Word of the day

Ceilidh – an Irish or Scottish social gathering with traditional music, dancing, and storytelling.

Rural round-up

On the hoof – Sally  Rae:

The West Coast, where tradition and time appear to stand still, folk heroes are born, and the compelling scenery in all directions is as attention-grabbing as the sandflies, and where the annual Haast cattle sale is a firm fixture on the farming calendar. Agribusiness reporter Sally Rae and illustrations editor Stephen Jaquiery went along for a look.

Looking to the future, John (J. J.) Nolan believes eventually there might not be a cattle sale at the Turnbull saleyards at Haast.

With the advent of modern technology, he reckons 1000 head of cattle could potentially be sold one day in a video sale, in the pub, over a cold beer. But he hopes that he never sees that happen.

For the Nolan family – household names in Westland since first arriving at Jackson Bay in 1885 – have been taking their cattle to sales for generations. . .

Stud proves a winner – Sally Rae:

Stud breeding is in Wayne Williams’ blood.

Mr Williams and his wife Maggie own Glacier Horned Herefords at Fox Glacier, continuing a tradition that started back in the 1940s when his grandfather established a Hereford stud, then named Bluedale stud.

Slideshow: Haast cattle sale

After he moved to Canterbury and took some of the cattle with him, Mr Williams’ father took over the farm and the stud name was changed to Glacier Horned Herefords.

Sustainability efforts awarded:

Taranaki laundry and dry cleaning operation La Nuova Apparelmaster and Wairarapa farming business Aohanga are among those honoured in the 2012 Sustainable 60 awards, announced in Auckland this evening.

The Sustainable 60 awards recognise firms which incorporate sustainable practices into the operation and management of their businesses. . .

Sheep, beef and forestry agribusiness Aohanga takes out the award for Strategy and Governance.

It is a Maori incorporation with a firm focus on the future. The hapu has continuously held its land in the Northern Wairarapa since pre-European times, and has written a 100-year business plan taking it to 2100. . .

Rabobank 2013 Commodities Outlook: Agri markets to remain volatile as fundamentals ‘rebalance on a tightrope’:

Volatility in agri commodity prices looks set to continue into 2013, according to a report from Rabobank’s Agri Commodity Markets Research department. This will be particularly true for grain and oilseeds markets, with a supply squeeze in the first six months expected to push prices higher, before an expected production rebound leads to a weakening in prices in the second half of the year. The report says soymeal is the commodity likely to show the largest price decline by the end of 2013. In contrast, Rabobank analysts expect palm oil to be the strongest performer, as Chinese imports and biofuel demand drive prices higher after the sell-off in 2012. The soft commodity markets should continue in the same vein as this year, with prices expected to be relatively range bound.. . . 

BEEFLAMBNZ.COM Wins Prestigious Website Award:

Beef + Lamb New Zealand scooped the hotly contested prize for best private sector website at this year’s WriteMark New Zealand Plain English Awards.

The annual awards honour the organisations and people who are trying to make the world a better place by banishing jargon and gobbledygook.

The judges said: “This is certainly the best entry in the category. Beef + Lamb New Zealand’s farmer website shows a strong commitment to plain English. The purpose is really clear and the pages show plain language, active verbs, and short sentences. Useful summaries and clear navigation help site visitors quickly find what they need.” . .

Fonterra Australia-NZ boss leaves after regional rejig – Paul McBeth

Fonterra Cooperative Group’s Australia New Zealand managing director John Doumani will leave the dairy exporter after the company rejigged its regional boundaries.

The cooperative, fresh from raising $525 million through its shareholders’ fund to reduce shareholder redemption risk, has reorganised its consumer businesses to combine Australia and New Zealand with the ASEAN/Middle East/North Africa unit, it said in a statement. Sydney-based Doumani signalled he will leave the dairy exporter in March next year due to the restructuring, it said. . .

Dairying women prepare to challenge their boundaries at annual conference:

Hundreds of women who work in the dairy industry will be tackling some of the big issues that affect today’s farmers including the rural/urban divide, environmental constraints and developing future leaders, when they get together at the Dairy Women Network’s annual conference in March 2013.

