Pleonasm – the use of more words than necesary to express an idea; a superfluous word or phrase; redundancy.
AA needs directions
10/01/2011The AA’s magazine is called Directions and that’s something the organisation’s pollsters need.
A survey asks which part of New Zealand respondents call home and gives the following options:
Auckland and Wellington could be the cities or provinces but if it specifies Dunedin, why not Christchurch?
Where’s Eastland and what do people who live in the Wairarapa, North, South and Central Otago put?
Rural round up
10/01/2011Gorse – Progressive Turmoil wants to put the pest in the shade:
A few hours of hard physical work sometimes provokes new ideas & different perspectives. So it was for me this morning, on the subject of gorse, NZ’s most serious weed. We are trying to clear gorse from some fairly steep hillsides and I was cutting it with a hand-held petrol-powered machine.
We normally think of gorse as a problem to be controlled, cleared from the land. Its a regulatory view of the plant: we want it gone. . .
Sheep breeder passionate about industry – Neal Wallace writes:
Four generations of Robertsons have sold Romney rams under the Merrydowns prefix, and the latest is as enthusiastic about the future of sheep as the first.
Blair Robertson and his wife Sally are now the masters of the Waikoikoi-based stud, which was started in 1937 by Blair’s great grandfather David Robertson and was subsequently run by the legendary D. H. Robertson and then Blair’s father, Graham. . .
Milk co-op delivers says Fonterra chairman – Hugh Stringleman writes in NZ Farmers Weekly:
In 10 years Fonterra has delivered more for New Zealand than first anticipated, according to chairman Sir Henry van der Heyden.
“Our NZIER study released before Christmas shows dairying provides 26% of NZ’s total goods exports,” van der Heyden, one of two remaining foundation directors, said.
“The opportunities looking forward are for a much greater contribution from the growth in dairy consumption in places like China, Indonesia and India.
“These opportunities are much bigger than anyone anticipated 10 or 12 years ago,” he said. . .
Rural recycling gains interest – TV3 reports:
An agricultural recycling programme has had a sudden surge of interest from farmers across the country.
Interest in the programme is being welcomed by the Government, which aims to reduce New Zealand’s agricultural waste by a third. . .
Govt tightens foreign investment rules – Marie McNicholas in NZ Farmers Weekly:
Finance Minister Bill English says the new test of more than 10 times the average farm size set last month for foreigners wanting to buy land is not a cap and there is still ministerial discretion to approve bigger sales if other tests are met under the overseas investment rules, or conversely, to refuse smaller-scale applications.
Angry anglers casting into dangerous waters
10/01/2011Anyone with the appropriate licence can fish most waterways in New Zealand but no-one has ever had the freedom to cross private land without permission to get to fishing spots.
In the past it would have been rare for farmers to refuse permission but anglers are getting upset because a few landowners are now giving exclusive rights to access to commercial guides:
In a growing number of “exclusive capture” deals, mostly in prime backcountry, “large sums” have been paid to landowners for the sole right to fish on their land, the New Zealand Federation of Freshwater Anglers says.
Rich foreigners and celebrities . . . pay thousands of dollars for guided helicopter fishing expeditions on New Zealand’s most prized trout rivers.
This is a legitimate way for farmers to make money and could well mean the difference between profit and loss given poor returns for meat and wool in recent years.
The government, correctly, says landowners have the right to do this although it has asked the Walking Access Commission to negotiate for open access where it’s restricted.
Agriculture Minister David Carter said although there were probably more, he was aware of fewer “than a dozen” places where the deals were in place. He personally felt it was the legitimate property right of an owner to sell exclusive access for fishing.
“… the owner of the property certainly has the ability to restrict access and therefore to maximise the economic potential of a fishing spot to the advantage of that property owner.”
However, he had asked the commission to negotiate more open access, including offering cash enticements to landowners.
Negotiation is the right way to approach this and the offer of payment recognises that landowners would be forgoing an income-earning opportunity.
It’s is a far more reasonable approach than the bluster from the Federation of Freshwater Anglers:
Federation president Jim Hale said parts of rivers in the North Island and South Island had been captured by “unscrupulous commercial interests”.
“It is practised by those who have captured these trout fishing waters for their own financial profiteering, even though the running water and the fish within them do not belong to them.
“We will fight this scourge wherever we find it, with whoever is involved, with all of the determination and resources at our disposal,” Mr Hale said.
Anglers will be casting into very dangerous waters if their actions match this rhetoric. Fighting property rights is usually the preserve of despots; it would be a very sad day for democracy if it succeeded here.
Fishing can be a lucrative tourist venture. Guides and others who supply services to anglers make money from it so it’s not unreasonable for landowners to want something too.
Negotiation and compensation are the weapons the anglers should be use if they’re unhappy about that, not confrontation.