Word of the day

Percipient – having good insight or understanding; perceptive; discerning; discriminating; a person who is able to perceive things; one on whose mind a telepathic impulse or message is held to fall.

Rural Round-up

Far North Iwi take over station lease:

A Far North iwi has taken over the lease for land it will take ownership of in a Treaty of Waitangi settlement next year.

Ngati Kuri has held a blessing for Te Paki Station, at Te Rerenga Wairua, to mark taking over the lease of the 3300ha sheep and cattle station.

Ngati Kuri trust board chair Harry Burkhardt said many kaumatua and kuia worked on the farm, and the blessing was a process they wanted as a way of acknowledging the history connected to the land. . .

Sheep intestines to China do a runner – Gerard Hutching:

New Zealand’s $160 million sheep intestine trade with China is in a mystery temporary halt as officials work through access issues.

The intestines – familiarly known in the trade as “green runners” but in export parlance as casings – are used to make sausages and a variety of other products.

The total global value of the trade to New Zealand is $300 million. . .

Aspire to dairying’s heights, drystock farmers told – Gerald Piddock:

Sheep and beef farmers have to stop viewing the dairy industry as competition, a meat industry leader says.

Dairying had set the benchmark for success, and there were some valuable lessons that drystock farmers could learn from their dairying counterparts, Beef + Lamb chairman James Parsons told farmers in Taumarunui.

Sheep and beef farmers should not be jealous of the dairy industry and should celebrate its success and contribution to the national economy, he said.

“They are humming along really well, and as New Zealanders, we should be really proud that we have a really strong dairy sector.” . . .

Dog teams ready to patrol –

Five new biosecurity dog detector teams are about to start work.

Four are in Auckland and one in Christchurch, where they will sniff out exotic pests and diseases that pose biosecurity threats.

Kim Hughes and labrador Enya, Lucy Telfar with beagle Clara, Gerrie Stoltz with Snoop and Mikaella Pearce, who has yet to be assigned a dog, are in Auckland while Kimberley Sell and labrador Helga are in Christchurch. . . .

LiC bulls win awards –

Two LIC bulls have taken out this year’s sire of the season awards from the Jersey and Holstein-Friesian breed societies.

William SIA Duetto was named Jersey New Zealand’s J T Thwaites Sire of the Season and Hazael Dauntless Freedom was awarded Holstein-Friesian NZ’s Mahoe Trophy. . .

ECAL: In wool we trust:

At the Design Miami/ Basel fair this June will be the satellite exhibition In Wool We Trust by ECAL/ University of Art and Design Lausanne. Led by designers Ronan Bouroullec and Camille Blin, the project is the result of a one-week student workshop from the Master in Product Design program. The installations celebrate the numerous qualities of Merino wool in an unconventional way. The exhibition was supported by The Woolmark Company, the world’s leading wool textile organisation, and Mover Sportswear, a pioneer in designing ski garments combining wool and technical fabrics. . . .

Members matter

Last night it was my honour and pleasure to accept the  National Party’s Membership Cup for regional growth on behalf of the  Southern Region, which I chair.

The significant boost in membership which the award recognised was given impetus by candidate selections but it was very much a team effort throughout the whole region.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Growing membership is a sign of the health of the party but we all know there is a lot more work to be done.

There’s an election to win and the very strong message from this weekend’s conference was that in spite of the encouraging poll results, there is absolutely no certainty about which party will lead the next government.

Membership will play a very significant part in whether we win or not.

It’s lots of little amounts of money from many members which build the strong financial foundation for the party.

It’s members who support and encourage candidates and MPs and form the team they need to campaign.

It’s members who provide the people-power for the old-fashioned party to people contact which wins elections.

Members matter and never more than now when the election result is in the balance.

Say Yes

 

Say Yes –©2014 Brian Andreas

You can sign up for a daily dose of whimsy at the page linked to above.

8/10

8/10 in the Herald’s politics quiz.

Winning team won’t necessarily be winner

A party enjoying poll ratings which show it could govern alone might be in danger of complacency.

There is absolutely none of that at the National Party conference where the very clear message was

Prime Minister John Key told Patrick Gower:

. . . I know the polls look strong for us. And I know on the 3 Reid Research poll we’ll be able to govern alone and I’m really personally desperately hope that’s what election night looks like. But you and I both know it’ll probably be tighter than that and there’s every chance that we don’t win.. .

Chris Finlayson and Steven Joyce gave a similar message to the conference:

. . . Attorney General Chris Finlayson talked about the “hydra” this morning that grows new heads when the old ones are chopped off.

“Cut off Phil Goff and up shoots David Shearer and Hone Harawira. Saw off David Shearer and up springs David Cunliffe and Laila Harre.

“The fragmentation on the left hasn’t made the hydra weaker,” said Mr Finlayson “only more unstable if it can force its way into power again.”

Campaign chairman Steven Joyce warned delegates that the campaign was “still a little puppy” and that anything at all could happen in the next 84 days before the election – the wackiest thing imaginable, he said.

“A retired Maori activist who has become an MP working with a hard left unionist and let’s just throw in a wealthy German millionaire right-winger, they could form a political party,” said.

“That’s the sort of wacky thing that could happen between now and September 20.

“If Laila Harre, Hone Harawira, Pam Corkery, Kim Dotcom, Russel Norman, Metiria Turei, David Cunliffe, Matt McCarten, and John Minto are the answer, can we please have another look at the question?” . .

National’s got a winning team but it’s up to voters to decide whether to give the winning team the support it needs to  be the winner, or whether they’re going to trust government to the hydra on the left led by a weak Labour dominated by the Green, NZ First and Internet Mana parties.

Inside and outside

Spot the difference:

Outside the National Party conference: the lonely figure of Trevor Mallard announcing Labour’s lame anti-growth immigration policy – to which he’d forgotten to invite the media.

Inside the conference venue: hundreds of delegates, a united caucus and policies which will build New Zealand and make a positive and sustainable difference to New Zealanders – economically, socially and environmentally.

Sunday soapbox

Sunday’s soapbox is yours to use as you will – within the bounds of decency and absence of defamation. You’re welcome to look back or forward, discuss issues of the moment, to pontificate, ponder or point us to something of interest, to educate, elucidate or entertain, amuse, bemuse or simply muse.

June 29 in history

1149 Raymond of Antioch was defeated and killed at the Battle of Inab by Nur ad-Din Zangi.

1194  Sverre was crowned King of Norway.

1444 Skanderbeg defeated an Ottoman invasion force at Torvioll.

1534  Jacques Cartier made the European discovery of Prince Edward Island.

1613 The Globe Theatre in London  burned to the ground.

1644 Charles I defeated a Parliamentarian detachment at the Battle of Cropredy Bridge, the last battle won by an English King on English soil.

1659  Battle of Konotop: Ukrainian armies of Ivan Vyhovsky defeatedthe Russians, led by Prince Trubetskoy.

1749  New Governor Charles de la Ralière Des Herbiers arrives at Isle Royale (Cape Breton Island).

1786  Alexander Macdonell and more than five hundred Roman Catholic highlanders left Scotland to settle in Glengarry County, Ontario.

1850  Coal was discovered on Vancouver Island.

1850   Autocephaly officially granted by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople to the Church of Greece.

1861 William James Mayo, American physician, was born (d. 1939).

1864  Ninety-nine people were killed in Canada’s worst railway disaster near St-Hilaire, Quebec.

1874  Greek politician Charilaos Trikoupis published a manifesto in the Athens daily Kairoi entitled “Who’s to Blame?” in which he laid out his complaints against King George.

1880  France annexed Tahiti.

1891  Street railway in Ottawa commenced operation.

1895  Doukhobors burned their weapons as a protest against conscription by the Tsarist Russian government.

1900 Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, French writer, was born (d. 1944).

1901 Nelson Eddy, American singer and actor, was born (d. 1967).

1914  Jina Guseva attempted to assassinate Grigori Rasputin.

1916  Sir Roger Casement, Irish Nationalist and British diplomat was sentenced to death for his part in the Easter Rising.

1922  France granted 1 km² at Vimy Ridge “freely, and for all time, to the Government of Canada, the free use of the land exempt from all taxes.”

1925 Canada House opened in London.

1926  Arthur Meighen returned to office as Prime Minister of Canada.

1927  First test of Wallace Turnbull’s Controllable pitch propeller.

1928 The Outerbridge Crossing and Goethals Bridge in Staten Island, New York opened.

1937  Joseph-Armand Bombardier of Canada received a patent for sprocket and track traction system used in snow vehicles.

1943 Little Eva, American singer, was born  (d. 2003).

1945  Carpathian Ruthenia was annexed by Soviet Union.

1972  The U.S. Supreme Court ruled the death penalty could constitute “cruel and unusual punishment”.

1974 Isabel Perón was sworn in as the first female President of Argentina.

1976 Bret McKenzie, New Zealand musician, (Flight of the Conchords) was born.

1976  The Seychelles became independent from the United Kingdom.

1990 Dr Penny Jamieson became the first woman in the world to be appointed an Anglican bishop.

1995  Space Shuttle program: STS-71 Mission Atlantis docks with the Russian space station Mir for the first time.

1995  The Sampoong Department Store collapsed in Seoul, killing 501 and injuring 937.

2002  Naval clashes between South Korea and North Korea led to the death of six South Korean sailors and sinking of a North Korean vessel.

2006  Hamdan v. Rumsfeld: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that President George W. Bush’s plan to try Guantanamo Bay detainees in military tribunals violated U.S. and international law.

2007  Two car bombs were found in the heart of London at Piccadilly Circus.

2012 – A derecho struck the eastern United States, leaving at least 22 people dead and millions without power.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia