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 :
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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.