September 26 in history

On September 26:

1580 Sir Francis Drake completed his circumnavigation of the world.

1888 US poet & playwright T.S. (Thomas Stearns) Eliot was born.

Drawing of Eliot by Simon Fieldhouse

1898 composer George Gershwin was born.

 1907 Elnglish art historian & Soviet spy Anthony Blunt was born.

1907 Sir Joseph Ward proclaimed New Zealand’s dominion status.

1932 Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was born.

 1933 Donna Douglas, US actress who played Ely May Clampet in the Beverly Hillbillies, was born.

1936 South African activist Winnie Madikizela-Mandela was born.

1945 English singer Bryan Ferry was born.

1947 US country singer Lynn Anderson was born.

1948 English-born Australian singer Olivia Newton John was born.

1949 US novelist Jane Smiley was born.

1949 English crime writer Minette Walters was born.

1962 The Yemen Arab Republic was proclaimed.

1964 English singer Nicki French was born.

 

 

1973 Concorde made its first Trans Atlantic flight in record time.

 

1981 US tennis player Serena Williams was born.

 

From poems to prose

Friday has been poetry day here for more than a year.

I’m keeping the literary theme but moving from single poems to a discussion of books – novels, biographies, poetry . . .  old and new.

Probably starting next week because events have overtaken my intention to start today.

Did you see the one about . . .

Art is everywhere – Art & My Life discovers children learn fast.

On your marks get set at Bespoke Media Training where Bill Ralston finds TVNZ’s negotiating skills aren’t what they should be.

Show your love with Vogels – Cactus Kate’s top 10 gift list.

A bit of a squeeze – Opinionated Mummy shows some smart cars.

Don’t dream it’s over – Macdoctor’s sure it isn’t apropos of which Not PC posts Hurrah! we’re round the corner at last.

Champagne Charlie – Quote Unquote wonders where a bottle smuggler put the bottles. He also posts a wee bit of humour on changes in language.

Unlike the rest of the world we like America – Updated with Letterman Top 10

John Key often speaks off the cuff, whether he’d rehearsed what he said when he appeared on the Letterman show or not, this comment would be hard to beat:

“Unlike the rest of the world, we like America”.

It might have been said with a smile, but there is a very serious message in that statement.

He will however, be hoping that no-one took him seriously when he said:

“New Zealand is a convenient 20-hour flight away” and “if you go in the next 30 days I’ll pick you up at the airport personally”.

Key also rang the bell which closes the New York Stock exchange.

New Zealand Stock Exchange boss Mark Weldon says ringing the bell is a highly coveted honour bestowed on visiting dignitaries.

Mr Weldon says the financial markets all cover the ringing of the bell and the prime minister will get great profile for New Zealand by doing it.

If my experience is anything to go by a lot of Americans won’t know where New Zealand is – and ignorance of our location or even existence isn’t confined to the US.

That said, we have a lot to gain from warmer relationships with the US. Hopefully a few of the people who do know where New Zealand is and are in a position to influence policy will have got Key’s message.

UPDATE: (Hat Tip Rob’s Blcockhead) The Top 10 List from the show:

UPDATE:

The quote I linked to above got it wrong. Key said: “Unlike most of the world we still like Americans.”

Sue Bradford resigning

Just heard on Nine to Noon that Green MP Sue Bradford has announced she’s resigning from parliament next month.

UPDATE:

The next person on the Green list is David Clendon. If he enters parliament the Greens will then have five male and four female MPs.

The NZ Herald says Clendon is:

. . . a sustainable business advisor, who is of Ngapuhi, Te Roroa and Pakeha heritage.

Kathryn Ryan interviewed RadioNZ National’s  chief reporter Jane Patterson who said the decision was prompted by Bradford’s loss of the contest for co-leadership to Metiria Turei. The interview will be online here soon  is now online here.

Ryan’s interview with Bradford will be online at the link above soon.

Brrrr # 3

We spent yesterday in Omarama where it was freezing all day & we’ve woken to fresh snow on the surrounding hills.

PM of NZ is also feeling cold.

Snow closed the Rimutaka road.

The weather forecast is gloomy.

And the clocks go forward an hour on Sunday.

Sigh.

Anyone want to join my campaign to delay the start of daylight saving by three or four weeks?

Coal to fertiliser plant for Southland?

Eastern Southland’s lignite coal could be turned in to fertiliser if joint investigations by farmer-owned co-operative Ravensdown and Solid Energy are successful.

Solid Energy, and agricultural fertiliser supplier, Ravensdown, are jointly investigating the viability of building a US$1 billion plus coal-to-fertiliser plant in Eastern Southland, harnessing the region’s world-scale lignite resource and making New Zealand self sufficient in, and potentially an exporter of, urea fertiliser.

The study will consider the economics and possible location of a plant producing up to 1.2 million tonnes a year of urea – a nitrogen fertiliser used to enhance grass growth – from up to 2 million tonnes a year of lignite mined from Solid Energy’s extensive lignite resources. At last year’s urea prices – up to US$800/tonne – this plant would have generated the equivalent of about NZ$1.5 billion per annum in export equivalent revenue – through a combination of import replacement and direct exports.

The venture could created up to 500 new jobs. The study should be completed early next year when the companies will decide if they proceed to the next stage. If they decide to go ahead construction could start by 2012 and the plant might be operating by late 2014.

Solid Energy’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr Don Elder, says: “. . . Agriculture is our most important economic sector . . .. Urea is a key input to increased farm productivity, but is mostly imported at present, which exposes our farmers to world supply volatility, and prices that can fluctuate widely. Producing urea from our vast lignite resources is a prime example of how New Zealand can capitalise on our position as one of the richest countries in the world in natural resources per capita.”

The lignite to uerea study is running in parallel with work to investigate producing diesel.

“Developing a urea plant in advance of constructing a lignite-to-diesel plant would allow New Zealand to have advanced gasification industry competency and capabilities in place at an earlier stage, to substantially facilitate further and larger developments. Alternatively the two developments could take place in parallel and form the basis of a “syngas park”, supplying clean syngas to multiple downstream applications including diesel and urea.”

Federated Farmers  president Don Nicolson said the responsible exploitation of our mineral wealth would play an important part in increasing productivity.

“The numbers involved in this feasibility study are mind-boggling.  Even if annually it converts two-million tonnes of lignite into fertiliser, there are enough proven lignite reserves to keep the plant ticking over for some 650 years.

“The study opens up the prospect of 500 new jobs and the construction of a state of the art facility in an investment worth some $1.4 billion.

“Given New Zealand imports some half million tonnes of gas or coal based urea each year, the new plant will likely be built to the latest environmental standards.  This has obvious benefits from a global climate change perspective.

“The really exciting thing is the potential of turning New Zealand from an importer into an exporter, generating the equivalent of $1.5 billion in export equivalent income each year. 

“That amount represents one and a half times the size of the wine industry or three times the current value of the wool clip.

“It’s also an example where companies can leverage off agriculture, New Zealand’s most important industry, into completely new areas.  In this case taking a low value mineral which occurs in vast quantities and turning that mineral into a high value export.

Turning a low value resource into fertiliser, replacing imports, creating jobs in rural Southland, doing it all to meet the highest environmental requirements . . .  If investigations show the project is feasable it will be very good news indeed.

September 25 in history

On September 25:

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

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

1897 US writer William Faulkener was born.

1921 Sir Robert Muldoon was born.

1929 English comedian Ronnie Barker was born.

1929 US broadcaster Barbara Walters was born.

1944 Michael Douglas was born.

1946 English actress Felicity Kendal was born.

1952 US actor Christopher Reeve was born.

1962 The People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria was proclaimed.

1969 English actress Catherine Zeta-Jones was born.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.

Sir Howard Morrison – Hine E Hine

Neill new Ecan chair

Alec Neil has replaced Sir Kerry Burke as chair of Environment Canterbury.

Councillors voted 8-6 to oust Burke in a no-confidence motion.  

Alec Neill has been voted in as the new chairman, 8-6 with Jo Kane retained as deputy.

Neill was a lawyer in Oamaru until he entered parliament as MP for Waitaki in 1990. He lost the seat on election night 1993 but was returned after special votes were counted – putting National back in government by one seat.

When Waitaki became part of the bigger Otago seat under MMP, Neill was beaten in the candidate selection by Gavan Herlihy who wont the new seat in 1996. However Neill was the next one on the list and returned to parliament later in the term. I’m hazy on the details, but it must have been when a sitting list member resigned. (I’m sure David Farrar will know).

By then he had moved to Christchurch and set up his own law firm. He  continued in law after he left parliament and won a seat on Ecan in 2003.

An urban-rural divide which Burke was unable to bridge was one of Ecan’s problems. I hope that Neill,  a former MP for the southern part of Ecan’s area and a Christchurch resident, will be more successful.

Sir Howard Morrison – How Great Thou Art

Sir Howard Morrison entertained New Zealanders for five decades.

The Howard Morrison Quartet on the radio is a backdrop to childhood memories and I met him once.

He was a guest at an IHC conference dinner.

He charmed us with a speech, he charmed us more with his singing and then he charmed us most by working the room, taking the time to speak to everyone.

I was sad to learn he died this morning, aged 74.

TVNZ has a tribute here.

Youtube has several clips of him in concert.

Another reason 500 members too few for party

The Veteran at No Minister has performed a community service by requesting that the Auditor General investigate payments made to  Jim Anderton as leader of the Progressive Party which is a party in name only.

This supports my contention that 500 members is too low a threshold for a group to enlist before they can register as a political party.

MMP lets wee parties into parliament where they cost us a lot of money and potentially into government where they can wield considerable power as well.

If they can’t get at least a couple of thousand people to agree with their principles and philosophy and pay a sub they’re not parties they’re lobby groups.

If the few remaining members are told to sign up to another party which leaves the group with just a leader, they’re not parties, they’re one-man vanity vehicles.

Spot the flaw in logic

Staff at a McDonalds drive-through refused to serve a motorcyclist on health and safety grounds.

Mr Martin, who has been riding for more than 30 years, has blasted the policy at the Otford fast food restaurant.

“It’s just nanny state gone mad,” said Mr Martin, who works in health and safety himself.

“They’re afraid I’ll go driving up the road clutching a bag of McDonald’s. I’ve got this huge boot under the seat the food goes in.

“In my more than 30 years of riding a motorcycle I can’t imagine anyone trying to eat food on the handlebars. You couldn’t get it past your visor for a start.”

Will they now stop serving people in cars in case they sip their coffee or eat their burgers while driving?

Do they check people wash their hands before they eat?

How soon before staff at fast food outlets start checking blood pressure and giving lectures on diet before they serve their customers?

Hat Tip: Adam Smith Institute.

Brrrr #2

This is what happens when the temperature drops over night and you get a frost while  irrigating.

The cloudy sky means it probably won’t warm up much all day.

It was chilly yesterday – I was in Dunedin and the temperature was only 9 degrees.

Have  I mentioned that the end of September is a wee bit early to move the clocks forward for daylight saving?

More good milk news

Two good news stories from Fonterra this week – this season’s forecast payout went up 55 cents on Tuesday and yesterday the co-operative announced the final payout for last season of $5.20.

This will do more for moral than anything else.

It is unlikely to lead to a spending spree because many dairy farms were budgeting for losses this year but the increased payout will allow more of them to break-even now.

It won’t lead to a return of the white gold rush of a couple of years ago, but it will take some pressure off seasonal lending and there will be a flow on effect through rural communities and the wider economy.

September 24 in history

On September 24:

622 the Prohet Muhammad completed his hegira from Mecca to Medina.

1725 Irish brewer Arthur Guinness was born.

1896 Novelist F. Scott (Francis Scott Key) Fitzgerald was born.

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

1941 US singer Linda McCartney was born.

1946 Cathay Pacific Airways was founded in Hong Kong.

1948 The Honda motor company was founded.

 

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.

Bruce Springsteen – Born to Run

It’s Bruce Springsteen’s birthday too.

I remember dancing to Born to Run many years ago – would it have been the late 70s or early 80s?

NZ aims for global alliance on ag emissions

Remember when non-smoking regulations first came in?

Half a room would be reserved for smokers and the other half for non-smokers.

It was a nonsense because even if smokers stuck to their side of the room their smoke didn’t.

Trying to tackle carbon emissions in some countries but not others is similarly stupid. If there’s a problem with emissions it’s a global one and reduction policies and remedies must take a global approach.

John Key recognises this and is using his time in New York to promote a Global Alliance on agricultural emissions.

“To feed the world’s growing population, we must find ways to produce more food without growing emissions,” says Mr Key.

“It will be agriculture that will have to meet the expected dramatic increase in global food demand over the coming decades, but this presents the world with the twin challenge of ensuring food security while reducing emissions.

“To meet this challenge, there is an urgent need for more international research and investment into new technologies and practices to help reduce agriculture-related emissions, and for greater co-ordination of existing efforts.

“New Zealand considers a Global Alliance on agricultural greenhouse gas mitigation research could meet this need and welcomes partners in this initiative.

Former Environment Minister Simon Upton has been appointed as a special envoy to work with other countries on this concept.

Agriculture Minister David Carter says New Zealand is well placed to make a significant contribution to the alliance.

“Our unique profile for a developed country, with almost half of all emissions coming from agriculture, has given us a firm foothold in understanding pastoral livestock emissions.

“Through a Global Alliance, we can find solutions faster, make better use of the money that is being spent around the world and encourage other countries and companies to do more,” says Mr Carter.

Associate Minister for Climate Change Issues Tim Groser said that food security is paramount and must not be compromised.

Mid-week Music

It’s Eric Boggle’s Bogle’s birthday.

And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda is probably his best known song.

Quote of the day

“I was black before I was elected president”

Barrack Obama response to a question on the Letterman Show over whether opposition to his health plan was racist.