July 26 in history

657  Battle of Siffin.

811  Battle of Pliska; Byzantine emperor Nicephorus I was slain, his heir Stauracius was seriously wounded.

920 Rout of an alliance of Christian troops from Navarre and Léon against the Muslims at Pamplona.

1309  Henry VII was recognized King of the Romans by Pope Clement V.

1469  Wars of the Roses: Battle of Edgecote Moor – Pitting the forces of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick against those of King Edward IV.

1581 Plakkaat van Verlatinghe (Act of Abjuration). The declaration of independence of the northern Low Countries from the Spanish king, Philip II.

1745  The first recorded women’s cricket match took place near Guildford,.

1758  French and Indian War: Siege of Louisbourg ened with British forces defeating the French and taking control of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

1803 The Surrey Iron Railway, arguably the world’s first public railway, opened in south London.

1822  José de San Martín arrived in Guayaquil, Ecuador, to meet Simón Bolívar.

1847 Liberia declared independence.

1856 George Bernard Shaw, Irish writer, Nobel Laureate, was born (d. 1950).

1861 American Civil War: George B. McClellan assumed command of the Army of the Potomac following a disastrous Union defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run.

1863 American Civil War: Morgan’s Raid ended –  Confederate cavalry leader John Hunt Morgan and 360 of his volunteers were captured by Union forces.

1865 New Zealand’s parliament moved from Auckland to Wellington.

1875  Carl Jung, Swiss psychiatrist, was born  (d. 1961).

1878 Poet and American West outlaw calling himself “Black Bart” made his last clean getaway when he stole a safe box from a Wells Fargo stagecoach. The empty box was found later with a taunting poem inside.

1882 Premiere of Richard Wagner‘s Parsifal at Bayreuth.

1882 The Republic of Stellaland was founded in Southern Africa.

1887 Publication of the Unua Libro, founding the Esperanto movement.

1890 In Buenos Aires, the Revolución del Parque forced President Juárez Celman’s resignation.

1891  France annexed Tahiti.

1894 Aldous Huxley, English-born author, was born (d. 1963).

1895 Jane Bunford, Britain’s tallest-ever person, was born (d. 1922).

1897  Paul Gallico, American author, was born  (d. 1976).

1908  United States Attorney General Charles Joseph Bonaparte issued an order to immediately staff the Office of the Chief Examiner (later renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation).

1909 – Vivian Vance, American actress, was born (d. 1979).

1922 Blake Edwards, American film director, was born.

1928  Gisborne-born Tom Heeney took on Gene Tunney for the world heavyweight title in front of 46,000 spectators at Yankee Stadium, New York. Although he was defeated, his title bid aroused tremendous interest in both New Zealand and the US.

1928 Stanley Kubrick, American film director, was born (d. 1999).

1936 Mary Millar, English actress, was born(d. 1998).

.

1936  The Axis Powers decided to intervene in the Spanish Civil War.

1936  King Edward VIII, in one of his few official duties before he abdicated the throne, officially unveiled the Canadian National Vimy Memorial.

1937  End of the Battle of Brunete in the Spanish Civil War.

1939 John Howard, 25th Prime Minister of Australia, was born.

1941 In response to the Japanese occupation of French Indo-China, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the seizure of all Japanese assets in the United States.

1943 Mick Jagger, English singer (The Rolling Stones), was born.

1944  World War II: Soviet army entered Lviv,  liberating it from the Nazis. Only 300 Jewish survivors left, out of 160,000 prior to Nazi occupation.

1944 – The first German V-2 rocket hit Great Britain.

1945 Helen Mirren, English actress, was born.

1945  The Labour Party won the United Kingdom general election of July 5 by a landslide, removing Winston Churchill from power.

		Clement Attlee	Winston Churchill	Archibald Sinclair

1945  The Potsdam Declaration was signed.

1945 The US Navy cruiser Indianapolis arrived at Tinian with the warhead for the Hiroshima atomic bomb.

1946 Aloha Airlines began service from Honolulu International Airport.

1947  Cold War: U.S. President Harry S. Truman signed the National Security Act into law creating the Central Intelligence Agency, Department of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the National Security Council.

1948  U.S. President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9981 desegregating the military of the United States.

1949 Roger Taylor, English musician (Queen), was born.

1950 Susan George, English actress, was born.

1952 King Farouk of Egypt abdicated in favor of his son Fuad.

1953 Fidel Castro led an unsuccessful attack on the Moncada Barracks beginning the Cuban Revolution.

1953  Arizona Governor John Howard Pyle ordered an anti-polygamy law enforcement crackdown on residents of Short Creek – the Short Creek Raid.

1956  Following the World Bank’s refusal to fund building the Aswan High Dam, Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal sparking international condemnation.

1957  Carlos Castillo Armas, dictator of Guatemala, was assassinated.

1958 Explorer 4 was launched.

1959 Kevin Spacey, American actor, was born.

1963  Syncom 2, the world’s first geosynchronous satellite, was launched from Cape Canaveral on a Delta B booster.

1963 – Earthquake in Skopje, Macedonia left 1100 dead

1964 Sandra Bullock, American actress, was born.

1965  Full independence was granted to the Maldives.

1966  Lord Gardiner issued the Practice Statement in the House of Lords stating that the House was not bound to follow its own previous precedent.

1968 Vietnam War: South Vietnamese opposition leader Truong Dinh Dzu was sentenced to five years hard labour for advocating the formation of a coalition government as a way to move toward an end to the war.

1971   Apollo 15 launched.

1973 Kate Beckinsale, British actress, was born.

1974  Greek Prime Minister Konstantinos Karamanlis formed the country’s first civil government after seven years of military rule.

1975 Formation of a military triumvirate in Portugal.

1977 The National Assembly of Quebec imposed the use of French as the official language of the provincial government.

1989 A federal grand jury indicted Cornell University student Robert T. Morris, Jr. for releasing the Morris worm, the first person to be prosecuted under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

1994 Russian President Boris Yeltsin ordered the removal of Russian troops from Estonia.

1999 Cessation of combat activities after the Kargil War; celebrated as Kargil Vijay Diwas in India.

2005   STS-114 Mission – Launch of Discovery, NASA’s first scheduled flight mission after the Columbia Disaster in 2003.

2005  Mumbai received 99.5cm of rain (39.17 inches) within 24 hours, bringing the city to a halt for over 2 days.

2005  Samir Geagea, the Lebanese Forces (LF) leader, was released after spending 11 years in a solitary confinement.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

Word of the day

Thrasonical – bragging, boastful.

Do we really need all the definite articles?

Why do radio news reports preface so many offices with a the?

The Prime Minsiter John Key said . . . , the leader of the opposition Phil Goff went . . . , the All Black captain Richie McCaw played  . . .

I’m not sure if it’s something new, or if I’ve just started noticing it, but nothing would be lost from the sense of the sentences if they started without a definite article.

Water is the key

Federated Farmers’ new president Bruce Wills says water is the key to both economic growth and environmental enhancement:

Water is to New Zealand what black coal is to Australian exports.  It’s the true backbone.

The challenge for us as the agricultural sector, from farm to processing plant, is to state the environmental case.   If we do not put the environmental case alongside the business case, the regulatory brakes will come on at the behest of the wider community. 

This is our call to step up.

It’s no good for us to have access to investment cash, willing investors and a world wanting our exports, if schemes get knocked back in the Environment Court or by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Half the game is to meet limits around water quantity. In this arena, rural water infrastructure can deliver positive wins for the environment, one example being minimum ecological flows while delivering reliable water to primary producers.

Native fish and water fowl cannot inhabit rivers that dry up over summer.

But the other half of the game will be to meet limits around water quality.  This is where the real challenge comes.

Will increased production from irrigated land inexorably drive increased leaching? Can we secure environmental integrity alongside economic growth? These are tough questions being asked right now let alone what will come.

In the next four decades, we could easily increase the amount of people we can feed some 2.5 times.  From 20 million to 50 million people plus.  We have immense opportunities to export agricultural services but none of these things matter, unless we can take our communities with us.

The world is short of food, many areas in New Zealand have the potential to produce more providing they can get reliable water.

The challenge is to convince those who might oppose development, that irrigation and the increased production it enables won’t come at the expense of the environment.

Our district has been transformed by irrigation.

Instead of playing catch-up between droughts, farmers have been able to budget on reliable production under irrigation. Rural communities have had a population boost as new jobs have been created. Soils which would have blown away in droughts, have been anchored down by pasture thanks to irrigation.

As well, independently audited environmental farm plans, ensure the protection and enhancement of land and waterways.

The NZIER looked at “The economic impact of increased irrigation” last November, estimating the economic benefits for ‘NZ Inc’of 14 schemes under development.

These 14 schemes will deliver an irrigated area of 350,000 hectares, 270,000 hectares being in Canterbury. 

By 2026, these 14 schemes will deliver extra production worth $2 billion a year at the farm gate and almost $4 billion in exports.  This, by the way, is 2010 dollars too.

This is a significant increase on the $23 billion in primary exports from 2008/9.  Off-farm infrastructure costs with water storage are relatively modest compared to the real gains in agricultural output. 

Water storage offers bangs for modest bucks.  The 2011 National Infrastructure Plan goes further echoing what Federated Farmers has said for years.  Water is our unique competitive advantage and is fundamental to economic growth. 

The economic and social benefits are obvious.

The challenge is to provide the evidence that rather than coming at an environmental cost, irrigation can protect and enhance land and waterways and provide enhanced habitats for wildlife.

No Dunne deal for Labour?

The NBR reports that Peter Dunne won’t be Revenue Minister if Labour is in a position to be offering cabinet posts.

After Mr Dunne called Labour’s proposals, “a load of nonsense,” Mr Cunliffe made it clear Mr Dunne’s lease with Labour had expired.

“There goes Peter Dunne’s job as Minister for Revenue in any future Labour government,” Mr  Cunliffe said.

Passing quickly over the slim chances Labour will be in a position to offer anyone a cabinet seat after the election, being criticised by that party might not do Dunne any harm in his electorate.

It has rankled with National supporters in Ohariu that they put Dunne into parliament only to have him prop up a Labour-led government for three terms.

Labour isn’t in a position to rule him out altogether, but being unpopular with that party might make him more popular with his own constituents.

 

It’s not all Goff’s fault

Anthony Hubbard rates Phil Goff as one of the top politicians, but not for reasons he’ll necessarily appreciate:

. . . it is fair to point out that Goff has efficiently carried out some of the necessary tasks of the new leader of a defeated governing party.

He has drawn the scorn and disgust of people all along the political spectrum, including those who used to support Labour. He has given the party time to regroup and to start looking for another leader. And he has started the process of changing party policy. Goff, who naturally belongs to the right of Labour, has presided over a turn to the left. This is a tribute to his courage or a sign of his desperation, or possibly both. But Goff has served loyally in the worst job in parliament.

I agree with his last sentence and that he has started the process of changing party policy, but the change has been in the wrong direction.

People have generally accepted the need for financial restraint. They’re doing it as individuals and households and have the very reasonable expectation that politicians will be similarly Presbyterian with public money.

Instead, Labour has announced no policy which shows they recognise the borrow, tax and spend policies of their nine years in government were wrong and have given no indication they will be any less profligate should they be trusted with the public purse strings again.

However, that is not all Goff’s fault. He is, as Hubbard says, towards the right of his caucus and it is those further to the left who appear to be driving Labour’s policy.

One of them will almost certainly succeed Goff soon after the election but a change of leader by itself won’t help the party’s popularity.

That will take policy which appeals to swinging voters and there aren’t many of those to the left of Labour where those behind Goff are going.

July 25 in history

285 Diocletian appointed Maximian as Caesar, co-ruler.

306 Constantine I was proclaimed Roman emperor by his troops.

864 The Edict of Pistres of Charles the Bald ordered defensive measures against the Vikings.

 

1139  Battle of Ourique: The independence of Portugal from the Kingdom of León declared after the Almoravids, led by Ali ibn Yusuf, were defeated by Prince Afonso Henriques.

1261  The city of Constantinople was recaptured by Nicaean forces under the command of Alexios Strategopoulos, re-establishing the Byzantine Empire.

 

1536  Sebastián de Belalcázar on his search for El Dorado founded the city of Santiago de Cali.

1547 Henry II of France was crowned.

1567 Don Diego de Losada founds the city of Santiago de Leon de Caracas, modern-day Caracas, the capital city of Venezuela.

1593  Henry IV of France publicly converted from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism.

1603 James VI of Scotland was crowned bringing the Kingdoms of England and Scotland into personal union.

1722 The Three Years War began along the Maine and Massachusetts border.

1755  British governor Charles Lawrence and the Nova Scotia Council ordered the deportation of the Acadians.

 

1758 Seven Years’ War: the island battery at Fortress Louisbourg in Nova Scotia was silenced and all French warships destroyed or taken.

1788 Wolfgang Mozart completed his Symphony number 40 in g minor (K550).

 

1792 The Brunswick Manifesto was issued to the population of Paris promising vengeance if the French Royal Famiy was harmed.

1795 The first stone of the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct was laid.

1797 Horatio Nelson lost more than 300 men and his right arm during the failed conquest attempt of Tenerife.

1799 David Douglas, Scottish botanist, was born (d. 1834).

1799 At Aboukir in Egypt, Napoleon I of France defeats 10,000 Ottomans under Mustafa Pasha.

 

1814 War of 1812: Battle of Lundy’s Lane.

1837 The first commercial use of an electric telegraph was successfully demonstrated by William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone on 25 July 1837 between Euston and Camden Town.

1853 Joaquin Murietta, the Californio bandit known as “Robin Hood of El Dorado”, was killed.

1861 American Civil War: the Crittenden-Johnson Resolution was passed by the U.S. Congress stating that the war was being fought to preserve the Union and not to end slavery.

1866 The U.S. Congress passed legislation authorizing the rank of General of the Army (commonly called “5-star general”). Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant becomes the first to be promoted to this rank.

 

1869 The Japanese daimyō began returning their land holdings to the emperor as part of the Meiji Restoration reforms.

1894 The First Sino-Japanese War began when the Japanese fired on a Chinese warship.

1898  The United States invasion of Puerto Rico began with U.S. troops led by General Nelson Miles landing at harbour of Guánica.

1907  Korea became a protectorate of Japan.

1908 Ajinomoto was founded. Kikunae Ikeda of the Tokyo Imperial University discovered that a key ingredient in Konbu soup stock was monosodium glutamate (MSG), and patented a process for manufacturing it.

 

1909  Louis Blériot made the first flight across the English Channel in a heavier-than-air machine, from Calais to Dover in 37 minutes.

1915  RFC Captain Lanoe Hawker became the first British military aviator to earn the Victoria Cross, for defeating three German two-seat observation aircraft in one day, over the Western Front.

1917 Sir Thomas Whyte introduced the first income tax in Canada as a “temporary” measure (lowest bracket 4% and highest 25%).

1920 Telecommunications: the first transatlantic two-way radio broadcast.

1925 Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS) was established.

 

1930 Murray Chapple,  New Zealand cricketer, was born (d. 1985).

1934 Nazis assassinated Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss in a failed coup attempt.

1940  General Guisan ordered the Swiss Army to resist German invasion and makes surrender illegal.

 

 1942  Bruce Woodley, Australian musician (The Seekers), was born. 

 

1942 Norwegian Manifesto called for nonviolent resistance to the Nazis

1943  Jim McCarty, English musician (The Yardbirds), was born.

1943  Benito Mussolini was forced out of office by his own Italian Grand Council and replaced by Pietro Badoglio.

1944 Operation Spring – one of the bloodiest days for the First Canadian Army during WWII:  1,500 casualties, including 500 killed.

1946 Operation Crossroads: an atomic bomb was detonated underwater in the lagoon of Bikini atoll.

 

1946   Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis staged their first show as a comedy team.

 

1948  The Australian cricket team set a world record for the highest successful run-chase in Test cricket history in the Fourth Test against England.

Donald Bradman, the Australian captain.

1951 Verdine White, American musician (Earth, Wind & Fire), was born.

1953 Robert Zoellick, President of the World Bank, was born.

1956 Italian ocean liner SS Andrea Doria collided with the MS Stockholm in heavy fog and sank the next day, killing 51.

 

1957  Republic of Tunisia proclaimed.

1958 The African Regroupment Party (PRA) held its first congress in Cotonou.

1959  SR-N1 hovercraft crossed  the English Channel from Calais to Dover in just over 2 hours.

 

1965  Bob Dylan went electric as he plug in at the Newport Folk Festival, signaling a major change in folk and rock music.

 

1969 Vietnam War: US President Richard Nixon declared the Nixon Doctrine, stating that the United States expected its Asian allies to take care of their own military defense. 

1973 Soviet Mars 5 space probe launched.

1978 The Cerro Maravilla incident – two young Puerto Rican pro-independence activists were killed in a police ambush.

1978  Louise Brown, the world’s first “test tube baby” was born.

1981 The invasion of  Hamilton’s Rugby Park by 350 anti-tour demonstrators forced the Springboks-Waikato match to be abandoned.

1983  Black July: 37 Tamil political prisoners at the Welikada high security prison in Colombo were massacred by the fellow Sinhalese prisoners.

 Sinhalese mob burns Tamil shops.

1984  Salyut 7 Cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to perform a space walk.

1993  Israel launched a massive attack against terrorist forces in Lebanon.

1993 The St James Church massacre in Kenilworth, Cape Town, South Africa.

1994  Israel and Jordan signed the Washington Declaration, which formally ends the state of war that had existed between the nations since 1948.

1995 A gas bottle exploded in Saint Michel station in Paris. Eight were killed and 80 wounded.

1996 In a military coup in Burundi, Pierre Buyoya deposed Sylvestre Ntibantunganya.

1997  K.R. Narayanan was sworn-in as India’s 10th president and the first Dalit— formerly called “untouchable”— to hold this office.

 

2000  Air France Flight 4590, a Concorde supersonic passenger jet, F-BTSC, crashed just after takeoff from Paris killing all 109 aboard and 4 on the ground.

2007  Pratibha Patil was sworn in as India’s first woman president.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

Word of the day

Kalopsia – state in which things appear more beautiful than they really are.

4/10

4/10 in the Herald’s entertainment quiz – the result of four good and six bad guesses. Two of the four right were about people I haven’t even heard of before.

Pikelets

The making of pikelets was a Sunday evening ritual when I was a child.

As soon as my brothers and I were old enough to learn, Mum taught us how to make them.

Not all the pikelets survived to get to the table, in fact not all of the mixture got cooked because we knew it tasted good raw.

It’s a shameful confession for a farmer’s wife to make, but I can never rely on my scones turning out well. But (touch wood) I’ve never had a problem with pikelets and if I have sufficient warning of visitors who might need a little something sweet, this is what I make.

Even though months, sometimes more than a year, can go by without me making them I still know the recipe by heart.

This is a double mixture which should make at least 40 pikelets (depending on how much raw mixture gets tested).

2 eggs     1 cup sugar  1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/4 cups milk

2 cups flour   1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1 tablespoon melted butter.

Beat eggs, sugar and baking soda until well mixed and fluffy.

Add milk and beat gently to mix.

Add flour, baking powder and cream of tartar, mix well.

Add butter and mix.

Heat a frying pan or skillet; grease with oil or a little melted butter and spoon one pikelet on to test temperature.

(* I turn the element up high then back a bit, but every stove top is different, which is why you start with just one).

When bubbles appear and burst on top, turn over with a spatula or fish slice (the thinner the better) and cook other side.

If it burns, turn heat down, if it takes too long turn heat up a bit, if the bottom is golden, you’ve got it right.

Once you’ve got the temperature right, spoon on as many as will comfortably fit and allow you to turn them over.

Serve with butter or cream and jam.

Pikelets will keep in the freezer for a few days but are best eaten within an hour or two of making.

Rural round-up

Interest in merino born in childhood – Sally Rae:

Jayne Rive attributes her love of merino sheep to growing up on remote Halfway Bay Station.

She and her five siblings were all involved in daily station life, including working with sheep, on the property on the western shores of Lake Wakatipu . . .

Stock judge wins national title – Sally Rae:

Olivia Ross proved she has an eye for stock when she won the New Zealand Young Farmers national stock judging competition.

A member of Nightcaps Young Farmers Club, Miss Ross (23) works as a field consultant for Outgro Bio Agricultural Ltd . . .

Fitting milestone as CRT cracks $1b – Sally Rae:

Rural servicing co-operative CRT has cracked the billion-dollar mark – reporting turnover of $1.092 billion and an operating surplus of $8.4 million in the year to March 31.

That was up from a turnover of $801 million and an operating surplus of $5.1 million in the previous year. . .

Well managed systems key to dairy success – Mary Witsey:

The most profitable dairy farms in Southland are those which are well managed.

That was the message the province’s dairy farmers heard from Dairy New Zealand senior economist Matthew Newman, who was in the south last week conducting seminars.

Regardless of the size of the herd, or whether it was a low, medium or a high-input production system, the most profitable farms were those that made the best use of resources on offer, Mr Newman said . . .

Warning on dire state of apple industry – Peter Watson:

Nelson’s apple growers are in such a dire state the region risks not having a viable export industry in five years, leading local businessman John Palmer warns.

Speaking at a Nelson-Tasman Chamber of Commerce luncheon yesterday, he said it had got to the stage where many orchards were more valuable without their trees and would be “less of a cash drain growing grass than growing apples”. . .

New Fonterra boss wants positive impact – Hugh Stringleman:

A Canadian will hand over management of Fonterra to a Dutchman at the end of September, which indicates that the skills needed to run New Zealand’s biggest company are more readily found offshore.

Theo Spierings, aged 46, has been appointed by the Fonterra board as the new chief executive to take over from Andrew Ferrier, who has held the job for eight years . . .

Welcome end in sight for forced farm sales – Tony Chaston:

Is this just real estate spin or is rural real estate on the move again and can we expect modest price rises based on stronger product prices and profits?

As reported earlier from the June real estate figures, more farms are being sold than last year, but at values last seen in 2004. The banks have signaled their intention to lend more on profits and less on land value, so if product prices continue, we can expect more sales. . .

Better information needed on farm technology – RadioNZ:

Pastoral Agriculture Professor Jacqueline Rowarth of Massey University thinks farmers are not being well served by some of the new technology they’re being urged to adopt, to lift production.

Professor Rowarth, who spoke at an Agricultural & Horticultural outlook summit this week, says New Zealand farmers are doing a good job of taking up new ideas. She says that’s clear from statistics which show  agriculture is one of the few sectors that continues to grow.

Market knowledge the key – Debbie Gregory:

KNOWLEDGE about commodity prices and markets helps farmers future-proof their businesses, says ANZ National Bank agri-economist Con Williams.

Speaking to farmers and others involved in the rural industry in Gisborne this week, he said commodity prices across the board had peaked and would soften, but should remain at a relatively high level compared with prices seen in the past.

“It’s not so much the level they have got to, it’s the speed they have got there,” he said . . .

Hat tip: Interest.Co.NZ

Local labour slogan without substance

Phil Goff says government departments will be required to give preference to firms employing local workers when awarding contracts under Labour’s procurement policy.

“What we want is a government procurement policy that does take into account the wider cost and benefit of New Zealand  companies providing these services, and a lot of other      benefits aside,” Mr Goff told NZPA.  

It sounds fine in theory but in practice it would be taking us back more than two decades to the bad old days when the economy was distorted by subsidies and trade barriers.

If everything else was more or less equal there could be a very good case for awarding a contract to a company which employs local staff.

But if the price was higher or quality lower it would be effectively a return to subsidies.

Goff acknowledges that too:

Asked if there was a danger that favouring New Zealand companies could end up costing more, Mr Goff said cost and quality would still be the paramount considerations.

In other words, the policy is a slogan without substance.

Government departments would be acting irresponsibly if they awarded contracts to companies which provided goods or services at a higher price or inferior quality just because they employed local staff.

 

Friends, allies, partners

Under past administrations a lot of energy went in to deciphering the nuances in pronouncements on the relationship between the United States and New Zealand, particularly the difference between being friends and allies.

But that no longer matters. After yesterday’s press conference with Barack Obama and John Key, we’re officially partners:

He said he was very pleased that the relationship with New Zealand was “growing stronger by the day.”

He also said: “I’ve always been stuck by the intelligence and thoughtfulness
that the Prime Minister brings to his work.”

. . .  Mr Obama made mention of the fact that the two foreign ministers – Hillary
Clinton and Murray McCully – were in Bali together at the ASEAN Regional Forum
and were looking at further ways to work together from “green growth to trying
to standardise regulations to increase the flow of trade”.

“And throughout this process whether it’s in Apec settings, now the East Asia
summit, we’ve always found New Zealand to be an outstanding partner.

“And Prime Minister Keys personally has always been an outstanding partner on
these issues.”

Given the difficulties the President is facing with the economy and the a senate unwilling to back his plans for recovery, the Prime Minister’s visit would not have been a high priority.

But we have much to gain in trade and security by a closer relationship with the United States and the meeting was another positive step towards that.

Apropos of the visit, in his speech to the Washington Chamber of Commerce, the PM said that:

 . . . while the US and New Zealand economies have many differences, we also have a lot in common.

At the most basic level, we share a commitment to the democratic, capitalist system.

Our governments are freely elected. Our economies encourage enterprise, hard work, and innovation. We trust people to get on with their lives and make the best choices for themselves. We also both understand the importance of world-class education.

For these reasons, our countries are amongst the most sought after places to live, raise families, and do business.

 He also noted that the US has contributed about 10% of the $90 million rasied for the Canterbury earthquake appeal.

July 24 in history

1132 Battle of Nocera between Ranulf II of Alife and Roger II of Sicily.

 

1148  Louis VII of France  laid siege to Damascus during the Second Crusade.

1411  Battle of Harlaw, one of the bloodiest battles in Scotland.

 

1487  Citizens of Leeuwarden, Netherlands struck against ban on foreign beer.

1534  French explorer Jacques Cartier planted a cross on the Gaspé Peninsula and took possession of the territory in the name of Francis I of France.

1567  Mary, Queen of Scots, was forced to abdicate and replaced by her 1-year-old son James VI.

 

1701  Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac founded the trading post at Fort Pontchartrain, which later became the city of Detroit, Michigan.

1715 A Spanish treasure fleet of 10 ships under Admiral Ubilla left Havana  for Spain.

 

1725 John Newton, English cleric and hymnist, was born (d. 1807).

1783 Simón Bolívar, South American liberator, was born (d. 1830).

1802 Alexandre Dumas, père, French writer, was born (d. 1870).

1814  War of 1812: General Phineas Riall advanced toward the Niagara River to halt Jacob Brown’s American invaders.

1823  Slavery was abolished in Chile.

1832  Benjamin Bonneville led  the first wagon train across the Rocky Mountains by using Wyoming’s South Pass.

1847  After 17 months of travel, Brigham Young led 148 Mormon pioneers into Salt Lake Valley, resulting in the establishment of Salt Lake City.

1864  American Civil War: Battle of Kernstown – Confederate General Jubal Anderson Early defeated Union troops led by General George Crook in an effort to keep them out of the Shenandoah Valley.

1866  Reconstruction: Tennessee became the first U.S. State to be readmitted to the Union following the American Civil War.

1874 Oswald Chambers, Scottish minister and writer, was born (d. 1917).

 

1895  Robert Graves, English author, was born  (d. 1985).

1897 Amelia Earhart, American aviator, was born (disappeared 1937).

 

1901  O. Henry was released from prison after serving three years for embezzlement from a bank.

1911  Hiram Bingham III re-discovered Machu Picchu, “the Lost City of the Incas”.

 

1915  The passenger ship S.S. Eastland capsised in central Chicago, with the loss of 845 lives.

 

1923  The Treaty of Lausanne, settling the boundaries of modern Turkey, was signed.

1927  The Menin Gate war memorial is unveiled at Ypres.

1929  The Kellogg-Briand Pact, renouncing war as an instrument of foreign policy went  into effect.

 

1931  A fire at a home for the elderly in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania killed 48 people.

1935  The world’s first children’s railway opened in Tbilisi, USSR.

1935   The dust bowl heat wave reached its peak, sending temperatures to 109°F (44°C) in Chicago and 104°F (40°C) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

1937 Alabama dropped rape charges against the so-called “Scottsboro Boys“.

 

1938 First ascent of the Eiger north face.

1943 World War II: Operation Gomorrah began: British and Canadian aeroplanes bombed Hamburg by night, those of the Americans by day.

 

1950 Cape Canaveral Air Force Station began operations with the launch of a Bumper rocket.

1959  At the opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow, U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev have a “Kitchen Debate“.

1966 Michael Pelkey and Brian Schubert made the first BASE jump from El Capitan. Both came out with broken bones.

1967  During an official state visit to Canada, French President Charles de Gaulle declared to a crowd of over 100,000 in Montreal: Vive le Québec libre! (“Long live free Quebec!”). The statement, interpreted as support for Quebec independence, delighted many Quebecers but angered the Canadian government and many English Canadians.

1969 Jennifer Lopez, American actress and singer, was born.

1969  Apollo 11 splashed down safely in the Pacific Ocean.

1972 Bugojno group was caught by Yugoslav security forces.

1974 Watergate scandal: the United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled that President Richard Nixon did not have the authority to withhold subpoenaed White House tapes and they order him to surrender the tapes to the Watergate special prosecutor.

1974 After the Turkish invasion of Cyprus the Greek military junta collapsed and democracy was restored.

1977  End of a four day Libyan-Egyptian War.

1982 Anna Paquin, Canadian-born New Zealand actress, was born.

1982  Heavy rain caused a mudslide that destroyed  a bridge at Nagasaki, Japan, killing 299.

1990  Iraqi forces started massing on the Kuwait-Iraq border.

1998  Russell Eugene Weston Jr. burst into the United States Capitol and opened fire killing two police officers.

2000 Private Leonard Manning became New Zealand’s first combat death since the Vietnam War when he was killed in Timor-Leste.

2001 – Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the last Tsar of Bulgaria when he was a child, was sworn in as Prime Minister of Bulgaria, becoming the first monarch in history to regain political power through democratic election to a different office.

2001 Bandaranaike Airport attack was carried out by 14 Tamil Tiger commandos, all died in this attack. They destroyed 11 Aircrafts (mostly military) and damaged 15, there are no civilian casualties.

2005 Lance Armstrong won his seventh consecutive Tour de France.

 

2007  Libya freed all six of the Medics in the HIV trial in Libya.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

A tale of two headlines

The Press: Southland lift Ranfurly Shield – last minute drop goal steals shield

Southland Times: Southland’s shield again – late drop-goal gets Stags up

Word of the day

Daedal – ingeniously contrived; complex in design; intricate; finely or skillfully and artistically crafted; artistic.

4/10

Just 4/10 in the Herald’s travel quiz.

There’s a theory that you should go with your gut reaction if you don’t know the answer in a multi-choice quiz. I’d have got two more right  had I done so.

Terror or terrorism?

Norway has suffered the worst violence since World War II with at least seven people killed in an explosion at a government building and many more shot dead at a youth camp.

These are acts of terror although it is not yet known if they were acts of terrorism.

Regardless of who was responsible, it is a reminder of how vulnerable we all are.

When we were in New York earlier this month we had to pass through x-rays at the entrance to places like the Statue of Liberty and Empire State Building. But there were many other places with no obvious signs of security where someone determined to unleash terror could have done so.

Today’s attacks in Norway show it is impossible to guard everyone everywhere and no-one should  try to. Just as the British people learned to live with the threat of IRA bombings in the 1970s and 80s, we must accept sensible precautions but not let them curtail our freedom.

Fonterra’s farmgate price formula sound

Competition in domestic dairy production has increased since Fonterra was formed and the way it sets its farmgate milk pirce is sound.

This was the finding of internationally renowned competition expert, Compass Lexecon, which has been ranked as one of the leading antitrust economics firms in the world by Global Competition Review for the past seven years.

Fonterra commissioned Compass Lexecon to provide an economic evaluation of the competitive environment for dairy processing and to also review the methodology for calculating the milk price paid to Fonterra’s farmer-shareholders.

The report found that:

• There had been a growth in competition in the New Zealand dairy industry under the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act.
• There has been a significant investment in expanded dairy processing capacity in New Zealand by competitors as well as Fonterra since Fonterra was formed. This investment in new more efficient plant was driving down manufacturing costs.
• The way Fonterra calculates its milk price – based on global prices for commodities, less the costs of a notional competitor – was correct.
• Domestic dairy prices in New Zealand have increased less than global prices for dairy product, largely because of the growth of supermarket home brands sold at a discount. (Around 70 per cent of domestic fresh milk sales in New Zealand are now home brands.)

Compass Lexecon endorsed the fact that the Fonterra milk price was based on the costs of a notional competitor using efficient processing facilities, rather than Fonterra’s actual manufacturing costs. It noted that there had been considerable expansion of dairy processing in New Zealand, with more efficient plant commissioned by both Fonterra and competitors: “Even if Fonterra (and other processors) … have higher average variable costs of processing, the farm gate milk price will be bid up by competitors utilising efficient plants,” the report concluded.

“The history of actual expansion by both Fonterra and independent processors … indicates a strong belief by both Fonterra and competitors that they can secure a supply of raw milk at a price that allows them to operate profitably.”

Fonterra Group Chief Financial Officer, Jonathan Mason, said the Compass Lexecon report essentially concluded that the New Zealand environment was fostering competition in the dairy sector and that the way Fonterra set its milk price was fair.

“The Milk Price reflects international dairy commodity prices, less the costs to produce and export those commodities. . . “

This should allay fears that Fonterra is using its dominent position in setting prices which disadvantage its competitors and consumers.

The company has announced that it will be reducing the domestic price of butter and cheese in response to falls in international prices.

UF wants choice in retirement age

United Future leader Peter Dunne is proposing allowing people to retire earlier and receive lower superannuation payments or later with higher payments.

“Kiwis would then be able to manage their retirement age and lifestyle – choices they currently do not have – and it would be cost neutral with the current scheme,” Mr Dunne said in launching the party’s superannuation policy.

“Each year below 65 that superannuation would be claimed down to 60, would see a small reduction, and each year over 65 up to 70, it would be enhanced.

He said the figures used would make it cost-neutral and he’s also proposing making Kiwisaver compulsory to address the long term sustainability of superannuation.

“The sustainability arguments around superannuation, and whether it should be 65 or 67, then become redundant,” he said.

“People can then do their own maths and work out what works best for them based on their lifestyle and aspirations,” Mr Dunne said.

It will be interesting to see Act’s reaction to this. The now defunct 2020 Taskforce, which was chaired by Don Brash who is now Act’s leader, also suggested that people be able choose to delay receiving a pension and then get higher payments than those who retired earlier.

If it’s not going to cost any more it is an idea worth considering.

Our longest serving staff member has been receiving superannuation for 16 years and is still working fulltime at 81. Another is 79 and one is 65. I think all would have chosen to postpone receiving superannuation in return for higher payments later had they been able to.

Conversely, people not enjoying their work and/or in poor health might welcome the option of retiring earlier, albeit at a lower rate of superannuation.

Opting to receive superannuation doesn’t necessarily retiring though so this policy would also enable older people who are still happy to work to top up their wages with superannuation from the age of 60.

Providing it’s affordable, this policy might also take pressure off the debate on the need to raise the age at which people are eligible for superannuation by allowing them some choice.