Constellation Cup 1 -1

The Silver Ferns were downed by the Diamonds tonight 45 – 48  to make it 1 -1 in the Constellation Cup.

 

Still some distance to go

While celebrating 120 years of women’s suffrage, let’s not forget we’ve still got some distance to go:

 

Proud to be lowest

This is one area where we can celebrate being the lowest:

And while we’re celebrating that let’s celebrate National’s diversity and note 11 of the 15 are electorate MPs :
>

Word of the day

Cacodoxy – erroneous doctrine; heresy; heterodoxy; incorrect opinions.

Rural round-up

Growers protest how Hawke’s Bay council managed drought – Adam Ray:

A convoy of hundreds of tractors rumbled through streets in Hawke’s Bay today in protest of water restrictions.

Growers say the regional council ignored their concerns when it cut water during a severe drought earlier this year.

The tractors were off the orchards and on the streets of Hawke’s Bay today – a convoy of hundreds highlighting anger from growers at the regional council. The Grower Action Group says the council’s water management is so bad they’re campaigning to drive out its current leadership.

“Change the councillors, change the CEO, chairman I don’t care,” says the Grower Action Group’s Paul Paynter. “We want to change the culture of the place.” . . .

NZ wool in world record rug bid:

A Chinese carpet company is claiming a new world record for the biggest one-piece rug ever made, using more than 3000 kg of New Zealand wool.

The giant hand-tufted rug covers more than 1000 square metres and took a team of 100 workers two months to finish.

It was made by the Beijing Jin Baohua Carpet Company for the Chinese capital’s new International Convention Centre. . .

How Lambs are helping Hector’s dolphins:

Collaboration between Wools of New Zealand, Banks Peninsula wool growers and leading international fabric company, Camira Fabrics UK, is having a positive spin off – funding and support for the critically endangered Hector’s dolphin.

Wools of New Zealand, the grower owned sales and marketing company and its grower shareholders are the suppliers of lamb’s wool which meets stringent performance and environmental standards for Camira Fabrics’ growing BlazerTM upholstery fabric range. For every metre sold, a percentage of the sale goes to the New Zealand Whale and Dolphin Trust to benefit Banks Peninsula’s Hector’s dolphins contributed by the growers and Camira in partnership. . .

Effluent app captures value:

DairyNZ has released a new smartphone app to help farmers apply effluent more efficiently.

The Dairy Effluent Spreading Calculator app provides dairy farmers and effluent spreading contractors with guidance around nutrient application rates based on the depth and type of effluent they apply.

The easy-to-use app ensures effluent nutrients can be applied with greater precision. . .

Heilala Vanilla Launches New Ground Vanilla Powder:

New Zealand’s premium vanilla grower and producer Heilala Vanilla has launched a new ground vanilla powder.

Made from 100% pure vanilla beans, the powder is free from artificial colours, flavours, buffers, additives, sugar and is gluten free.

Jennifer Boggiss, Heilala Vanilla director, says requests from customers and health food stores for a pure vanilla powder led to the development of the product.

Have your say on a new fungicide:

The Environmental Protection Authority is inviting people to make submissions on an application to import a new fungicide for plants.

BASF New Zealand has applied to import Adexar, a fungicide with the active ingredients fluxapyroxad and epoxiconazole.

Adexar is used as a spray on wheat and barley crops to prevent or control fungal diseases. . .

Thursday’s quiz

1. Who said: If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favourable.?

2.  These lines come from which song and are about whom? :

Loud the winds howl, loud the waves roar,
Thunderclouds rend the air;
Baffled, our foes stand by the shore,
Follow they will not dare.

3. It’s marin in French, marinaio in Italian, marinaro in Spanish and hēramana in Maori, what is it in English?

4. Who skippered New Zealand to 16 America’s Cup wins and no losses?

5. America’s Cup – sport, a rich man’s pursuit or  . . . ?

What else would he do?

Trevor Mallard was one of the prominent members of the ABC – Anyone but Cunliffe – Club.

He now has three choices.

He can swallow his pride and the animosity he feels towards the new leader and put party  unity and loyalty first.

He can resign, now or at the end of this parliamentary term and move on.

He can stay and destabilise Cunliffe’s leadership the way the new leader and others destabilised David Shearer’s.

That Mallard didn’t answer his phone when Cunliffe called with the news he was being replaced as Labour’s Leader of the House suggests he’s not going to take the first option.

The chances of his resigning aren’t high because what else could he do that would pay as well as being an MP does, even without the added perk of excursions like his current one to watch the America’s Cup.

That leaves option three and given Grant Robertson didn’t take up the opportunity to be leader he might not be on his own.

 

 

Unanimity for children

Social Development Minister Paula Bennett was delighted to get unanimous support from Parliament for the Vulnerable Children Bill at first reading.

“This legislation is part of the wider Children’s Action Plan, with more than 30 initiatives to prevent child abuse and improve the lives of our most vulnerable children,” says Mrs Bennett.

“I’ve deliberately kept politics out of this and I’m delighted Opposition parties have found a way to support this work in exactly the same vein.”

This cross-party support is hugely significant for communities and individuals across New Zealand who’ve passionately adopted the Children’s Action Plan.

“It’s absolutely fair that parties have supported this legislation to Select Committee but reserve the right to debate and discuss the detail further before committing to the next step, I welcome that debate.”

“We are making major changes affecting thousands of New Zealanders.”

The Vulnerable Children Bill starts with leadership; making the heads of Health, Education, Police, Justice and Social Development accountable for a vulnerable children’s plan.

“This will have a direct impact on frontline workers in every one of those departments because policies will change,” says Mrs Bennett.

There will be new child protection policies for the five agencies as well as also Te Puni Kokiri, Ministry of Business, Employment and Innovation, District Health Boards and school Boards of Trustees.

New standardised screening and vetting checks of the Government Children’s Workforce and restrictions to stop people with serious convictions from working closely with children, will provide greater frontline protections.

Judges will be able to place Child Harm Prevention Orders on adults who pose a serious risk to children.

Only three people will be able to apply for such an order; the Chief Executives of Corrections or Ministry of Social Development or the Police Commissioner.

“The process of determining risk will be robust and the threshold high.”

“This Government has weighed up individual freedoms against the protection of children; Cabinet thought about this long and hard.”

“We have a responsibility to protect children from those who pose a serious risk to their safety, so we are putting children ahead of adults.”

“I look forward to Select Committee wrestling with this one,” says Mrs Bennett.

Courts will be able to curtail and define guardianship rights of birth parents in who risk stability for a child with Home for Life carers.

Parents who seriously abuse or even kill children will have to prove they are safe to parent again; if they go on to have another child.

Mrs Bennett says all of these changes are about a better life for the most vulnerable children in New Zealand.

“New Zealanders asked us to take action and make a difference to our appalling child abuse record. That’s what we’re doing,” says Mrs Bennett.

The Vulnerable Children omnibus Bill proposes two new Acts: the Vulnerable Children Act, and the Child Harm Prevention Orders Act.

It also amends the Children, Young Persons, and Their Families Act 1989 and the KiwiSaver Act 2006 and makes consequential amendments to a number of other Acts.

Our record on child abuse is shameful.

It is encouraging that all parties in parliament were willing to set politics aside to support this Bill which aims to protect those who need it most.

There is more information on the Children’s Action Plan here.

Racing this time?

The weather won yesterday, forcing the postponement of racing.

All fingers and toes crossed for fair winds and a fantastic result in today’s races for the America’s Cup – with or without the help of the Kiwi Ninjas:

The Kiwis behind the dawn flag-bombing stunt at one of Larry Ellison’s San Francisco properties today said the operation took hours in the researching and planning.

A video posted online this morning of a trio, calling themselves the Kiwi ninjas, decorating Ellison’s garage with New Zealand flags has fast gone viral. The idea was dreamt up by a group of fervent Team New Zealand supporters over a few beers earlier this week.

One of the ninjas who donned the full lycra body suit, Cathy Odgers, said everything down to the type of duct tape they used to attach the flags to the garage door was thoroughly researched

“I think it would have taken five billable hours of planning the whole exercise,” joked Odgers, a lawyer by trade, “but the result was priceless.” . . .

TVNZ is live steaming the races here.

120th anniversary of women’s suffrage

It’s the 120th anniversary of Women’s Suffrage in New Zealand.

Kate Shepphard’s part in the fight for women’s suffrage is recognised with her picture on our five ten dollar note.

But it wasn’t only the efforts of women that resulted in New Zealand being the first country in the world to grant women the vote.

The Ministry for Culture and Heritage reminds us of the men who helped in the fight:

On September 8, 1893, for the third time the women’s suffrage bill was to be voted on by the Legislative Council – New Zealand’s upper house. It looked like a third defeat was likely; however, it passed slimly with 20 votes to 18 in its favour.

Women had won the vote; 11 days later the Electoral Bill was signed and all New Zealand women were eligible to vote in that year’s upcoming election.

Women had made it happen – more than 32,000 women had signed the Women’s Franchise petitions calling for the change in legislation, and their efforts had been heard.

They had also lobbied men, and crucially, the women’s movement had several key male supporters.

Politician, Robert Stout, in 1879 had introduced the Electoral Bill which made woman ratepayers eligible to vote and to stand for Parliament. He won for women the right to vote for licensing committees, and was largely responsible for the Married Women’s Property Act 1884, which declared a married woman capable of acquiring, holding and disposing of property in her own right. Stout later worked, in close association with his wife, Anna Paterson Stout, to limit the testamentary freedom of husbands so that property could not be willed away from wives.

John Ballance supported moves to enfranchise women, a reform of which he had long been an advocate. Speaking in the House in 1890 he declared: ‘I believe in the absolute equality of the sexes, and I think they should be in the enjoyment of equal privileges in political matters.’ In his support for women’s suffrage Ballance was strongly influenced by the views of his wife. Ellen Ballance was prominent in the growing feminist movement in New Zealand and was vice president of the Women’s Progressive Society, an international organisation.

Another who took up the cause was former Premier John Hall. He was approached by the female suffrage movement and assumed parliamentary leadership of the campaign. Hall had long believed that women had a right to the vote; he was also certain that their votes would exercise a conservative influence. His final and most lasting political triumph came with the passage of the Electoral Bill in September 1893.

Within weeks of the new law being signed 109,461 women had enrolled to vote for the 28 November election that year – 84% of all eligible women. On voting day 90,290 women voted for the first time, making history and changing politics forever.

At a function in parliament last night, Minister Hekia Parata reminded us that women weren’t given the vote, they fought for it and won.

Dame Jenny Shipley, New Zealand’s first female Prime Minister, said it wasn’t enough to have the vote, women must be at the table to participate in decision making.

(Hat tip for graphic: Lindsay Mitchell,).

September 19 in history

335  Dalmatius was raised to the rank of Caesar by his uncle Constantine I.

1356  In the Battle of Poitiers, the English defeated the French.

1676 Jamestown was burned to the ground by the forces of Nathaniel Bacon during Bacon’s Rebellion.

1692 Giles Corey was pressed to death after refusing to plead in the Salem witch trials.

1777  First Battle of Saratoga/Battle of Freeman’s Farm/Battle of Bemis Heights.

1796 George Washington’s farewell address was printed across America as an open letter to the public.

1862 American Civil War: Battle of Luka – Union troops under General William Rosecrans defeated a Confederate force commanded by General Sterling Price.

1863  American Civil War: Battle of Chickamauga.

1870 Franco-Prussian War: the Siege of Paris began.

1881 President James A. Garfield died of wounds suffered in a July 2 shooting.

1882 Christopher Stone, first disc jockey in the United Kingdom, was born (d. 1965).

1893 The Governor, Lord Glasgow, signed a new Electoral Act into law. As a result of this landmark legislation, New Zealand became the first self-governing country in the world to grant all women the right to vote in parliamentary elections.

1911 Sir William Golding, English writer, Nobel Prize laureate, was born (d. 1993).

1927 Nick Massi, American singer and guitarist (The Four Seasons), was born (d. 2000).

1933 – David McCallum, Scottish actor, was born.

1934 Brian Epstein, English musical group manager (The Beatles) (d. 1967).

1940 Bill Medley, American singer and songwriter (The Righteous Brothers), was born.

1940 Witold Pilecki was voluntarily captured and sent to Auschwitz in order to smuggle out information and start a resistance.

1940 – Paul Williams, American composer, was born.

1941 Mama Cass Elliot, American musician, was born (d. 1974).

1944  Armistice between Finland and Soviet Union was signed ending the Continuation War.

1945  Lord Haw Haw (William Joyce) was sentenced to death in London.

1946 The Council of Europe was founded following a speech by Winston Churchill at the University of Zurich.

1949 Twiggy, English model, was born.

1952  The United States barred Charlie Chaplin from re-entering the country after a trip to England.

1957  First American underground nuclear bomb test.

1959  Nikita Khrushchev was barred from visiting Disneyland.

1961  Betty and Barney Hill claimed  they saw a mysterious craft in the sky and that it tried to abduct them.

1970  The first Glastonbury Festival was held at Michael Eavis’s farm.

1970  Kostas Georgakis, a Greek student of Geology, set himself ablaze in Matteotti Square in Genoa, as a protest against the dictatorial regime of Georgios Papadopoulos.

1971 Montagnard troops of South Vietnam revolted against the rule of Nguyen Khanh, killing 70 ethnic Vietnamese soldiers.

1972 Matt Cockbain, Australian rugby player, was born.

1972 A parcel bomb sent to Israeli Embassy in London killed one diplomat.

1973 Investiture of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.

1976 Turkish Airlines Boeing 727 hit the Taurus Mountains killing all 155 passengers and crew.

1982 Scott Fahlman posted the first documented emoticons and on the Carnegie Mellon University Bulletin Board System.

1983  Saint Kitts and Nevis gained  independence.

1985 An earthquake killed thousands and destroyed about 400 buildings in Mexico City.

1985  Tipper Gore and other political wives formed the Parents Music Resource Center as Frank Zappa and other musicians testified at U.S. Congressional hearings on obscenity in rock music.

1989  A terrorist bomb exploded on UTA Flight 772 in mid-air above the Tùnùrù Desert, Niger, killing 171.

1991  Ötzi the Iceman was discovered by German tourists.

1995 The Washington Post and The New York Times published the Unabomber’s manifesto.

1997  Guelb El-Kebir massacre in Algeria; 53 killed.

2006  Thai military staged a coup in Bangkok; the  Constitution was revoked and martial law declared.

2010 – The leaking oil well in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill was sealed.

2011 – Mariano Rivera of the New York Yankees surpassed Trevor Hoffman to become Major League Baseball’s all time saves leader with 602.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia