How realistic is 4% growth?

A growth rate of 4% coming out of recession isn’t high by historical standards and it’s roughly in the middle of predictions by bank economists.

 That hasn’t stopped people questioning how realistic Budget predictions for this rate of growth are.

At the National Party’s Mainland Conference Prime Minister John Key and Finance Minister Bill English gave some of the reasoning behind the figure.

This included the bright outlook for primary produce and the impact from the rebuild in Canterbury, not just on that region but throughout the rest of the country.

Then there is a less scientific measure – Bill was talking to a farmer last week and he was happy.

Labour pains, National delivers

Prime Minister John Key’s message to National’s Mainland conference contained policy to take the country forward without leaving people behind.

He covered some of the Budget highlights including the commitment to the rebuild of Christchurch and getting government finances in order because:

I am simply not prepared to leave our children and grandchildren with a ticking time-bomb of debt. So this Budget does the hard yards of getting our books in order.

Other highlights included policies to increase jobs and wages and reduce interest rates:

A family with a mortgage now pays a floating interest rate around five percentage points lower than they did in Labour’s last year in office.

For a family with a $200,000 mortgage, for example, that means $200 a week more in their pocket.

That makes a huge difference to such a family, and it makes home ownership affordable for many more New Zealanders.

Interest rates matter for everyday Kiwis and that’s why this Government is focused on keeping them lower than Labour.

And unlike Labour, this Government won’t be raising taxes and it won’t be imposing a new capital gains tax.

We are proud that as a result of our tax reforms last year, three-quarters of income earners now have a top tax rate of 17.5 per cent or less.

That says to New Zealanders that if they want to get ahead, if they want to do better for themselves and their family, and if they work hard and save hard, then this Government will support them. 

We want you to keep more of what you earn. We want you to have choice.  Labour doesn’t like choice; they don’t like people to spend their own money, they like to leave them with pocket money.

Well, pocket money ends in my household when one is about 16.  So I’m proud to lead a Government that ensures people can make their own money and their own choices.

Fourth, this Budget invests in public services and infrastructure for our future. 

It clearly demonstrates National’s priorities, $1.4 billion more for education, $1.7 billion more for health and more money to improve law and order in our communities.

And unashamedly we’ve done some trimming. Less money for bureaucracy, less money for backroom administration, less money for Wellington waste.

It continues our investment in the building blocks of future growth, including an injection of hundreds of millions of dollars into an ultra-fast broadband network, so Kiwis can make the most of future technology.  That’s on top of our ongoing investment in New Zealand’s growth arteries – our highways and public transport networks.

Finally, it’s a Budget that ensures the Working for Families, KiwiSaver, and Interest Free Student Loan schemes will continue to deliver for the thousands of people that rely on them.

We’ve listened to New Zealanders who say they want these schemes to last in good weather and bad and we’ve made the changes to ensure they can. 

The contrast with Labour leader Phil Goff’s message to his party’s conference could hardly have been greater: higher taxes and job losses.

Just a few days ago Goff was grandstanding about the price of lamb at the supermarket and now he’s planning to force farmers into the ETS by taxing livestock which will push prices up further. None of our competitors are imposing this cost on farmers for good reason - science has yet to come up with effective ways to reduce animal emissions. This is not a tax to change behaviour but simply to punish.

At No Minister Adolf joins the dots between last week’s ill-founded rant about dairy farmers’ taxes and this policy  and The Veteran acknowledges they’re consistent in dumping on the productive sector.

This is classic divide and rule politics but it won’t just hit farmers, it will lead to job losses and higher prices for food.

Increasing the minimum wage is just as stupid and those who will be hurt the most by it are those who already find it hardest to get work.

What a contrast –  Labour is preaching envy and division while National is practising aspiration, encouragement and unity.

Labour will drag people down, National is helping people up.

Labour pains, National delivers.

May 23 in history

1430 Siege of Compiègne: Joan of Arc was captured by the Burgundians while leading an army to relieve Compiègne.

1498 Girolamo Savonarola was burned at the stake in Florence on the orders of Pope Alexander VI.

 

1533 The marriage of King Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon was declared null and void.

 

1568 The Netherlands declared their independence from Spain.

1568  Dutch rebels led by Louis of Nassau, brother of William I of Orange, defeated Jean de Ligne, Duke of Aremberg and his loyalist troops in the Battle of Heiligerlee, opening the Eighty Years’ War.

1618 The Second Defenestration of Prague precipitated the Thirty Years’ War.

 

1701  After being convicted of piracy and of murdering William Moore, Captain William Kidd was hanged.

1706 Battle of Ramillies: John Churchill, the 1st Duke of Marlborough, defeated a French army under Marshal Villeroi.

1805 Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned King of Italy with the Iron Crown of Lombardy in the Cathedral of Milan.

 

1810 Margaret Fuller, American journalist and feminist, was born  (d. 1850).

1813  Simón Bolívar entered Mérida, leading the invasion of Venezuela, and was proclaimed El Libertador (“The Liberator”).

1820 James Buchanan Eads, American engineer and inventor, was born  (d. 1887).

1829 Accordion patent granted to Cyrill Demian.

1844  Declaration of the Báb: a merchant of Shiraz announced that he was a Prophet and founded a religious movement. He is considered to be a forerunner of the Bahá’í Faith, and Bahá’ís celebrate the day as a holy day.

1846 Mexican-American War: President Mariano Paredes of Mexico unofficially declared war on the United States.

1855 Isabella Ford, English socialist, feminist, trade unionist and writer, was born (d. 1924).

1863 Organisation of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Battle Creek, Michigan.

1863  The Siege of Port Hudson.

1863  American Civil War: Sergeant William Harvey Carney became the first African American to be awarded the Medal of Honor, for his heroism in the Assault on the Battery Wagner.

 

1873  The Canadian Parliament established the North West Mounted Police, the forerunner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

1875 Alfred P. Sloan, American long-time president and chairman of General Motors, was born  (d. 1966).

1907  The unicameral Parliament of Finland gathered for its first plenary session.

1911 The New York Public Library was dedicated.

 

1915  World War I: Italy joined the Allies after they declared war on Austria-Hungary.

1923  Launch of Belgium’s SABENA airline.

1928 Nigel Davenport, English actor, was born.

1929 The first talking cartoon of Mickey Mouse, “The Karnival Kid“, was released.

1933 Joan Collins, English actress, was born.

1934  American bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde were ambushed by police and killed in Black Lake, Louisiana.

1934 The Auto-Lite Strike culminated in the “Battle of Toledo”, a five-day melée between 1,300 troops of the Ohio National Guard and 6,000 picketers.

1939  The U.S. Navy submarine USS Squalus sank  during a test dive, causing the death of 24 sailors and two civilian technicians.

1945 World War II:  Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS, committed suicide while in Allied custody.

1945  World War II: The Flensburg government under Reichspräsident Karl Dönitz was dissolved when its members are captured and arrested by British forces at Flensburg in Northern Germany.

1949 Alan Garcia, President of Peru, was born.

1949  The Federal Republic of Germany was established and the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany was proclaimed.

1951 Tibetans signed the Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet with China.

1956 Mark Shaw, New Zealand rugby footballer, was born.

1958  Explorer 1 ceased transmission.

1966   Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu, the first Maori Queen,  was crowned. 

1967 Egypt closed the Straits of Tiran and blockaded the port of Eilat at the northern end of the Gulf of Aqaba to Israeli shipping, laying the foundations for the Six Day War.

1995  Oklahoma City bombing: The remains of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building were imploded.

1995  The first version of the Java programming language was released.

1998 The Good Friday Agreement  was accepted in a referendum in Northern Ireland with 75% voting yes.

2002  The “55 parties ca;use”of the  Kyoto protocol was reached after its ratification by Iceland.

2004 Part of Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport‘s Terminal 2E collapsed, killing four people and injuring three others.

2005 The fastest roller coaster in the world, Kingda Ka opened at Six Flags Great Adventure.

2006  Alaskan stratovolcano Mount Cleveland erupted.

 

2008  The International Court of Justice (ICJ) awarded Middle Rocks to Malaysia and Pedra Branca (Pulau Batu Puteh) to Singapore, ending a 29-year territorial dispute between the two countries.

 

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.

Moved but not shaken

I’m not long home from a wonderful weekend of fun, inspiration and motivation at the National Party’s Mainland Conference.

More on the contrast between that and Labour’s spend and tax recipe for dragging us all backwards again tomorrow.

The conference was held in Christchurch. Not surprisingly the earthquake, which Keeping Stock reminds us  happened three months ago today, was in everybody’s minds.

In conference sessions and conversations during breaks those of us from outside the city learned more about the devastation and on-going difficulties dealing with the aftermath.

The gratitude for the help from other parts of New Zealand and round the world, the determination to rebuild and the positive attitude towards the recovery were inspirational.

A small (3 point something) quake this morning was felt by some. None of us was shaken by that but all were moved by the strength and resilience of Christchurch people and the support they’re getting.

An example of this was an $11,000 cheque raised by Young Nats at their 75th anniversary ball and presented to the Canterbury Student Volunteer Army.

Prime Minister John Key, National Party President Peter Goodfellow, Mark Nicholson, Sam Johnson and Sean Topham.

Word of the day

Sciolism -  pretence to wisdom; conceit due to it; giving an opinion on a subject of which one has no knowledge; superficial knowledgeability.

Did you see the one about . . .

The tertiary education conundrum - Mydeology thinks it’s time for a rethink.

I wannabe a pseudo scientist - has Michael Edmonds got a deal for you!

21 accents - Zen Tiger on 21 ways to say . . .

If you want a hundred trillion dollars – Anti-Dismal on hyperinflation.

What makes some people vote – Lindsay Mitchell on the power of positive personality.

Science journalism is not the same as science - Larvatus Prodeo on the science news cycle.

91863 – Credo Quia Absurdum Est deals with a spam phone caller and also has a funny story about Mummy’s job.

Rural round-up

DWN appoints new CEO - dairy Women’s Network chair Michelle Wilson announces:

Sarah Speight has been appointed as full time CEO for DWN, and will commence her role as CEO on 13 June 2011.

Sarah comes to DWN with a wealth of knowledge having been involved in the dairy industry since finishing university in 1992. . .

Organic agriculture aint the answer – Tim Worstall posts:

Not to any reasonable question it ain’t.

Take the case of farming suitable for a world with climate change. And let’s just agree with the IPCC here. It’s happening, we’re causing it, something must be done.

Let’s also take their predictions of what will be the effects. Warmer, wetter winters, hotter, drier summers. . .

Preparer les terrains de l’avinir – perpare the land for the future - Pasture to Profit posts:

“Preparer Les Terrains de L’Avenir”. My French friends will be amazed with my command of the french language but this is a very appropriate title for this week’s blog.
“Prepare the earth for the future” is the core element of a Sustainable Farming system. . .

Beef demand shows seasonal uptake in US at last - Tony Chaston writes:

Much of the demand for beef in the US is driven by the barbeque season and traditional holidays that allow consumers to enjoy this way of eating. After a slow wet spring, things have warmed up and demand is picking up again. Economic factors also influence, and the price of oil affects the household budget and can determine how much is left over for the higher priced cuts of beef.

NZ’s beef prospects and prices are heavily influenced by what happens in the US, with most of our manufacturing beef being consumed there. Our prime beef has many more outlets than that country alone, but US’s exporting power can influences our returns.

There’s money in manuka honey and trial aims to greatly increase it - Peter Kerr at Sciblogs:

There’s plenty of research on why manuka honey’s so useful from a medical and human health point of view.

Equally we understand bees pretty well.

The missing part of the puzzle, ironically, particularly as it is a plant that’s indigenous to New Zealand is how to best grow the native.

But a newly formed consortium, the Manuka Research Partnership (NZ) Ltd., along with well-known honey marketer Comvita Ltd., aims to change that.

Beef + Lamb NZ targets marketing

Beef + Lamb NZ is switching its  promotional focus in the United Kingdom from mass media marketing of New Zealand lamb, to a more targeted programme :

Beef + Lamb New Zealand Chief Executive, Dr Scott Champion said the shift in focus was made in response to an extensive piece of consumer market research in the UK/Europe.

“. . .  Lamb is the most expensive of all proteins in UK supermarkets and research highlighted that producers and exporters need to directly support the premium positioning of the New Zealand lamb brand.”

Dr Champion said the work Beef + Lamb New Zealand (and its predecessor company, Meat & Wool New Zealand) had done with generic marketing in the past had been very successful in keeping New Zealand lamb top of mind with UK consumers.

“That work has resulted in a 90 per cent brand awareness of New Zealand lamb.”

Dr Champion said having achieved such a high level of recall it was now time to switch focus towards encouraging consumer preference for New Zealand lamb, operating closer to the point of purchase. This has resulted in the major exporting companies investing their own funds alongside farmer levies into programmes that are customised towards consumer and retail needs alike.

The good prices New Zealand lamb has been getting has almost all been as a result of the commodity boom with increased demand coinciding with lower supply.

Targeted marketing should help ensure that when the boom subsides, demand for our lamb doesn’t collapse.

4/10

Too many numbers in the NZ Herald’s Question Time – only 4/10.

We don’t need another ministry

Labour intends to disestablish the Families’ Commission and replace it with a Ministry for Children.

Few people would lament the end to the commission, but we don’t need another ministry, we’ve already got far too many of them.

The one good thing about this policy is it highlights the big difference between National and Labour.

National is focussed on saving, investment export-led growth and the important part reducing the burden of the state plays in that.

Labour is focussed on adding to the burden through taxing, spending and redistribution.

May 22 in history

On May 22:

334 BC The Macedonian army of Alexander the Great defeated Darius III of Persia in the Battle of the Granicus.

1176 The Hashshashin (Assassins) attempted to murder Saladin near Aleppo.

 

1377  Pope Gregory XI issued five papal bulls to denounce the doctrines of English theologian John Wycliffe.

1455 Wars of the Roses: at the First Battle of St Albans, Richard, Duke of York, defeated and captured King Henry VI of England.

1724 Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne, French explorer  was born (d. 1772).

 

1762 Sweden and Prussia signed the Treaty of Hamburg.

1807 A grand jury indicted former Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr on a charge of treason.

1807 Most of the English town of Chudleigh was destroyed by fire.

 

1809 On the second and last day of the Battle of Aspern-Essling (near Vienna), Napoleon was repelled by an enemy army for the first time.

1813 Richard Wagner, German composer, was born (d. 1883).

 

1819 The SS Savannah left port at Savannah, Georgia, on a voyage to become the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean.

1826  HMS Beagle departed on its first voyage.

 

1840 The transporting of British convicts to the New South Wales colony was abolished.

 

1842 Farmers Lester Howe and Henry Wetsel discovered Howe Caverns when they stumbled upon a large hole in the ground.

 

1843 Thousands of people and their cattle headed west via wagon train from Independence, Missouri to what would later become the Oregon Territory . They were part of the Great Migration.

 

1844 Persian Prophet The Báb announced his revelation, founding Bábism. He announced to the world the coming of “He whom God shall make manifest”.

1848 Slavery was abolished in Martinique.

1856  Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina beat Senator Charles Sumner with a cane in the hall of the United States Senate for a speech Sumner had made attacking Southerners who sympathized with the pro-slavery violence in Kansas (“Bleeding Kansas“).

 

1859  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, British physician and writer, was born  (d. 1930).

1871  The U.S. Army issued an order for abandonment of Fort Kearny in Nebraska.

1872  Reconstruction: U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant signed the Amnesty Act of 1872 into law restoring full civil rights to all but about 500 Confederate sympathizers.

