Word of the day

Couthie – agreeable; friendly; genial; kindly.

Rural round-up

New Glenavy Dairy Factory Officially Opened:

Leading global dairy company, Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group (Yili), today officially opened its $236 million Oceania Dairy factory in Glenavy, South Canterbury.

Yili also confirmed plans to invest a further $400 million in the South Canterbury factory over the next five years, increasing its total investment to in excess of $600 million.

Yili is China’s largest dairy company and one of the top ten dairy companies in the world. Oceania Dairy Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary.

The first stage of the Glenavy factory was completed in September and the factory is in its first full season of production. . .

 NZ secondary schools eye agribusiness subjects to bolster industry –  Tina Morrison:

New Zealand secondary schools are trialling an agribusiness programme which aims to feed more students into tertiary study to provide future talent for the industry.

Some 48 students trialled a pilot curriculum at St Paul’s Collegiate School in Hamilton this year with another 85 signed up for next year, the school said in a statement. Seven other schools throughout the country have joined the project and will offer the subject in 2016, with the new subject expected to be available to all secondary schools by 2017, it said. . .

Feed to farmers faster:

SealesWinslow is celebrating as its $10 million upgrade to get feed to farmers faster nears completion. The investment has predominantly focused on its Morrinsville feedmill and distribution centre, officially opened last week, and includes improvements to its counterpart facilities in Ashburton and Wanganui.

The wholly-owned subsidiary of Ballance Agri-Nutrients, SealesWinslow has made the investment to lift its service and manufacturing and distribution capabilities to better meet the needs of its customers.

Speaking at the official opening at Morrinsville, Ballance Chief Executive Mark Wynne said the investment was another way the co-operative was supporting farmers to lift production and productivity. . .

Karaka 2015 Handbook & IPad Catalogue Available Now:

The Karaka 2015 Handbook is online now for New Zealand Bloodstock’s National Yearling Sales Series, as well as the catalogue being loaded on to the free iPad application.

Designed as your ‘go-to’ guide for all things Karaka, the Karaka 2015 Handbook contains detailed information that will make your trip to Karaka in January a breeze.

The Handbook contains all the information you will need to make your selection process a breeze from vendor information and sire previews, to bonus schemes, Karaka Million information, highlight lots and past successes. . .

Figured and LIC Announce Partnership:

Strategic partnership to deliver integrated technology solution to farmers

Figured, (www.figured.com), New Zealand’s innovative farm financial management software provider, and farmer-owned co-operative LIC (NZX:LIC) today announced a new strategic partnership combining LIC’s leading position in the herd improvement industry with Figured’s expertise in cloud-based farm accounting. LIC has also invested in Figured to secure a cornerstone shareholding, with an 18.8% equity stake, and an LIC director will also sit on the board.

“The partnership with LIC is an important endorsement of our vision of improving the business of farming. Our proven innovation in farm accounting and early market traction provides a compelling proposition for LIC,” said Paul Reid, Chief Executive of Figured. “By offering farm accounting in a cloud-based platform we enable the whole farming team to work together to monitor, re-plan and review financial performance and improve farm profit in real-time from any location.” . .

 

Donald where’s your troosers?

Happy St Andrew’s Day to all Scots and those like me with tartan blood.

One of our uncles gave us a record player when my brothers and I were kids and a whole lot of 78s among which was one with Andy Stewart singing Donald Where’s Your Troosers?

P.S.

Happy name day to Andrei too.

 

No sweat(er)

Just wondering when jumpers/jerseys became sweaters in NZ?:

US President Barack Obama has been photographed wearing a sweater made by New Zealand clothing company Untouched World.

Mr Obama wore the sweater as he made Thanksgiving Day calls to US troops from the Oval Office yesterday morning (NZDT). . .

Possibly around the same time biscuits became cookies?

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 but not to abuse.

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.

2012  – An Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane belonging to Aéro-Service, crashed into houses near Maya-Maya Airport during a thunderstorm, killing at least 32 people.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

Word of the day

Omphalos – the centre or hub of something; someone who thinks they are the centre of the universe; a stone in the temple of Apollo at Delphi thought to mark the centre of the earth.

Rural round-up

Changes afoot in red meat sector – Allan Barber:

The much maligned red meat sector may at last be about to undergo a structural change if a majority of processors and farmers can reach agreement on a proposed capacity moratorium. Past history suggests that is a big IF, but a document being circulated among processors, Meat Industry Association (MIA), Beef + Lamb NZ, Federated Farmers and the Meat Industry Excellence (MIE) group contains a realistic basis for agreement on a solution to the capacity problem which has dogged the industry for years.

The concept proposes to issue plant and chain licences which would effectively freeze (excuse the pun) the number of sheep and beef processing plants and chains at the current level from the start of next season. The document suggests a 12 year moratorium on any new licences being issued as a means of protecting existing owners’ investment in the industry. . .

Lack of dairy workers a real concern – Susie Nordqvist:

Dairy New Zealand is warning the agricultural sector is in dire need of workers, and if we don’t do something to plug the gap there’s no way we’ll meet our target of doubling our primary exports by 2025.

Agriculture is an industry where jobs go begging, and the next generation of workers are in short supply.

“I think farmers need to pull up their socks a wee bit,” says dairy farmer David Fullerton.

By 2025 it is estimated there could be a shortfall of 8000 workers – so why isn’t agriculture attracting young workers?

“Each individual farmer has to build up a reputation of being fair and that’s time off, remuneration, housing, the whole works,” says Mr Fullerton. . .

Essential steps to protect irrigators:

Point, park and anchor – the three essential steps farmers have been advised to take to protect expensive irrigation equipment from being knocked down and damaged during high winds.

Rural insurer FMG has posted a new guide on this on its website.

The company and Lincoln University launched a joint study following the violent wind storms that hit Canterbury in September 2013, causing massive damage to plantations as well as hundreds of pivot or travelling irrigators on dairy and cropping farms.

It resulted in farmers and growers lodging more than 260 claims with the FMG at a cost of $7.6 million.

FMG’s advice and insurance general manager, Conrad Wilkshire, says more than 100 Canterbury farmers also contributed to the guide with practical advice on preventative measures taken to protect their machines. . .

Merino out of this world  – Tim Cronshaw:

Merino clothing has gone where no sheep has gone before – the final frontier.

Space is the latest extreme environment where high-performance merino T-shirts made from New Zealand wool are being worn. Nasa astronauts wear them on board the International Space Station and during training on Earth.

Armadillo Merino, a British company owned by the South Island family of Andy Caughey, began manufacturing a merino base layer range last year and has secured contracts with national military and police services and now the United States space programme.

Caughey said Nasa had up to 100 astronauts training at any one time, and their clothes needed to be suitable for both orbit and Earth. . .

Farmers and sheep protest at Eiffel Tower –

French farmers have brought their sheep to the Eiffel Tower to express their frustration over increasing attacks by wolves that some say have been over protected by the government.

Some 300 sheep grazed at the foot of the French capital’s most famous monument on Thursday (local time) as the farmers gathered under foggy skies to demand an effective plan to stop the wolf attacks.

“Today farmers, tomorrow unemployed,” read one banner, while one of the protesters dressed as a wolf carried around a lamb.

But a rival demonstration by animal rights activists, calling for the wolves to be protected, also made an appearance under the Eiffel Tower. . .

All I want for Christmas is more AB:

LIC is making plans to get more cows in-calf at Christmas in response to high demand for its short gestation genetics offering and as farmers find new ways to maximise the benefits this season.

The leading genetics supplier for the national dairy herd has already set a new semen record this season with 142,006 straws for artificial insemination dispatched from its Newstead laboratory in one day. More than five million straws will be processed by Christmas Eve when the peak time usually ends – but this season farmers want more.

“It’s been a cracker of a season here at LIC, and the massive response to short gestation has been a huge part of that,” says Malcolm Ellis, SGL breeding programme manager. . .

 

Saturday’s smiles

Martha had a parrot called Magnus who talked.

He was good company but he had a propensity for cursing at inopportune moments.

Martha was having her in-laws over for Thanksgiving, and so she needed to train Brutus quickly not to swear.

