S. Congress passed twelve amendments to the United States Constitution: the Congressional Apportionment Amendment (which was never ratified), the Congressional Compensation Amendment, and the ten known as the Bill of Rights.

1804   The Teton Sioux (a subdivision of the Lakota) demanded one of the boats from the Lewis and Clark Expedition as a toll for moving further upriver.

1819 1819 Samuel Marsden planted what is believed to have been the first grape vines in New Zealand.

1846  U.S. forces led by Zachary Taylor captureed the Mexican city of Monterrey.

 

1862 Billy Hughes, seventh Prime Minister of Australia, was born (d. 1952).

1868  The Imperial Russian steam frigate Alexander Neuski was shipwrecked off Jutlandwhile carrying Grand Duke Alexei of Russia.

 

1889 C. K. Scott-Moncrieff, Scottish writer and translator, was born (d. 1930).

1897 William Faulkner, American writer, Nobel laureate, was born (d. 1962).

1906  Leonardo Torres Quevedo successfully demonstrated the invention of the Telekino in the port of Bilbao, guiding a boat from the shore, in what is considered the birth of the remote control.

 

1911 Eric Williams, first Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, was born (d. 1981).

1912  Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism was founded in New York.

 

1915   World War I: The Second Battle of Champagne began.

1916 Jessica Anderson,  Australian author, was born (d 2010).

1921 Sir Robert Muldoon was born (d 1992).

1922 Hammer DeRoburt, first President of Nauru was born (d. 1992).

1929   Jimmy Doolittle performed the first blind flight from Mitchel Field proving that full instrument flying from take off to landing was possible.

 

1929 English comedian Ronnie Barker was born.

1929 US broadcaster Barbara Walters was born.

1938 Jonathan Motzfeldt, first Prime Minister of Greenland, was born.

1942  World War II: Swiss Police Instruction of September 25, 1942 denied entry into Switzerland to Jewish refugees.

1944 Michael Douglas,  US actor was born.

1944  World War II: Surviving elements of the British 1st Airborne Division withdraw from Arnhem in the Netherlands, ending the Battle of Arnhem and Operation Market Garden.

 

1946 English actress Felicity Kendal was born.

1952 US actor Christopher Reeve was born(d 2004).

1955  The Royal Jordanian Air Force was founded.

1956   TAT-1, the first submarine transatlantic telephone cable system, was inaugurated.

1957  Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, was integrated by the use of United States Army troops.

 

1959 Solomon Bandaranaike, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka was mortally wounded by a Buddhist monk, Talduwe Somarama.

1962  The People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria was formally proclaimed. Ferhat Abbas was elected President of the provisional government.

1969 English actress Catherine Zeta-Jones was born.

1970 Cease-fire between Jordan and the Fedayeen ended fighting triggered by four hijackings on September 6 and 9.

1972  In a referendum, the people of Norway rejected membership of the European Community.

1977 About 4,200 people took part in the first Chicago Marathon.

1978 PSA Flight 182, a Boeing 727-214, collided in mid-air with a Cessna 172  in San Diego, resulting in the deaths of 144 people.

1981  Sandra Day O’Connor became the 102nd person sworn in as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and the first woman to hold the office.

1983  Maze Prison escape: 38 republican prisoners, armed with 6 handguns, hijacked a prison meals lorry and smashed their way out of the Maze prison.

 

1996 The last of the Magdalene Asylums closed in Ireland.

 

2002 The Vitim event, a possible bolide impact in Siberia.

2003 A magnitude-8.0 earthquake struck just offshore Hokkaidō.

2008  China launched the spacecraft Shenzhou 7.

 

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

You’ll Never Walk Alone

Happy birthday Gerry Marsden, 68 today.

This is dedicated to the people of Canterbury, South Otago, Southland and any where else which has borne the brunt of nature’s tantrums.

Word of the day

Pluviose – rainy, characterised by heavy rain.

Bird of the Year

Royal Forest & Bird’s annual poll to find the country’s favourite bird is underway. 

The Pukeko is leading so far with 621 votes.

Half Pie, campaign manager for kārearea, the New Zealand falcon, recorded an interview with Kakarapiti, a young male of the species.

Voting closes on October 13th.

Some members more equal than others

Labour is selecting its Dunedin North candidate this weekend.

Three people have been nominated to replace retiring MP Pete Hodgson, who has held the seat for four terms, are  New Zealand Nurses Organisation national adviser Glenda Alexander. current electorate committee chair and warden of Selwyn College, David Clark ; and former electorate chair Simon Wilson.

Taking part in the selection process will be three Labour Party council representatives appointed by head office, including a Dunedin-based representative; two Labour Electorate Committee representatives, selected on the day; one panel member elected by members attending; and the “popular vote” from members, which will count as one vote.

That gives six panel members and a vote from the floor.

In some selections, Labour’s head office officials have stacked the panel to ensure their preferred candidate is selected.

However, it is unlikely the head office appointees will go against the wishes of Dunedin North members.

The last time that happened, Labour lost the seat to National candidate Richard Walls, in 1975.

What’s the difference between Labour Party members in Dunedin North and those in Mana where unions out-voted members?

Big News has the story of that selection  which is confirmed by this comment from Alex in the North  at Kiwiblog.

If all Labour members are equal, those in Dunedin North must be more equal than their comrades in Mana.

UPDATE: Kiwiblog has more on this.

Quote of the week

“According to Dr Oppenheimer, however, these findings add to the body of literature which indicates that voter behaviour is irrational and that factors totally unrelated to politics affect the outcomes of elections.”

From posture and political psychology in the Economist..

Hat Tip:  Credo Quia Absurdum Est

Dedication to the cause

The ODT reckons Act is rearranging deck chairs on a political Titanic.

The woman coming in to help bail out the party after David Garrett walked the plank is Hilary Calvert of Dunedin.

Ms Calvert was a sole practice lawyer, specialising in property law, until recently. . .

. . . ”I guess lawyers always find their way into Parliament partly because they care a lot about the structure of society and how it’s run and partly because they understand the laws and things a bit differently,” she told NZPA last month.

She left law to get into something more community focused and had been thinking about what to do, Ms Calvert said.

Parliament would be a good option — “that certainly counts as a serious community commitment”.

It also counts as dedication to the cause because it’s probable that she’ll be disrupting her life for what could be a very short term position.

Act’s chances of still being in parliament at all after the next election aren’t great and if the party survives it’s likely to have fewer than its current quote of five MPs.

Last on doesn’t necessarily mean first off, but Ms Calvert has only a few months to earn a higher place on the list and that would mean leap frogging other MPs. Unless someone steps aside voluntarily that would mean even rougher seas for the party.

September 24 in history

On September 24:

622 Prophet Muhammad completed his hijra from Mecca to Medina.

 

1180 Manuel I Komnenos, last Emperor of the Komnenian restoration died after which the Byzantine Empire slipped into terminal decline.

1625 Johan de Witt, Dutch politician, was born (d. 1672).

1645  Battle of Rowton Heath, Parliamentarian victory over a Royalist army commanded in person by King Charles.

 

1664 The Dutch Republic surrendered New Amsterdam to England.

 

1674  Second Tantrik Coronation of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.

1717 Horace Walpole, British novelist and politician, was born (d. 1797).

1725 Sir Arthur Guinness, Irish brewer, was born (d. 1803).

1841  The Sultan of Brunei ceded Sarawak to Britain.

Flag

1852  The first airship powered by (a steam) engine, created by Henri Giffard, travelled 17 miles (27 km) from Paris to Trappes.

 

1869 “Black Friday“: Gold prices plummetted after Ulysses S. Grant ordered the Treasury to sell large quantities of gold after Jay Gould and James Fisk plotted to control the market.

1871 Lottie Dod, English athlete, was born (d. 1960)

1877  Battle of Shiroyama, decisive victory of the Imperial Japanese Army over the Satsuma Rebellion.

1890 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints officially renounced polygamy.

1896 F. Scott Fitzgerald, American novelist, was born (d. 1940).

1905 Lionel Terry killed Joe Kum Yung to draw attention to his crusade to rid New Zealand of Chinese people.

1906  U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed Devils Tower in Wyoming as the nation’s first National Monument.

1914 Sir John Kerr, 18th Governor-General of Australia, was born (d. 1991).

1935  Earl Bascom and Weldon Bascom produced the first rodeo ever held outdoors under electric lights at Columbia, Mississippi.

1936 Jim Henson, American puppeteer, was born (d. 1990).

1941 Linda McCartney, American singer, fashion designer and photographer, was born (d. 1998).

1942 Gerry Marsden, English singer (Gerry & The Pacemakers), was born.

1946  Cathay Pacific Airways was founded in Hong Kong.

1947 The Majestic 12 committee was allegedly established by secret executive order of President Harry Truman.

 

1948  The Honda Motor Company was founded.

1950  Forest fires blacked out the sun over portions of Canada and New England. A Blue moon (in the astronomical sense) was seen as far away as Europe.

1957  Camp Nou, the largest stadium in Europe, was opened in Barcelona.

1957 President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent 101st Airborne Division troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, to enforce desegregation.

1962  United States court of appeals ordered the University of Mississippi to admit James Meredith.

1968  60 Minutes debuted on CBS.

1973  Guinea-Bissau declared its independence from Portugal.

1979  Compu-Serve launched the first consumer internet service, which features the first public electronic mail service.

1990  Periodic Great White Spot observed on Saturn.

 

1994  National League for Democracy was formed by Aung San Suu Kyi and various others to help fight against dictatorship in Myanmar.

 

1996  U.S. President Bill Clinton signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty at the United Nations.

2005  Hurricane Rita made landfall in the United States, devastating Beaumont, Texas and portions of southwestern Louisiana.

 

2008  The Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago was topped off at 1,389 feet (423 m), at the time becoming the world’s highest residence above ground-level.

Sourced fron NZ History Online & Wikipedia

Southland deserves to keep the shield – Updated

If ever a province deserved to win the Ranfurly Shield it was Southland.

The excitement when the Stags beat Canterbury last year infected Invercargill and the hinterland and the people have stayed behind the team.

It’s been a really tough week in the south, holding on to the shield would mean much more to Southlanders than winning it would to Aucklanders.

If it came to community support the challengers wouldn’t have a chance and the defenders know that. They’ll be playing their hearts out.

UPDATE: 9-6 to Southland. Phew!

Word of the day

Epeolatry  – worship of words.

Apropos of this, Gene Weingarten writes Good bye cruel words: English. It’s dead to me.

The English language, which arose from humble Anglo-Saxon roots to become the lingua franca of 600 million people worldwide and the dominant lexicon of international discourse, is dead. It succumbed last month at the age of 1,617 after a long illness. It is survived by an ignominiously diminished form of itself.

The end came quietly on Aug. 21 on the letters page of The Washington Post. A reader castigated the newspaper for having written that Sasha Obama was the “youngest” daughter of the president and first lady, rather than their “younger” daughter. In so doing, however, the letter writer called the first couple the “Obama’s.” This, too, was published, constituting an illiterate proofreading of an illiterate criticism of an illiteracy. Moments later, already severely weakened, English died of shame . . .

The Lewiston (Maine) Sun-Journal has written of “spading and neutering.” The Miami Herald reported on someone who “eeks out a living” — alas, not by running an amusement-park haunted house. The Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star described professional football as a “doggy dog world.” The Vallejo (Calif.) Times-Herald and the South Bend (Ind.) Tribune were the two most recent papers, out of dozens, to report on the treatment of “prostrate cancer.” . . .

Hat Tip: Beattie’s Book Blog

 

 

Fonterra final payout 2nd highest

Fonterra has announced a final payout for the 09-10 season of $6.70 before retentions.

The payout is made up of $6.10 per kilogram of milksolids (kgMS), a dividend of 27 cents a share and retentions of 33 cents share. 

This is the co-operative’s second highest payout and will give shareholders who are fully shared up a final payout of $6.37.

Fonterra reported a 12 per cent increase in after-tax profit to $685 million for the year.

Looking ahead, Mr Ferrier said there were signs that international dairy supply and demand were moving more in balance at prevailing prices, although there was still considerable volatility in international markets.

After considering these factors, the Board has firmed up the forecast payout for the 2010/11 season to $7.00-7.10 (before retentions). This includes an unchanged forecast Milk Price of $6.60 per kgMS.

Jamie Mackay listed on the Farming Show the payouts for previous seasons: (I think these are after retentions).

2001-02: $5.50; 2002-03: $316 ; 2003-04: $4 59; 2004-05:$ 410; 2005-06:$4.46; 2007- 08: $ 766; 2008- 09: $5.20.

Did you see the one about

Same planet, different world Oswald Bastable on bookless homes.

Mapping internet sensation stereotpypes – Lucia Maria has found some new world wit.

Muppets in blue goNZo Freakpower casts the blue end of the blogosphere as Muppets.

How did the poor come to be poor – Anti Dismal on why understanding wealth matters more than understanding poverty.

Building inpsectors – Credo Quia Absurdum Est on why practical experience beats the a bloke with a folder.

Reaching Atip - Cactus Kate explains fashion week.

Be careful Gareth - Patrick Smellie on the fine line between integrity and hubris.

Fresh start with water good start

New Zealand has plenty of water but not all of it’s in the right place at the right time; and not all of it is as clean as it should be.

The need for better management of water is clear, the best way to do it is somewhat less so, but the Land and Water Forum’s report, A Fresh Start for Water, is a good place to start.

It was welcomed by Agriculture Minister David Carter and Environment Minister Nick Smith.

“The Land and Water Forum has achieved a first in New Zealand – consensus on a way forward for managing freshwater,” Dr Smith said.

“The Government initiated this collaborative process because the long term success of future water policies relies on broad agreement at a national level. Improving water management is one of the Government’s top environmental and economic priorities. Finding durable solutions to issues of water quality, allocation and storage are essential to a healthy environment and our long-term economic progress.

“All 58 groups associated with the Land and Water Forum, led by its Chair Alastair Bisley, are to be congratulated for the report. Water is such a complex and polarising issue and to reach agreement is a major achievement.”

Getting 58 groups with a diverse range of views to collaborate let alone reach agreement on a report is amazing.

The report says:

It is in all our interests to maintain and improve the quality of freshwater in New Zealand, including instream values. For that we need limits, standards and targets in line with national needs, values and objectives which are applied taking account of the needs, values and objectives of communities. They must address contaminants and flows.

 Setting limits will require us to address degradation in some areas, but will enable more resource use in others. Limits need to be clear enough to achieve certainty, but able to be adapted in the face of new information and new technology development.

It recommends the adoption of a standards framework which:

Stems from a strategic view of water for New Zealand

• Defines national objectives for the environmental state of our water bodies and the overall timeframes within which to achieve them through National Policy Statements (NPS’s) and National Environmental Standards (NES’s) made under the Resource Management Act (RMA)

• Requires regions to give effect to this national framework at regional to catchment (or sub-catchment) level taking into account the spatial variation in biophysical characteristics of their water bodies and their current state

• Within that framework, requires regions to engage communities, including iwi, about the ways in which their water bodies are valued, and to work collaboratively with relevant land and water users and interested parties to set catchment-specific targets, standards and limits

• Maintains regional councils’ control of the use of land for the purpose of the maintenance and enhancement of the quality of water in water bodies and the maintenance of the quantity of water in water bodies and coastal water.

Federated Farmers’ co-spokesman on water issues Lachlan McKenzie says:

The report signals greater use of collaborative processes in water policy-making and implementation at national, local and catchment levels.

“For farmers, this is actually great news because involving landowners in any process is essential where policy outcomes could directly affect their property and what they can do with their land.  Given this, it’s only fair and right landowners take charge of implementing any changes that may result.

“Real progress also starts with decision making and how communities are informed.  Above all else, how the resourcefulness and innovative capacity of New Zealanders to develop local solutions will be tapped into.

“On-farm, farmers have to look at stock and effluent management systems tailored to location, including fencing waterways where practical.  Reducing our effluent disposal risks will lead to better nutrient utilisation and increased pasture growth.

No-one is denying that some farm practices can, and do, degrade waterways. What is often overlooked is that rural people have a personal interest in the quality and quantity of fresh water because the rivers we neighbour provide water for our farms and our homes.

“Yet some activists conveniently seem to look through the impact of New Zealand’s third most numerous large mammal, Homosapien.  This is not a ‘them and us’ blame culture that has coloured perception, but a realisation that we all rely on the environment.

Pollution from human and industrial waste is an issue which needs to be addressed too.

“Collaboration is a useful process that can result in more enduring and widely accepted outcomes, while saving significant amounts of money and time.

“Collaboration, like consultation however, does not equal agreement and there has not been agreement on all the issues identified in the report.

Feds took part in the forum but hasn’t signed up to the report because it wants to consult farmers on the recommendations and get feedback first.

The government is also waiting for feedback.

The report is a good start but there’s a long way to go before it turns into concrete policy.

Water New Zealand’s response is here.

Forest & Bird’s response is here.

When politics get personal

Chris Carter must really hate Phil Goff.

Just when attention was on Act and David Garrett, Carter returned to work Wellington, went to parliament, though didn’t grace the House with his presence:

 Mr Carter said he was back only to sort out his office, and would not be going to the House. A medical note from his doctor gave him leave until the end of the month, and he would return officially on October 5.

He still considered himself a Labour MP. “My dispute is with Phil Goff and not the Labour Party.”

However, Act’s respite will be temporary. Garrett is going to reveal all today.

When politics gets personal like this the biggest losers will be the parties.

September 23 in history

On September 23:

480 BC  Euripides, Greek playwright, was born (d. 406 BC).

1122  Concordat of Worms.

 

1215 Kublai Khan of the Mongol Empire, was born (d. 1294).

1409  Battle of Kherlen, the second significant victory over Ming China by the Mongols since 1368.

1459 Battle of Blore Heath, the first major battle of the English Wars of the Roses.

 1529  The Siege of Vienna began when Suleiman I attacked the city.

 

1641  The Merchant Royal, carrying a treasure worth over a billion USD, was lost at sea off Land’s End.

1779 American Revolution: a squadron commanded by John Paul Jones on board the USS Bonhomme Richard won the Battle of Flamborough Head, off the coast of England, against two British warships.

1803  Second Anglo-Maratha War: Battle of Assaye between the British East India Company and the Maratha Empire in India.

1821  Tripolitsa, Greece, fell and 30,000 Turks were massacred.

1846  Neptune was discovered by French astronomer Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier and British astronomer John Couch Adams;  then  verified by German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle.

 

1857 The Russian warship Lefort capsised and sank during a storm in the Gulf of Finland, killing all 826 aboard.

1868 Grito de Lares (“Lares Revolt”) in Puerto Rico against Spanish rule.

1869  Mary Mallon, also known as Typhoid Mary, first carrier of typhoid, was born (d. 1938).

 

1880 John Boyd Orr, Scottish physician, Nobel Laureate, was born (d. 1971).

1887 Ngati Tuwharetoa gifted the mountain tops of Tongariro, Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu to the Crown.

1889  Nintendo Koppai (Later Nintendo Company, Limited) was founded by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce and market the playing card game Hanafuda.

 

1905  Norway and Sweden signed the “Karlstad treaty”, peacefully dissolving the Union between the two countries.

1908  University of Alberta was founded.

1909  The Phantom of the Opera (original title: Le Fantôme de l’Opéra), a novel by French writer Gaston Leroux, was first published as a serialization in Le Gaulois.

1920 Mickey Rooney, American actor, was born.

 

1922 In Washington D. C., Charles Evans Hughes signed the Hughes-Peynado agreement, that ended the occupation of Dominican Republic by the United States.

1930 Ray Charles, American musician, was born (d. 2004).

1932  The Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd was renamed the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

1938 Mobilization of the Czechoslovak army in response to the Munich Crisis.

1939  Henry Blofeld, English cricket commentator, was born.

1941 World War II: The first gas chamber experiments were conducted at Auschwitz.

1942  World War II: First day of the September Matanikau action on Guadalcanal as United States Marine Corps forces attacked Imperial Japanese Army units along the Matanikau River.

1943 Julio Iglesias, Spanish singer, was born.

1943  World War II: The so-called Salò Republic, the Italian puppet state of Germany was born.

1944 Eric Bogle, British/Australian singer and songwriter, was born.

1949 Bruce Springsteen, American singer and songwriter, was born.

1952 Richard Nixon made his “Checkers speech“.

1954  Cherie Blair, lawyer and politician, wife of ex-British PM.

1959   Iowa farmer Roswell Garst hosted Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev.

1959  The MS Princess of Tasmania, Australia’s first passenger roll-on/roll-off diesel ferry, made her maiden voyage across Bass Strait.

 

1962  The Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City opened with the completion of the first building, the Philharmonic Hall (now Avery Fisher Hall) home of the New York Philharmonic.

 

1973  Juan Perón returned to power in Argentina.

 

1983  Gerrie Coetzee of South Africa became the first African boxing world heavyweight champion.

1983  Gulf Air Flight 771 was bombed, killing all 117 people on board.

1992 A large Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb destroyed the forensic laboratories in Belfast.

1999  NASA announced that it had lost contact with the Mars Climate Orbiter.

 

1999  Qantas Flight 1 overran the runway in Bangkok during a storm.

 

2002  The first public version of the web browser Mozilla Firefox (“Phoenix 0.1″) was released.

2004  Hurricane Jeanne: At least 1,070 in Haiti were reported killed by floods.

 

2008  Kauhajoki school shooting: Matti Saari killed 10 people before committing suicide.

Sourced from NZ History Online

Dad’s Army

Arthur Lowe would have been 95 today.

Word of the day

Objurgate – to berate, chide, rebuke, scold.

Running record of election returns

Electionz.com is providing a running record of election returns for the 35 councils whose votes it’s processing, including comparisons with the number of votes cast at the same stage in the last two elections.

After just two days it’s too soon to draw reliable conclusions but it will be interesting to follow the trend.

Our voting papers came with Monday’s mail, I started to fill mine out but put it aside because I’m still not certain about where to put a couple of ticks.

The media is often blamed for not covering local body issues and candidates well, but a lot of candidates aren’t helping themselves.

Local Government On Line has a website on which candidates can post photos and information which voters can find by typing in their address.

Only one of the four mayoral candidates, none of the five district council candidates, neither of the two regional council candidates and only four of the 11 health board candidates for whom I can vote have bothered to post anything.

8/10

8/10 in this week’s Dominion Post political triva quiz.

The name of the DG of health & the value of the planes eluded me.

Wrong timing – updated

Dear Mr Dunne

About a year ago you were on Backbenchers patting yourself on the back over the extension to daylight saving.

I didn’t have a chance to contradict you and to be honest I was beginning to think it was time I admitted defeat on this issue.

However, this week’s weather has renewed my commitment to the campaign to delay the date the clocks go forward.

When daylight saving was first introduced it started at the end of October. That wasn’t too hard to adjust to because by then we’re getting about 14 hours of daylight.

Then someone decided that if some daylight saving time was good more would be better and the change in time moved to early October. That was harder to take but still some people thought that wasn’t enough. You agreed with them and moved the start of daylight saving back to the last weekend of September.

That’s just a few days after the spring equinox so we’re only getting a little more than 12 hours of daylight. Moving sunset from 6ish to 7ish in the evening means sunrise moves from 6ish to 7ish in the morning.

That extra hour at the end of the day coincides with dinner time for most people so isn’t much use and the extra hour of darkness at the start of the day seriously inconveniences people who have to start work early.

Even that mightn’t be so bad if it was summer, but this week has shown us it’s not even spring. It’s still winter. Our temperatures didn’t even make it to double figures yesterday and the forecast for the next few days doesn’t give much hope of an improvement.

Regardless of whether the sun sets at 6ish or 7ish, it’s far too cold to be outside during the evening.

Please, check the Astronomical Society’s table of sunrise and sunset times. You’ll see that taking the start of daylight saving back to the end of October makes a huge difference. If the clocks change this weekend sunrise in Dunedin won’t be until 7.17, that’s not a lot earlier than winter, but if the change is delayed by a month the sun will rise at the much more civilised time of 6.22.

We’ve given the extension to daylight saving a fair go and it hasn’t got any better.

Please Mr Dunne, admit you got the timing wrong. It was an idea which sounded okay in theory but simply doesn’t work in practice.

You lengthened the period of daylight saving, it’s time to shorten it again so that the change to summer time comes in summer, or at least spring, and not winter.

Yours in hope,

UPDATE: Tim Selwyn at Tumeke! agrees September is too early. He’s suggesting we go back to the first weekend in October. I reckon that’s still too early, but it would be better than what we’ve got now.