1884  The first representative New Zealand rugby team played its first match, defeating a Wellington XV 9-0.

 1897 The Blackwall Tunnel under the River Thames was officially opened.

1903 Launch of the White Star Liner,  SS Ionic.

1906 The 1906 Summer Olympics, not now recognized as part of the official Olympic Games, opened in Athens.

 

1906  The Wright brothers were granted U.S. patent number 821,393 for their “Flying-Machine”.

 

1907 Laurence Olivier, English stage and screen actor, was born  (d. 1989).

 

1915 Lassen Peak eruptsed.

 

1915 Three trains collided in the Quintinshill rail crash near Gretna Green,, killing 227 people and injuring 246.

1936 Aer Lingus (Aer Loingeas) was founded by the Irish government as the national airline of the Republic of Ireland.

1936  M. Scott Peck, American psychiatrist and writer, was born  (d. 2005).

1939 World War II: Germany and Italy signed the Pact of Steel.

1942  Mexico entered World War II on the side of the Allies.

1942 The Steel Workers Organizing Committee disbanded, and a new trade union, the United Steelworkers, was formed.

1946  George Best, Northern Irish footballer, was born  (d. 2005).

1947  Cold War: in an effort to fight the spread of Communism, U.S. President Harry S. Truman signed the Truman Doctrine granting $400 million in military and economic aid to Turkey and Greece, each battling an internal Communist movement.

 

1958  Sri Lankan riots of 1958: a watershed event in the race relationship of the various ethnic communities of Sri Lanka. The total number of deaths is estimated to be 300, mostly Sri Lankan Tamils.

1950 Bernie Taupin, English songwriter, was born.

1955 Iva Davies, Australian rock star (Icehouse), was born.

1960 An earthquake measuring 9.5 on the moment magnitude scale, now known as the Great Chilean Earthquake, hit southern Chile - the most powerful earthquake ever recorded.

1962  Continental Airlines Flight 11 crashed after bombs explode on board.

1963  Assassination attempt of Greek left-wing politician Gregoris Lambrakis.

 

1964 U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announced the goals of his Great Society social reforms to bring an “end to poverty and racial injustice” in America.

 

1967  The L’Innovation department store in the centre of Brussels burned down -the most devastating fire in Belgian history, resulting in 323 dead and missing and 150 injured.

1968 The nuclear-powered submarine the USS Scorpion sank with 99 men aboard 400 miles southwest of the Azores.

 

1969  Apollo 10‘s lunar module flew within 8.4 nautical miles (16 km) of the moon’s surface.

1970 Naomi Campbell, British model and actress, was born.

1972  Ceylon adoptseda new constitution, ecoming a Republic, changed its name to Sri Lanka, and joined the Commonwealth of Nations.

1980  Namco released the arcade game Pac-Man.

1990  Microsoft released the Windows 3.0 operating system.

1992  After 30 years, 66-year-old Johnny Carson hosted The Tonight Show for the last time.

1997  Kelly Flinn, US Air Force’s first female bomber pilot certified for combat, accepted a general discharge in order to avoid a court martial.

1998 Lewinsky scandal: a federal judge ruled that United States Secret Service agents could be compelled to testify before a grand jury.

2002 – A jury in Birmingham, Alabama, convicted former Ku Klux Klan member Bobby Frank Cherry of the 1963 murders of four girls in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church.

2003 Annika Sörenstam became the first woman to play the PGA Tour in 58 years.

2004  Hallam, Nebraska, was wiped out by a powerful F4 tornado (part of the May 2004 tornado outbreak sequence) that broke a width record at 2.5 miles (4.0 km) wide, and killed one resident.

 

2008  The Late-May 2008 tornado outbreak sequence unleashed 235 tornadoes, including an EF4 and an EF5 tornado, between 22 May and 31 May 2008. The tornadoes struck 19 US states and one Canadian province.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

Word of the day

Kedogenous – brought about by anxiety, produced by worry.

6/10

6/10 in NZ History Online’s weekly quiz.

Dear Sleep

Blog post of the week – Autism and Oughtisms writes a letter to Sleep:

Dear Sleep,

We haven’t spent much time together lately, and I miss you like crazy. No, that’s not quite right. Missing you is driving me crazy.

Maybe you feel I abused you when I was a child; pretending we were together when we weren’t, just so I could get out of doing things I didn’t want to do. . .

You can read the rest here.

Anyone who has had children will know exactly what she means, anyone contemplating havng children might consider it as a warning.

2/10

Blush, only 2/10 in the NZ Herald news quiz.

Freedom dumpers

It is possible the rubbish beside this car, parked at the bottom of Mt Iron on Wednesday morning,  didn’t belong to the people who were sleeping in it.

It’s also possible that they had seen the sign over the fence about 20 metres from where they were parked, pointing them to public loos a few minutes walk away.

But it’s also possible they hadn’t and this is  the sort of freedom dumper that legislation restricting where people without self-contained vehicles can camp is aimed at.

Whose savings are they anyway?

Quote of the week from Jim Hopkins:

Sure, we can grumble about the Budget. That’s why we have budgets.

They let us blame the politicians for the failings in ourselves. After all, we’re the ones who want to live in lotus land. All the pollies do is water the plants.

If we let them bribe us with our own money we have only ourselves to blame when they send us the bill.

May 21 in history

On May 21:

878  Syracuse, Italy was captured by the Muslim sultan of Sicily.

879 Pope John VIII gave blessings to Duke Branimir and to Croatian people, considered to be international recognition of Croatian state.

996 Sixteen-year-old Otto III was crowned Holy Roman Emperor.

1502  The island of Saint Helena was discovered by the Portuguese navigator João da Nova.

1527 King Philip II of Spain was born (d. 1598).

 

1554 A royal Charter was granted to Derby School.

1674  The nobility elect ed John Sobieski King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania.

1688  Alexander Pope, English poet, was born  (d. 1744).

1725 The Order of St. Alexander Nevsky was instituted in Russia by the empress Catherine I.

1758 Mary Campbell was abducted from her home in Pennsylvania by Lenape during the French and Indian War.

 

1780 Elizabeth Fry, British social reformer, was born (d. 1845).

 

1809 The first day of the Battle of Aspern-Essling between the Austrian army led by Archduke Charles and the French army led by Napoleon I of France.

1840 Lieutenant-Governor William Hobson proclaimed sovereignty over all of New Zealand: over the North Island on the basis of cession by the Treaty of Waitangi and the southern islands by right of discovery.

 1851  Slavery was abolished in Colombia.

1856  Lawrence, Kansas was captured and burned by pro-slavery forces.

1863  American Civil War: Siege of Port Hudson – Union forces begin to lay siege to the Confederate-controlled Port Hudson, Louisiana.

 

1864 Russia declared an end to the Russian-Circassian War and many Circassians were forced into exile. The day is designated the Circassian Day of Mourning.

 

1871  French troops invaded the Paris Commune and engage its residents in street fighting. By the close of “Bloody Week” some 20,000 communards have been killed and 38,000 arrested.

 

1871  Opening of the first rack railway in Europe, the Rigi-Bahnen on Mount Rigi.

1879  War of the Pacific: Two Chilean ships blocking the harbor of Iquique (then belonging to Peru) battled two Peruvian vessels in the Battle of Iquique.

1881  The American Red Cross was established by Clara Barton.

1894  The Manchester Ship Canal in England was officially opened by Queen Victoria, who knighted its designer Sir Edward Leader Williams.

 

1904 Fats Waller, American pianist, was born  (d. 1943).

1904 The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) was founded in Paris.

1907 John C. Allen, American roller coaster designer, was born  (d. 1979).

1916 – Harold Robbins, American novelist (d. 1997).

 

1917 Raymond Burr, Canadian actor (d. 1993).

 

1917  The Commonwealth War Graves Commission was established through Royal Charter to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations military forces.

1917  The Great Atlanta fire of 1917.

 

1924  Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold, Jr. murdered 14-year-old Bobby Franks in a “thrill killing”.

 

1927 Charles Lindbergh touched down at Le Bourget Field in Paris, completing the world’s first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

1930 Malcolm Fraser, 22nd Prime Minsiter of Australia, was born.

1932 Bad weather forced Amelia Earhart to land in a pasture in Derry, Northern Ireland, and she thereby becme the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.

1934 Oskaloosa, Iowa, became the first municipality in the United States to fingerprint all of its citizens.

1936 Sada Abe was arrested after wandering the streets of Tokyo for days with her dead lover’s severed genitals in her hand.

1937  A Soviet station became the first scientific research settlement to operate on the drift ice of the Arctic Ocean.

1939 The National War Memorial (Canada) was unveiled by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in Ottawa.

1941 Ronald Isley, American singer (The Isley Brothers), was born.

1943 Hilton Valentine, British guitarist (The Animals), was born.

1944  Mary Robinson, President of Ireland, was born.

1946 Physicist Louis Slotin was fatally irradiated in a criticality incident during an experiment with the Demon core at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

 

1948 – Leo Sayer, English musician, was born.

1951 The opening of the Ninth Street Show, otherwise known as the 9th Street Art Exhibition – a gathering of a number of notable artists, and the stepping-out of the post war New York avant-garde, collectively know as the New York School.

1952 Mr. T, American actor, was born.

1958 United Kingdom Postmaster General Ernest Marples announced that from December,  subscriber trunk dialling will be introduced in the Bristol area.

1961  American civil rights movement: Alabama Governor John Malcolm Patterson declared martial law in an attempt to restore order after race riots break out.

1966 The Ulster Volunteer Force declared  war on the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland.

 

1969 Civil unrest in Rosario, Argentina, known as Rosariazo, following the death of a 15-year-old student.

 

1972  Michelangelo’s Pietà in St. Peter’s Basilica was damaged by a vandal,  Hungarian geologist Laszlo Toth.

1979 White Night riots in San Francisco following the manslaughter conviction of Dan White for the assassinations of George Moscone and Harvey Milk.

1981 Irish Republican hunger strikers Raymond McCreesh and Patsy O’Hara died on hunger strike in Maze prison.

 

1990  Democratic Republic of Yemen and North Yemen agreed to a unity, merging into Republic of Yemen.

1991  Former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a suicide bomber near Madras.

1991  Mengistu Haile Mariam, president of the People’s Democratic Republic of Ethiopia,  fled Ethiopia, effectively bringing the Ethiopian Civil War to an end.

1994 Democratic Republic of Yemen unsuccessful attempts to secede from Republic of Yemen, war breaks out.

1996  The MV Bukoba sank in Tanzanian waters on Lake Victoria, killing nearly 1000.

1996  The Trappist Martyrs of Atlas were executed.

1998  In Miami, Florida, five abortion clinics were hit by a butyric acid attacker.

1998   Suharto, Indonesian president of 32 years, resigns.

2001  French Taubira law officially recognised the Atlantic slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity.

2003  An earthquake hit northern Algeria killing more than 2,000 people.

2004  Sherpa Pemba Dorjie climbed Mount Everest in 8 hours 10 minutes, breaking his rival Sherpa Lakpa Gelu’s record from the previous year.

2006  The Republic of Montenegro held a referendum proposing independence from the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro. The Montenegrin people choose independence with a majority of 55%.

2006  The Swedish ice hockey team Tre Kronor took gold in the World Championship, becoming the first nation to hold both the World and Olympic titles separately in the same year.

2007  The clipper  Cutty Sark was badly damaged by fire.

 

 Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.

7/10, 5/10

7/10 in the NZ Herald changing world quiz but only 5/10 in the World News one.

Friday’s answers

Thursday’s questions were:

1. Which Finance Minister presented the Black Budget in 1958?

2. Who holds the position of Associate Finance Minister?

3. It’s preventivo  in Italian, presupuesto in Spanish, (I can’t find it in Maori) – what does it mean in English?

4. Who said  ”Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.‘”  And in whcih book written by whom?

5. Who wrote: Not a Penny More Not a Penny Less?

Points for answers:(Letting everyone away with just one of the two associate ministers because it wasn’t clear fromt he question there is more than one).

JC got 1 1/3 with a grin for the possum.

Gravedoger and Bearhunter both  got five with a bonus for extra information winning an electronic batch banana cake (with choclate icing).

Paul got 3 1/3 and a bonus for wit.

Cadwallader got 2 1/3 with a bonus for wisdom.

Adam got four and a wry grin for staire.

1. Arnold Nordmeyer.

2. Steven Joyce and Simon Power.

3. Budget.

4. Wilkins Micawber in David Copperfield byCharles Dickens.

5. Jeffrey Archer.