The line-up of high calibre keynote speakers includes Olympic rowing gold medal winner Mahe Drysdale.

The two-day conference at Nelson’s Rutherford Hotel, starting on 20 March 2013, is themed ‘Taking down the boundary fences’. . .

Chairman of Central Plains Water steps down

Pat Morrison, chairman of Central Plains Water Ltd since 2003, has retired from the position but will remain on the board as a director.

An integral part the project since its inception in 2000, he believes the time is now right to hand over the reins.

“Having been involved right through the resource consenting phase, and with the scheme now moving into the design and construction stage, it is an appropriate time to hand over the role to CPWL Director and newly appointed Acting Chairman, Doug Catherwood who has been deputy chairman. . .

Three Months, Three Trophies, One Wine:

Coopers Creek’s Select Vineyards Albariño 2012 has won its third Trophy in three months.

It’s been dubbed “The Wine of the Summer”.

Back in late August at the New Zealand wine industry’s Bragato Conference, Coopers Creek Select Vineyards Gisborne Albariño 2012 was awarded its first Trophy. This was a surprising and impressive result for a young wine, new to this country and only in its second vintage. Just over a month later, in early October, the “Bell-Ringer” as it’s affectionately known, secured its second Trophy at the International Aromatic Wine Competition. Then last weekend at the celebration dinner for the country’s most prestigious competition, the Air New Zealand Wine Awards, the news of a third Trophy for the Albariño! . .

Friday’s answers

Thursday’s questions were:

1. Who said: We look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilisation.?

2. What is the common name for Calluna vulgaris?

3. It’s l’avoine in French, avena in Italian and Spanish and ōti in Maori, what is it in English?

4.What’s a tatty bogler?

5. Alfred Hitchcok said – “I understand the inventor of the bagpipes was inspired when he saw a man carrying an indignant, asthmatic pig under his arm. Unfortunately, the man-made object never equalled the purity of the sound achieved by the pig.” Was he right?

Points for answers:

Alwyn got five (at third attempt) and a smile for the word play for #4 which wins an electronic batch of shortbread. It wasn’t the wine I was after for the answer but drinking some recently prompted the question.

Grant got three – with a bonus for admitting you were swayed by Alwyn and another for logic re enlightenment.

Andrei got three and a bonus for the music. If the internet can be trusted it was a real quote – I found it in three places.

 

 

 

Answers follow the break:

Pre-opening quotes for Fonterra $6.50

A share broker tells us that pre-opening quotes for Fonterra units are at $6.50.

The launch takes place at midday and demand is far outstripping supply.

There are 100,000 shares for sale at $6.50 and offers to buy 4 million.

Scottish is

For St Andrew’s Day:

Cow bell opens trading

A cow bell will ring to open trading on the New Zealand share market this morning to recognise the launch of Fonterra units.

They’ve been issued at $5.50.

Question of the day: what will they sell for now?

The other question is how many have bought to trade and how many are there for the long haul?

Political interest trumps natural justice

The first editor for whom I worked warned me that while family feuds might be of interest to the prurient they were rarely of sufficient merit to warrant publication.

He would have been at best bemused and more likely appalled that accusations over Brendan Horan and his late mother’s money were splashed over the front page of a national paper, even if he is an MP.

His party leader, Winston Peters, has sent him home to sort it out.

Why only when when Peters has know about the accusation for months?

Yes, Horan has been caught up in a family feud over his mother’s will.

That could be viewed as a personal issue – whereby Horan should be left to sort it out on his personal time and keep doing his job.

But by standing Horan down, Peters has elevated the issue to a public one.

Remember Peters was told about this two months ago – and has done absolutely nothing about it.

He says he’s got no evidence from Horan’s siblings proving the allegations about missing money from the mother – but neither has he got any evidence from Horan disproving it.

But Peters only acted to stand Horan down when the story broke on Sunday.

That’s because he doesn’t like the publicity – given Winston Peters’ elderly constituency, he certainly does not want to be seen to be propping up an MP who has been dipping into his elderly mother’s money.

Political interest trumps natural justice now the story is public.The idea that people are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty doesn’t seem to matter.

Precious only when it suits

Was it the influence of The Hobbit’s my precious that prompted Trevor Mallard to pretend preciousness over a perceived slight to Jacinda Ardern during Question Time yesterday?

Hon PAULA BENNETT: Actually, Limited Service Volunteer is making a difference, and we have seen the numbers—[Interruption] Well, if you want to listen to the answer, then just zip it, sweetie, I am getting there. So what it is is that actually what you have got is you have got a number of people who do fall out in the first few—

Hon Trevor Mallard: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. I think you heard what the Minister said.

Mr SPEAKER: I certainly did not hear what the Minister said, because the noise level was too high.

Hon Trevor Mallard: Well, we could hear it on this side, and I suggest that if you had listened you could have heard it. It was exceptionally offensive. [Interruption] . . .

It wasn’t the zip it but the sweetie to which he objected:

. . . Hon Trevor Mallard: No, no, no—she said “zip it, sweetie”. That’s what she said. [Interruption] . . .

. . . Mr Speaker, if that term was used to a member who was not a younger woman member—in that sort of approach—I think you would find it offensive. We certainly found it offensive here, and I ask you whether that term is something that is appropriate. “Zip it” might have been all right but—

Whatever it was Speaker Lockwood Smith took a far more sensible view:

Mr SPEAKER: Order! Look, there is a myth that there are certain terms that are ruled out in this House. It is a myth—there are none. Members should treat this place, this House, with respect and members should treat each other with courtesy. If members interject in a rude manner, they may get a less than perfect reaction from the Minister. The level of interjection was so high that I did not hear what the Minister had said. I accept my hearing is less than ideal. I fully accept that, and I apologise for it. But I believe that if we allow ourselves to get worked up over that, we are just being unnecessarily petty. The solution is simple: do not interject so much. It was not necessary. The member had asked a question and should be interested in the answer. It was difficult to hear the answer, so the Minister felt provoked and said something that was less than ideal, but under the circumstances I am not going to ask the Minister to withdraw and apologise for it.

Quite why sweetie is offensive escapes me but Mallard’s preciousness over this perceived slight contrasts sharply with what could be regarded as far more offensive behaviour at Labour’s conference which appears not to have raised any concern at all from him or his colleagues.

Equal Opportunities Commissioner, Judy McGregor, said:

“We produced sexy, big print bumper stickers which said A king for Miramar and Miramar needs a King. Annette was far too nice to let us use Miramar needs a King not a queen . . .

Keeping Stock asks, is it appropriate from someone whose work requires her to protect and promote equal opportunity?

. . . We accept that Dr McGregor’s comment was intended to be a joke. But so was John Key’s banter about Farming Show hot Jamie Mackay’s “gay red shirt”, and look at the furore over that. . .

If sweetie ranks as offensive on Labour’s preciousness meter and gay red shirt also provoked outrage then McGregor’s homophobic reference would be off the scale – if it came from the right.

But it came from the left and somehow slights, in jest or not, from the proponents of identity politics, don’t register at all.

Perhaps that’s because they’re precious only when it suits.

November 30 in history

1554 Philip Sidney, English courtier, soldier, and writer, was born (d. 1586).

1667 Jonathan Swift, Irish writer and satirist, was born (d. 1745).

1700 – Battle of Narva — A Swedish army of 8,500 men under Charles XII defeated a much larger Russian army at Narva.

1718 – Swedish king Charles XII died during a siege of the fortress Fredriksten in Norway.

1782 – American Revolutionary War: Treaty of Paris — Representatives from the United States and Great Britain signed preliminary peace articles (later formalised as the 1783 Treaty of Paris).

1786 – Peter Leopold Joseph of Habsburg-Lorraine, Grand Duke of Tuscany, promulgated a penal reform making his country the first state to abolish the death penalty. Consequently, November 30 is commemorated by 300 cities around the world as Cities for Life Day.

1803 – In New Orleans, Louisiana, Spanish representatives officially transferred the Louisiana Territory to a French representative.

1804 – The Democratic-Republican-controlled United States Senate began an impeachment trial against Federalist-partisan Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase.

1810  Oliver Winchester, American gunsmith, was born (d. 1880).

1824 – First ground was broken at Allenburg for the building of the original Welland Canal.

1829 – First Welland Canal opened for a trial run.

1835 Mark Twain, American writer, was born  (d. 1910).

1853 – Crimean War: Battle of Sinop — The Imperial Russian Navy under Pavel Nakhimov destroyed the Ottoman fleet under Osman Pasha at Sinop, a sea port in northern Turkey.

1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Franklin — The Army of Tennessee led by General John Bell Hood mounted a dramatically unsuccessful frontal assault on Union positions commanded by John McAllister Schofield around Franklin, Tennessee, Hood lost six generals and almost a third of  his troops.

1868 – The inauguration of a statue of King Charles XII of Sweden.

1872 – The first-ever international football match took place at Hamilton Crescent, Glasgow, between Scotland and England.

1874 –  Sir Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Nobel laureate,was born (d. 1965).

1886 – The Folies Bergère staged its first revue.

1902 – American Old West: Second-in-command of Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch gang, Kid Curry Logan, was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment with hard labour.

1908 – A mine explosion in the mining town of Marianna, Pennsylvania killed 154.

1934 – The steam locomotive Flying Scotsman became the first to officially exceed 100mph.

1936 – The Crystal Palace was destroyed by fire.

1939 – Winter War: Soviet forces crossed the Finnish border in several places and bombed Helsinki and several other Finnish cities, starting the war.

1940 – Lucille Ball married Desi Arnaz in Greenwich, Connecticut.

1942 – Guadalcanal Campaign: Battle of Tassafaronga — A smaller squadron of Japanese destroyers led by Raizō Tanaka defeated a US cruiser force under Carleton H. Wright.

1949 the first National government was elected in New Zealand, led by Sidney Holland.

1953 – Edward Mutesa II, the kabaka (king) of Buganda was deposed and exiled to London by Sir Andrew Cohen, Governor of Uganda.

1953 June Pointer, American singer (Pointer Sisters), was born (d. 2006).

1954 – In Sylacauga, the Hodges Meteorite crashed through a roof and hit a woman taking an afternoon nap in the only documented case of a human being hit by a rock from space.

1955  Billy Idol (born William Michael Albert Broad), British musician, was born.

1965 Ben Stiller, American actor, was born.

1966 – Barbados gained independence.

1967 – The People’s Republic of South Yemen gained independence.

1967 – The Pakistan Peoples Party was founded by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.

1971 – Iran seized the Greater and Lesser Tunbs from the United Arab Emirates.

1981 – Cold War: Representatives from the United States and the Soviet Union began to negotiate intermediate-range nuclear weapon reductions in Europe.

1989 – Deutsche Bank board member Alfred Herrhausen was killed by a Red Army Faction terrorist bomb.

1993 – U.S. President Bill Clinton signed the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (the Brady Bill) into law.

1994 – MS Achille Lauro fire off Somalia coast.

1995 – Official end of Operation Desert Storm.

1998 – Exxon and Mobil signed a $73.7 billion agreement to merge, creating Exxon-Mobil, the world’s largest company.

1999 – In Seattle, protestests against the WTO meeting by anti-globalization protesters caught police unprepared and forced the cancellation of opening ceremonies.

1999 – British Aerospace and Marconi Electronic Systems merged to form BAE Systems, Europe’s largest defense contractor and the fourth largest aerospace firm in the world.

2004 – Longtime Jeopardy! champion Ken Jennings of Salt Lake City, Utah finally lost, leaving him with US$2,520,700, television’s biggest game show winnings.

2004 – Lion Air Flight 538 crash landed in Surakarta, Central Java, killing 26.

2005 – John Sentamu became the first black archbishop in the Church of England with his enthronement as the 97th Archbishop of York.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia