Carbon farming could beat sheep

A Waikato study has found that carbon credits from trees grown on poorer hills could provide better returns than sheep.

There can be both economic and environmental gains from planting trees on erosion prone land.

At least some of this steep hill country would never have been developed had it not been for subsidies to boost stock numbers although this was neither economically nor environmentally sustainable.

The circle has turned and trees might now produce a better income with a better environmental outcome.

June 25 in history

524  Battle of Vézeronce, the Franks defeated the Burgundians.

841  Battle of Fontenay.

1530  At the Diet of Augsburg the Augsburg Confession was presented to the Holy Roman Emperor by the Lutheran princes and Electors of Germany.

Reading of the Confessio Augustana by Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Augsburg, 1530

1678  Elena Cornaro Piscopia was the first woman awarded a doctorate of philosophy.

 

1741  Maria Theresa of Austria was crowned ruler of Hungary.

1786  Gavriil Pribylov discovered St. George Island of the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea.

1788  Virginia became the 10th state to ratify the United States Constitution.

1876  Battle of the Little Bighorn and the death of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer.

1880 Potatau Te Wherowhero of Waikato, the first Maori king died.

1900 Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, Viceroy of India, was born (d. 1979).

1903 George Orwell (pen name of Eric Arthur Blair), British writer, was born  (d. 1950).

1903 Anne Revere, American actress, was born  (d. 1990).

1906  Pittsburgh millionaire Harry Thaw shot and killed prominent architect Stanford White.

1913  American Civil War veterans began arriving at the Great Reunion of 1913.

 

1913  Cyril Fletcher, British comedian, was born  (d. 2005).

 1923 Nicholas Mosley, British writer, was born.

1925 June Lockhart, American actress, was born.

1928 Peyo, Belgian illustrator, was born  (d. 1992).

 1938  Dr. Douglas Hyde was inaugurated the first President of Ireland.

1939  Clint Warwick, English musician (The Moody Blues), was born (d. 2004).

 

1944  World War II: The Battle of Tali-Ihantala, the largest battle ever fought in the Nordic Countries, began.

1945 Carly Simon, American singer, was born.

1947  The Diary of Anne Frank was published.

1948  The Berlin airlift began.

1949  Long-Haired Hare, starring Bugs Bunny, was released in theatres.

1950  The Korean War began with the invasion of South Korea by North Korea.

1952  Tim Finn, New Zealand singer/songwriter, was born.

1961 Ricky Gervais, English comedian, actor, writer, was born.

1962 Phill Jupitus, English comedian and broadcaster, was born.

1967  First live global satellite television programme – Our World

 The Intelsat I nicknamed “Early Bird”, one of the satellites used

1975  Mozambique achieved independence.

1981  Microsoft was restructured to become an incorporated business in its home state of Washington.

1982 Greece abolished the head shaving of recruits in the military.

1991  Croatia and Slovenia declared their independence from Yugoslavia.

1993  Kim Campbell was chosen as leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada and became the first female Prime Minister of Canada.

1996  The Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia killed 19 U.S. servicemen.

 

1997  An unmanned Progress spacecraft collidedwith the Russian space station, Mir.

1997   The Soufrière Hills volcano in Montserrat erupted resulting in the deaths of 19 people.

1998  In Clinton v. City of New York, the United States Supreme Court decided that the Line Item Veto Act of 1996 was unconstitutional.

2006 Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier, was kidnapped by Palestinian terrorists in a cross-border raid from the Gaza Strip.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

Word of the day

Scobiform -  like sawdust or scrapings.

Te Tai Tokerau close – iPredict

People putting their money on iPredict are favouring Hone Harawira to hold Te Tia Tokerau in tomorrow’s by-election.

Vote share contracts were launched this week for tomorrow’s Te Tai Tokerau by-election, and the market is predicting an extremely tight race. Hone Harawira is expected to receive 41.1% of the vote, with Labour’s Kelvin Davis a close second with 40.1%. The Maori Party’s Solomon Tipene is expected to receive 18.0% of the vote. However, Mr Harawira’s position in November’s General Election has strengthened over the past week, with the market indicating he has a 70% probability of winning Te Tai Tokerau in November (up from 52% last week).

The Electoral Commission website still isn’t showing Mana as a registered party but Graeme Edgeler has a media release saying it has been registered.

That means if Harawira wins his gamble will have paid off with extra funding as the leader of a registered party.

iPredict isn’t a poll but that result does reflect last week’s poll showing Harawira just ahead of Labour Kelvin Davis.

Maori electorates have a low voter turnout in general elections and people are usually even less enthusiastic about voting in by-elections.

The result could hinge on the parties’ ability to motivate people to vote, if indeed the race is as close as polls and iPredict suggest.

Can we rely on them? The last word on that goes to Rob:

   Chris Trotter – and others – are saying the polls understate Hone Harawira’s support because a lot of his supporters use cellphones, and/or are young.  . .

Ah, yeah.  Parties doing badly in the polls always seem to argue that for some reason their supporters aren’t getting polled.  . .

There might be a bit more variation in tomorrow’s byelection, because it is for the country’s northern-most Maori electorate, and if the stereotypes are true, there is a disproportionate number of the country’s drug dealers in that electorate – people who famously buy cheap prepaid cellphones on Trademe rather than have a landline.   But I’m always dubious about stereotypes, especially self-serving ones, and this one is a bit too pat. I’m also not too sure if drug dealers are particularly conscientious about voting.

Tomorrow we might know no more about the drug dealers but we will know how good the predictions were.

Why didn’t he do this yesterday?

Manufacturers and Employers Federation Northern CEO Alasdair Thompson should have apologised properly yesterday.

Instead he compounded the stupidity of his initials comments with two prolonged interviews here and here.

Now he’s finally said what he should have said yesterday:

The Chief Executive of the Employers & Manufacturers Association, Alasdair Thompson has issued an unreserved and unqualified apology for his comments and behaviour in the media yesterday on the issues to do with equal pay.

“I apologise for my poor choice of words and bad judgment during the discussion about gender and productivity in the workplace,” Mr Thompson said.

He said what started out as a genuine concern for the problems women face in the workplace soon disintegrated into facile observations that did a disservice to what is a very serious matter.  

“I raised issues that were misplaced and irrelevant to the discussion,” Mr Thompson said.

“I realise my remarks offended many people.

“I have personally always supported equal pay for equal work, equal opportunity, respect and courtesy for both women and men in the workplace. 

“The EMA unquestionably believes in equal pay and both the EMA and I believe gender plays no part in the productivity of a person, and that there is no justification for gender to influence what someone is paid.

“Although this experience has been very painful to me, it has also served as a valuable lesson – one I shall never forget.”

A lot of other people won’t forget it either.

Should they do so, Lew at Kiwpolitico has some very good advice  for anyone else at risk of putting both feet in their mouth.

UPDATE: Brian Edwards thinks Thompson has a case for complaining to the BSA.

PSA blaming wrong government

The Public Service Association is blaming the government for the loss of 100 Department of Conservation jobs.

The PSA is on the right track but has the wrong government. It’s the previous one which is to blame.

Labour made unsustainable increases in the cost of the public service in general and DoC in particular.

It took an aggressive  approach to increasing the conservation estate under the tenure review process, paid ridiculously high prices for high country land but didn’t provide for the extra costs of looking after it.

Now DoC’s budget is overstretched and its staff are paying the price for Labour’s folly.

Friday’s answers

Thursday’s questions were:

1. What does a luthier do?

2. Who said: “A person who won’t read has no advantage over one who can’t read.”?

3. What are the two missing lines in this verse:

If you can keep your head when all about you
  …………………………………………………………

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
 ………………………………………………………….

4. It’s  pomme de terre in French;  patata in Italian; patata  or papa in Spanish and puteito in Maori, what is it in English?

5. What is a Brassica oleracea botrytis?

P0ints for answers:

Robert got one and a thanks for correcting me (Maori Dictionary http://www.maoridictionary.co.nz/index.cfm?dictionaryKeywords=potato&n=1&idiom=&phrase=&proverb=&loan= said puteito is obsloute).

Andrei got three.

David got three and a bonus for deduction.

PDM got two and an almost (right family for the Brassica, but wrong member).

Gravedodger got two and an apology for taking him back to school memories.

Adam wins an electronic batch of biscuits with four right.

Paul got two and a bonus for wit.

Answers follow the break:

9/10

9/10 in the NZ Herald’s changing world quiz.

Honesty compels me to confess there was a fair amount of luck involved.

No need for another investigation into milk price

The Ministries of Agriculture and Economic Development and Treasury havelaunched a second probe into Fonterra’s pricing of milk.

They could save themselves a lot of time and effort by reading the National Bank’s Agrifocus which says :

On the face of it, it seems the rise in the price of fresh milk can be largely explained by the increase in international dairy prices and on-farm costs. Furthermore, the increase in fresh milk prices has not been out of step with the increase in the price of other staples. Its per unit cost when compared to other substitutes is particularly curious as it takes a considerable amount of money to produce, collect, transport, process and manufacture, store, ship and keep cool. In many cases milk is a far superior, nutrient–rich product.

If price increases alone are the precursor to an inquiry, then we would seem to need a lot of inquiries into other areas! Of course this will not be the case. The real issue is how economic agents adjust to the realities of a rising trend in real commodity prices – a reverse of the trend seen over the prior century.  New Zealand benefits hugely from such a trend, though there is a consumer cost along the way.

We export food and those exports are one of the few bright spots in the economy at the moment.

When demand and prices are high on international markets the price increases on the domestic market.

That doesn’t make it easy for people struggling on tight budgets but the problem isn’t high export prices it’s low incomes.

The report looked at the  rising cost of milk must be considered in conjunction with comparable movements in other staples and substitutes; rising input costs at the different levels of the supply chain; and international dairy prices.

Looking at the price movements of key foodstuffs over a 10 year period shows that the price of fresh milk has increased by 36 percent over this period, or 3.6 percent per annum. Over the same 10–year period, the headline inflation rate has risen 31 percent. Interestingly though, the price of different types of meats, bread and other dairy products, such as cheese, have all increased more than fresh milk over the last 10 years! The price of sheepmeat is the front-runner, increasing 73 percent over the last 10 years, over twice the rate of headline inflation.  There is some irony in this.  Economists normally point to competition as a way of keeping a lid on prices and there is certainly a lot of competition in the sheepmeat industry, so much in fact that people are calling for consolidation! So here we have an industry that has more competition and fragmentation than the dairy sector, which has seen higher price rises!  Of course, the underlying causes of price movements are far more extensive than that (i.e. reduced sheep numbers has led prices higher) but we still thought it worth noting.

Prices have gone up but let’s put it in perspective. A comparison with other liquid products (which don’t have the nutirtional benefits milk does) shows:

 It costs $1.84 for a standard litre of milk, $2.73 for a litre of bottled water, $1.52 for a litre of fizzy, $1.92 for fruit juice and $5.12 for a litre of beer (according to Statistics New Zealand).The price differential between milk and water is particularly curious in a country such as New Zealand where it is fine to drink water out of the tap.

In addition, we are trying to move up the value–added chain as an exporting nation but sometimes bemoan some brand–based products.  The suggestion that some branded milk products are priced too high seems perverse when we have constantly been told by various commentators, academics and successive governments that we need to build brands and market our products to add greater value (i.e. extract more money out of consumer wallets).  Especially when you consider the tap water/branded water differential!  It would be nonsensical to suggest that dairy companies should build brands offshore but not try to do the same in the domestic market. The discontent at the price of branded milk products seems to go against all the business principles that various individuals have preached over the last 20 years. And there is always the simple fact that if you cannot afford the branded product you can always purchase the unbranded one, which particularly in the case of fresh milk is very close in quality and content.

The other factor which impacts on the milk price is the cost of production.

Dairy farm total input prices have increased by nearly 34 percent, 3 percent more than aggregate consumer prices, and 2 percent less than the price increase for fresh milk.This would, on the face of it, seem to explain nearly all the observed milk price increase over the past 10 years. Ultimately, a complete examination would include other parts of the supply chain, notably the dairy processing sector, the two New Zealand supermarket chains and local dairies. This analysis would include margin and cost movements, but because of commercial sensitivity, it is difficult for us to obtain a complete dataset that would allow a full assessment for fresh milk.

Eleven of the 17 farm working expenditure categories have increased more than the price of milk.

The main culprits are fuel and electricity, which have increased a whopping 92 and 87 percent respectively over the last 10 years, or 9.2 and 8.7 percent respectively year-on-year.

One of the reasons fuel and electricity prices have increased is the imposition of the ETS. If Labour acts on its threat to force farmers to pay additional ETS levies it will impact on the price of milk.

Responsible but not at fault

Anger is a natural and normal reaction to stress, tiredness,  frustration and fear.

Christchurch people want someone to blame and some have chosen Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee.

In spite of the fact that his own home has been badly damaged, he remains focussed on the recovery effort and  he has reacted to the pressure and personal attacks with grace:

“I’m getting a bit of flak, you know, people are asking questions but inevitably in a circumstance like this someone cops it. You’ve only got to look at the distress in people’s lives at the moment to know that anything that is vented my way is not worth worrying about. It’s done at a time when people are under extreme stress – I understand that.”

Christchurch people have had more than enough.

The Minister is responsible for the recovery but he’s not at fault for the the time it’s taking.

There is nothing he or anyone else can do to provide the faster and more concrete solution people want for what Gravedodger correctly calls a liquid situation.

June 24 in history

972 Battle of Cedynia, the first documented victory of Polish forces.

 

1128  Battle of São Mamede, near Guimarães:Portuguese forces led by Alfonso I defeated his mother D. Teresa and D. Fernão Peres de Trava. 

1314  First War of Scottish Independence: The Battle of Bannockburn concluded with a decisive victory of the Scottish forces led by Robert the Bruce, though England did not recognise Scottish independence until 1328 with the signing of the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton.

 

1340  Hundred Years’ War: Battle of Sluys: The French fleet was almost destroyed by the English Fleet commanded in person by Edward III of England.

1374  A sudden outbreak of St. John’s Dance caused people in the streets of Aachen, Germany, to experience hallucinations and began to jump and twitch uncontrollably until they collapsed from exhaustion.

1441  King Henry VI founded Eton College.

1497  John Cabot landed in North America at Newfoundland; the first European exploration of the region since the Vikings.

1497  Cornish rebels Michael An Gof and Thomas Flamank were executed at Tyburn, London.

1509  Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon were crowned King and Queen of England.

 

1535  The Anabaptist state of Münster was conquered and disbanded.

1542  St. John of the Cross, Spanish Carmelite mystic and poet, was born (d. 1591).

1571  Miguel Lopez de Legazpi founded Manila, the capital of the Republic of the Philippines.

1597  The first Dutch voyage to the East Indies reached Bantam (on Java).

1604  Samuel de Champlain discovered the mouth of the Saint John River, site of Reversing Falls and the present day city of Saint John, New Brunswick.

1662  The Dutch attemptted but failed to capture Macau.

1664  The colony of New Jersey was founded.

1692 Kingston, Jamaica was founded.

1717  The Premier Grand Lodge of England, the first Masonic Grand Lodge in the world (now the United Grand Lodge of England), was founded in London.

1748  John Wesley and his brother Charles Wesley opened the Kingswood School in Bristol.

1793 The first republican constitution in France was adopted.

1794 Bowdoin College was founded.

1812 Napoleonic Wars: Napoleon’s Grande Armée crossed the Neman River beginning his invasion of Russia.

1813 Henry Ward Beecher, American clergyman and reformer, was born  (d. 1887).

1813  Battle of Beaver Dams : A British and Indian combined force defeat the U.S Army.

1821  The Battle of Carabobo took place – the decisive battle in the war of independence of Venezuela from Spain.

1859  Battle of Solferino: (Battle of the Three Sovereigns). Sardinia and France defeat Austria in Solferino, northern Italy.

1866  Battle of Custoza: an Austrian army defeats the Italian army during the Austro-Prussian War.

1880  First performance of O Canada, the song that became the national anthem of Canada, at the Congrès national des Canadiens-Français.

1893 Roy O. Disney, a founder of the Walt Disney Company, was born  (d. 1971).

1894  Marie Francois Sadi Carnot was assassinated by Sante Geronimo Caserio.

1901  First exhibition of Pablo Picasso‘s work opened.

1902 King Edward VII developed  appendicitis, delaying his coronation.

 1905  NZ Truth was launched.

 

1916  Mary Pickford became the first female film star to get a million dollar contract.

1916  World War I: The Battle of the Somme began with a week long artillery bombardment on the German Line.

1918  First airmail service in Canada from Montreal to Toronto.

1922  The American Professional Football Association formally changed its name to the National Football League.

1928  With declining business, the International Railway (New York – Ontario) began using one-person crews on trolley operations in Canada.

1932  A bloodless Revolution instigated by the People’s Party ended the absolute power of King Prajadhipok of Siam (Thailand).

 

1938  Pieces of a meteor, estimated to have weighed 450 metric tons when it hit the Earth’s atmosphere and exploded, land near Chicora, Pennsylvania.

1939  Siam was renamed to Thailand by Plaek Pibulsonggram, the third Prime Minister.

1944 Jeff Beck, English musician (The Yardbirds).

1945  The Moscow Victory Parade took place.

1947  Mick Fleetwood, English musician (Fleetwood Mac), was born.

1947  Kenneth Arnold made the first widely reported UFO sighting near Mount Rainier, Washington.

 Patrick Moraz, Swiss keyboard player (Yes) was born.

1948  Start of the Berlin Blockade. The Soviet Union makes overland travel between the West with West Berlin impossible.

 

1949 John Illsley, English bassist (Dire Straits) was born.

1949  The first Television Western, Hopalong Cassidy, was aired on NBC starring William Boyd.

1957  In Roth v. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that obscenity was not protected by the First Amendment .

1961 Curt Smith, English musician and songwriter (Tears for Fears), was born.

1963  The United Kingdom grants Zanzibar internal self-government.

1975  An Eastern Air Lines Boeing 727 crashes at John F. Kennedy Airport, New York. 113 people died.

1981  The Humber Bridge was opened to traffic, connecting Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.

1982  British Airways Flight 9, sometimes referred to as “the Jakarta incident”, flies into a cloud of volcanic ash thrown up by the eruption of Mount Galunggung, resulting in the failure of all four engines.

1985  STS-51-G Space Shuttle Discovery completed its mission.

1993  Yale computer science professor Dr. David Gelernter lost the sight in one eye, the hearing in one ear, and part of his right hand after receiving a mailbomb from the Unabomber.

1994  A United States Air Force B-52 aircraft crashed at Fairchild Air Force Base, killing all four members of its crew.

2002  The Igandu train disaster in Tanzania killed 281, the worst train accident in African history.

2004  In New York state, capital punishment was declared unconstitutional.

2007  The Angora Fire started near South Lake Tahoe, California destroying 200+ structures in its first 48 hours.

2010 – John Isner of the United States defeated Nicolas Mahut of France at Wimbledon, in the longest match in professional tennis history.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

Performance anxiety & pay parity

The chief executive of the  Manufacturing Excuses Asssociation, Alice Deerthompson has casued an uproar from gender equality activists after saying that men can’t expect to be paid the same rates as women because they have performance problems.

Ms Deerthompson apologised for causing offence but didn’t resile from what she said.

“The facts speak for themselves,” she said. “Men and women, fortunately are different. Men suffer from manflu. In 30 years as a CEO I have never had a woman take time off for manflu, it is 100% a problem suffered by men.

“Men are fathers, they have children and they take time off to look after them. I haven’t once had a woman ask to leave work early to be father-help at school. Absenteeism for father-help in every workplace I’ve ever been associated with has been  100% a man’s problem.”

Ms Deerthompson said she wasn’t sexist.

“I’m a strong supporter and advocate for equal pay for equal work, but let’s face it people with performance anxiety can’t be relied on to be as productive as those biologically advantaged who are free from it.”

“Let’s face it, you can’t fight biology. Men are sensitive wee souls and sometimes, due to entirely natural cycles over which they have no control – the fortunes of their sports teams, bachelor parties, duck shooting, boys’ weekends . . .  their performance suffers. Some days,  they’re just not up to scratch and no employer is going to pay them the same rates of pay as women whose performance isn’t affected in this way.”

“Performance is the key, equal pay for equal performance.”

Ms Deerthompson declined to be interviewed on camera because she said that unlike some people she’d learned that when you’re in a hole it’s best to stop digging.

Earthquake package gives choice

The government’s announcement of the next steps for Christchurch people offers some choice to property owners in the worst affected areas:

Advice from geotechnical engineers has seen all greater Christchurch land divided into four residential zones – red, orange, green and white.

Residential red zones – which involve around 5000 properties – are where the land is unlikely to be able to be rebuilt on for a considerable period of time.

Homeowners in this zone face lengthy disruption that could go on for many years, Mr Key said.

For people who owned property with insurance in the residential red zones on 3 September 2010 there will be two options:

• the Crown makes an offer of purchase for the entire property at current rating value (less any built property insurance payments already made), and assumes all the insurance claims other than contents; or
• the Crown makes an offer of purchase for the land only, and homeowners can continue to deal with their own insurer about their homes.

The government has been criticised for leaving people in limbo but the Prime Minister explained why it has taken so long to get to this point:

Mr Key said the size, scale and complexity of the issues the government has been dealing with following the earthquakes means it has taken some time to get information to residents.

“Each subsequent earthquake since 4 September has made an already large and complex challenge more difficult.

“To put this in context, Treasury has estimated the combined cost of the first two Canterbury earthquakes to be equivalent to about 8 per cent of New Zealand’s GDP.

“Damage from the 1995 Kobe earthquake in Japan was just over 2 per cent of Japan’s GDP, Hurricane Katrina in 2005 cost about 1 per cent of US GDP, and March’s Japanese earthquake and tsunami disaster was an estimated 3-5 per cent of Japan’s GDP.

“This has been a major event and the government is committed to getting things right for the people of Canterbury. We’re moving as quickly as we can to give some certainty to those affected,” Mr Key said.

Treasury estimates put the net cost of all the properties in the red zone – about 5000 – at $485 million to $635 million.

The number of people who take up the offer, government valuations and insurance payouts will determine the final costs which will be met from the $5.5 billion Canterbury Earthquake recovery Fund.

People have nine months to consider the offer.

The government can’t make the problems go away but this is a generous offer which gives people choices and time to consider their options.

Earthquake Minister Gerry Brownlee says the information released today is the most up to date information that can be provided. Details are here.

It includes the announcement that people in the green zone are free to rebuild. People in the orange zone – owners of about 10,000 properties will ahve tow ait before more work is done.

A website, LandCheck, has been set up for people to check the staus of their properties.

A video of the announcement by The Prime Minsiter and Minister is here.

Thursday’s quiz

1. What does a luthier do?

2. Who said: “A person who won’t read has no advantage over one who can’t read.”?

3. What are the two missing lines in this poem:

If you can keep your head when all about you
  …………………………………………………………

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
 ………………………………………………………….

4. It’s  pomme de terre in French;  patata in Italian; patata  or papa in Spanish and puteito in Maori, what is it in English?

5. What is a Brassica oleracea botrytis?

Send in the clowns

This calls for a caption:

Humour is welcome, a political slant is inevitable but no personal invective, please.

Mixed ownership provides opportunities for local investors

State Services Minister Tony Ryall is correct when he says there can be no guarantee that shares in state assets will remain in the hands of New Zealanders.

It might be possible to control who makes the initial purchase  and to ensure a certain percentage of shares remain in local hands – although that will have to be done very carefully if it’s not to lower their value. 

But in a free market with an open economy, onerous restrictions on who people could sell their shares to would be at best problematic.

That won’t stop opponents to even a partial sale of some state ownership playing politics over the prospect of foreign investment.

What those people will gloss over or ignore is that National’s policy is for a mixed-ownership model where no more than 49% is sold. The state would retain at least 51% of any SOE offered for partial sale so even if all the shares sold went overseas, the majority share of the company would still be New Zealand owned.

Even then it is most unlikely that all or even most of the minority shareholding sold would end up in foreign hands. Even if individual shareholders didn’t hold on to their shares for long, institutions like the New Zealand Superannuation Fund, ACC, community trusts, Iwi and the various companies with KiwiSaver accounts would.

Instead of complaining about the potential for foreign money to come into New Zealand, we should be celebrating the opportunity for these big local institutions to keep more of their funds at home.

What about the uninsured?

This afternoon’s announcement on assistance for property owners in parts of Christchurch will apply to those who had insurance.

NZPA understands the offer that is going to be put on the table is for insured houses in the worst-affected suburbs and the payout will be at the government valuation for the houses immediately before the first earthquake in September.

The Government will pay the money upfront and then get most of it back from insurance companies and the Earthquake Commission.

What about the uninsured?

They might be eligible for welfare but they cannot receive compensation without undermining the insurance industry.

They took the risk of remaining uninsured and they will have to pay the price.

That might seem tough, but a conversation I overheard between two supermarket workers explains why that is the way it must be:

“I’ve paid premiums for 20 years and never had to claim. Why would you bother if you knew that those who paid nothing would get something?” one said.

“Well you wouldn’t would you?” the other replied.

 

June 23 in history

47 BC Pharaoh Ptolemy XV Caesarion of Egypt was born  (d. 30 BC).

79 Titus Caesar Vespasianus succeeded his father Vespasianus as tenth Roman Emperor.

1180 First Battle of Uji, starting the Genpei War in Japan.

1305 The Flemish-French peace treaty was signed at Athis-sur-Orge.

1314  First War of Scottish Independence The Battle of Bannockburn, south of Stirling, began.

1532  Henry VIII and François I signed a secret treaty against Emperor Charles V.

1565  Turgut Reis (Dragut), commander of the Ottoman navy, died during the Siege of Malta.

1611  The mutinous crew of Henry Hudson‘s fourth voyage set Henry, his son and seven loyal crew members adrift in an open boat in what is now Hudson Bay; they were never heard from again.

1661  Marriage contract between Charles II of England and Catherine of Braganza.

 

1683  William Penn signed friendship treaty with Lenni Lenape Indians in Pennsylvania.

1713  The French residents of Acadia were given one year to declare allegiance to Britain or leave Nova Scotia.

1757 Battle of Plassey – 3,000 British troops under Robert Clive defeated a 50,000 strong Indian army under Siraj Ud Daulah at Plassey.

1758  Seven Years’ War: Battle of Krefeld – British forces defeated French troops at Krefeld in Germany.

1760 – Seven Years’ War: Battle of Landeshut – Austria defeated Prussia.

1780 American Revolution: Battle of Springfield.

1794  Empress Catherine II of Russia granted Jews permission to settle in Kiev.

1810  John Jacob Astor formed the Pacific Fur Company.

1812  War of 1812: Great Britain revoked the restrictions on American commerce, thus eliminating one of the chief reasons for going to war.

1812 – Napoleonic Wars: Napoleon I of France invadesd Russia.

1860  The United States Congress established the Government Printing Office.

1865  American Civil War: At Fort Towson in the Oklahoma Territory, Confederate Brigadier General Stand Watie surrendered the last significant rebel army.

1868  Christopher Latham Sholes received a patent for Type-Writer.

 

1887 The Rocky Mountains Park Act became law in Canada, creating the nation’s first national park, Banff National Park.

1894 King Edward VIII was born (d. 1972).

1894  The International Olympic Committee was founded at the Sorbonne, at the initiative of Baron Pierre de Coubertin.

1914  Mexican Revolution: Francisco Villa took Zacatecas from Victoriano Huerta.

1917  In a game against the Washington Senators, Boston Red Sox pitcher Ernie Shore retired 26 batters in a row after replacing Babe Ruth, who had been ejected for punching the umpire.

1919  Estonian Liberation War: The decisive defeat of German Freikorps (Baltische Landeswehr) forces in the Battle of Cesis (Võnnu lahing). This day is celebrated as Victory Day in Estonia.

1926 The College Board administered the first SAT exam.

1931 Wiley Post and Harold Gatty took off from Roosevelt Field, Long Island in an attempt to circumnavigate the world in a single-engine plane.

 

1937  Niki Sullivan, American guitarist (The Crickets), was born  (d. 2004) .

1938 The Civil Aeronautics Act was signed into law, forming the Civil Aeronautics Authority in the United States.

 

1940 Adam Faith, English singer and actor was born, (d 2003).

1940 Stuart Sutcliffe, English musician (The Beatles) , was born (d. 1962).

1940 – World War II: German leader Adolf Hitler surveys newly defeated Paris in now occupied France.

1941 Roger McDonald, Australian author, was born.

1941 The Lithuanian Activist Front declared independence from the Soviet Union and formed the Provisional Government of Lithuania.

1942 World War II: The first selections for the gas chamber at Auschwitz took place on a train load of Jews from Paris.

1942  World War II: Germany’s latest fighter, a Focke-Wulf FW190 was captured intact when it mistakenly landsedat RAF Pembrey in Wales.

1943  World War II: British destroyers HMS Eclipse and HMS Laforey sank the Italian submarine Ascianghi in the Mediterranean after she torpedoed the cruiser HMS Newfoundland.

1945 World War II: The Battle of Okinawa ended when organised resistance of Imperial Japanese Army forces collapsed.

 

1946  The 1946 Vancouver Island earthquake struck Vancouver Island.

 

1947  The United States Senate followed the United States House of Representatives in overriding U.S. President Harry Truman’s veto of the Taft-Hartley Act.

1956  Gamal Abdel Nasser was elected president of Egypt.

1958  The Dutch Reformed Church accepted women ministers.

 

1959  Convicted Manhattan Project spy Klaus Fuchs was released after only nine years in prison and allowed to emigrate to Dresden.

1959  A fire in a resort hotel in Stalheim, Norway killed 34 people.

1961 Cold War: The Antarctic Treaty, which set aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and banned military activity on the continent, came into force after the opening date for signature set for the December 1, 1959.

1965 Paul Arthurs, British guitarist (Oasis), was born.

 Oasis, 1997. L-R: Alan White, Paul McGuigan, Noel Gallagher, Paul Arthurs, and Liam Gallagher.

1967  Cold War: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson met with Soviet Premier Aleksei Kosygin in Glassboro, New Jersey for the three-day Glassboro Summit Conference.

1968  74 were killed and 150 injured in a football stampede towards a closed exit in a Buenos Aires stadium.

1969 Warren E. Burger was sworn in as chief justice of the United States Supreme Court by retiring chief justice Earl Warren.

1972  Watergate Scandal: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon and White House chief of staff H. R. Haldeman were taped talking about using the Central Intelligence Agency to obstruct the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s investigation into the Watergate break-ins.

1972 45 countries left the Sterling Area, allowing their currencies to fluctuate independently of the British Pound.

1973   The International Court of Justice condemned French nuclear tests in the Pacific.

1973 A fire at a house in Hull, England, which killed a six year old boy was passed off as an accident; it later emerged as the first of 26 deaths by fire caused over the next seven years by arsonist Peter Dinsdale.

1985  A terrorist bomb aboard Air India flight 182 brought the Boeing 747 down off the coast of Ireland, killing all 329 aboard.

1988 James E. Hansen testified to the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources that it is 99% probable that global warming had begun.

1989 The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a law passed by the U.S. Congress banning all sexually oriented phone message services was unconstitutional.

1991 Moldova declared independence.

1998 – Paul Reitsma resigned his seat in the British Columbia legislature; the first elected politician in the British Commonwealth to be removed from office by legally-binding petition.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

Maybe the end of the beginning

Some Christchurch people will find out the fate of their properties tomorrow with a briefing from Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee:

“As part of this announcement, the government will be presenting options for homeowners with insurance in some of the worst affected areas,” Mr Brownlee said.

“This is the next step in the government’s commitment to providing timely and accurate information to the people of greater Christchurch. While we will not be able to provide all the answers to all residents tomorrow, we will continue to provide regular updates to residents on progress over coming weeks.

“This announcement will provide some certainty for residents in the worst affected areas, and will give them options for their immediate future.”

Gravedodger says everyone is a little bit more fragile. That will be putting it mildly for the people living with the ongoing fear and disruption and Ciaron’s comment at Keeping Stock reminds us of the difficulties facing professionals who are tasked with recovery efforts.

Tomorrow’s announcement won’t be the end of the problems for the people affected nor, as Churchill said the beginning of the end, but it might be the end of the beginning.

“We will be releasing the most up-to-date information we have about the state of the land in greater Christchurch.”

If law doesn’t say we can’t we can

A reason to be grateful for our British heritage in this quote of the week from Tim Worstall:

. . .  this is a very basic point about the freedoms and liberties of the English. We do not need to ask politicians for permission to do what we desire to do. We only have to be careful not to do what our elected representatives have decided we should not do.

 Since most of our law is based on British law, we too are at liberty do what we will without seeking permission from our law makers.

Providing there isn’t a law saying we can’t, we can.