The morning the guests were Magnus let out a string of obscenities so Martha but him in the freezer for a minute to literally cool off.

When she opened the door to let the parrot out she also got out a frozen turkey.

‘And have you learned your lesson about bad language?’ Martha asked the parrot.

Magnus took one look at the dead turkey and said: ‘Oh yes, definitely. But now I have a I have a question – what did the turkey do?’

President wears Untouched World

An official Whitehouse photo of President Barack Obama phoning troops for Thanksgiving shows him wearing a merinomink – merino and possum – jumper from New Zealand’s Untouched World:

This is publicity money can’t buy for the company which is understandably delighted at the unintentional endorsement:

Christchurch clothing brand Untouched World is bracing for a surge in sales after United States President Barack Obama was photographed wearing one of their jumpers in the White House Oval Office.

Mr Obama donned the dark grey merino and possum-blend pullover as he made Thanksgiving Day phone calls to US troops and service members from behind the most famous desk in the US.

Untouched World CEO Peri Drysdale is thrilled with the “happy accident”.

“What’s really nice about it is that it’s something he’s gotten up in the morning and chosen to wear, so it’s really cool,” she says.

She believes the sweatshirt, which retails for NZ$399, was given to Mr Obama by Prime Minister John Key when Mr Key visited the White House in June. . .

Mr Obama is the second US President to be pictured in Untouched World clothing. Bill Clinton has been a fan ever since being given one of the brand’s jackets at the APEC conference in Auckland in 1999. . .

Merino and possum is warmer than wool by itself, it’s soft, silky and wears well.

I’ve owned a jumper similar to the one the president is wearing for several years. In spite of many wears and several washes it still looks good.

Untouched World’s website is here.

Saturday soapbox

Saturday’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 but not to abuse.

November 29 in history

800 – Charlemagne arrived at Rome to investigate the alleged crimes of Pope Leo III.

939 – Edmund was crowned King of England as his half-brother Aethelstan died.

1394 – The Korean king Yi Song-gye, founder of the Joseon-Dynasty, moved the capital from Kaesŏng to Hanyang, today known as Seoul.

1777 – San Jose, California, was founded as el Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe.

1781 – The crew of the British slave ship Zong murdered 133 Africans by dumping them into the sea in order to claim insurance.

1807 – The Portuguese Royal Family left Lisbon to escape from Napoleonic troops.

1830 – November Uprising: An armed rebellion against Russia’s rule in Poland began.

1832  Louisa May Alcott, American novelist, was born (d. 1888).

1845 – The Sonderbund was defeated by the joint forces of other Swiss cantons under General Guillaume-Henri Dufour.

1847 – Whitman Massacre: Missionaries Dr. Marcus Whitman, his wife Narcissa, and 15 others were killed by Cayuse and Umatilla Indians, causing the Cayuse War.

1849  Sir John Ambrose Fleming, British physicist, was born (d. 1945).

1850 – The treaty, Punctation of Olmütz, signed in Olomouc meant diplomatic capitulation of Prussia to Austrian Empire, which took over the leadership of German Confederation.

1864 – Indian Wars: Sand Creek Massacre – Colorado volunteers led by Colonel John Chivington massacred at least 150 Cheyenne and Arapaho noncombatants.

1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Spring Hill – Confederate advance into Tennessee missed the opportunity to crush the Union army.

1872 – Indian Wars: The Modoc War began with the Battle of Lost River.

1877 – Thomas Edison demonstrated his phonograph for the first time.

1890 – The Meiji Constitution went into effect in Japan and the first Diet convened.

1893 Elizabeth Yates became the first woman in the British Empire to win a mayoral election when she became Mayor of Onehunga.

  

1893 – Ziqiang Institute, today known as Wuhan University, was founded by Zhang Zhidong.

1898  C. S. Lewis, Irish writer, was born(d. 1963).

1899 – Spanish football club FC Barcelona was founded by Joan Gamper.

1910 – The first US  patent for inventing the traffic lights system was issued to Ernest E. Sirrine.

1913 – Fédération Internationale d’Escrime, the international organizing body of competitive fencing was founded in Paris.

1915 – Fire destroyed most of the buildings on Santa Catalina Island, California.

1917  Merle Travis, American singer/guitarist, was born (d. 1983).

1922 – Howard Carter opened the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun to the public.

1929 – U.S. Admiral Richard Byrd became the first person to fly over the South Pole.

1932 Jacques Chirac, French President, was born.

1933 John Mayall, British blues musician, was born.

1943 – The second session of AVNOJ, the Anti-fascist council of national liberation of Yugoslavia, was held determining the post-war ordering of the country.

1944 – The first surgery (on a human) to correct blue baby syndrome was performed by Alfred Blalock and Vivien Thomas.

1944 – Albania was liberated by the Albanian partisans.

1945 – The Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia was declared.

1947 – The United Nations General Assembly voted to partition Palestine (The Partition Plan).

1950 – Korean War: North Korean and Chinese troops force United Nations forces to retreat from North Korea.

1952 – Korean War: U.S. President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower fulfilled a campaign promise by traveling to Korea to find out what can be done to end the conflict.

1961 –  Mercury-Atlas 5 Mission – Enos, a chimpanzee, was launched into space.

1963 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson established the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

1963 – Trans-Canada Airlines Flight 831: A Douglas DC-8 carrying 118, crashed after taking-off.

1965 – Canadian Space Agency launched the satellite Alouette 2.

1972 – Nolan Bushnell (co-founder of Atari) released Pong (the first commercially successful video game) in Andy Capp’s Tavern in Sunnyvale, California.

1987 – Korean Air Flight 858 exploded over the Thai-Burmese border, killing 155.

1990 – The United Nations Security Council passed United Nations Security Council Resolution 678, authorizing “use all necessary means to uphold and implement” United Nations Security Council Resolution 660″ to restore international peace and security” if Iraq did not withdraw its forces from Kuwait and free all foreign hostages by January 15, 1991.

2007 – The Armed Forces of the Philippines laid siege to The Peninsula Manila after soldiers led by Senator Antonio Trillanes staged a mutiny.

2007 – A 7.4 magnitude earthquake off the northern coast of Martinique.

2009  – Maurice Clemmons shot and killed four police officers inside a coffee shop in Lakewood, Washington.

2013 – LAM Mozambique Airlines Flight 470 crashed in Namibia, killing 33 people.

 

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

Word of the day

Vicinal – adjacent; neighbouring; of or relating to a limited district, local; (of a railway or road) serving a neighbourhood; the location of two identical chemical groups or atoms which are bonded to adjacent carbon atoms; (in mineralogy) designating faces on a crystal that approximate or take the place of fundamental planes.

Rural round-up

Martinborough winemaker receives conservation award:

Conservation Minister Maggie Barry has presented Clive Paton of Martinborough with the 2014 Loder Cup at a ceremony today, for his significant contribution to habitat restoration in New Zealand.

“Clive Paton is a remarkable individual and very deserving of being this year’s Loder Cup recipient. He is an inspirational example of somebody with drive, energy and a vision, who has woven conservation into his life,” says Ms Barry.

The Loder Cup is awarded and presented by the Minister of Conservation annually for outstanding achievements in flora conservation work.

Clive Paton ONZM is a respected conservationist and winemaker. Founder and co-owner of the Ata Rangi vineyard in Martinborough, he is a long-time supporter of “Project Crimson”, which restores New Zealand’s rata and pohutukawa trees. . .

 

Funding success will boost dairy environmental actions

A proven method of working with farmers to improve their environmental performance will be expanded and two new projects will start thanks to funding partnerships between dairy farmers and the Waikato River Authority.

Around $1.3 million of funding from the Waikato River Authority is being matched with $1.3 million from dairy farmers, funded through the levy they pay their industry body DairyNZ, to get the three environmental projects underway. . .

China’s crackdown on polluting tanneries, Russia sanctions drive record slump in lambskin prices – Tina Morrison:

Global lambskin prices have collapsed from the first quarter’s record highs, as a Chinese crackdown on polluting tanneries and Russian trade sanctions sapped demand.

The price for third-grade lambskins, a benchmark for leather garments, has fallen below US$50 per dozen from a record high of US$95/dozen in the first quarter of this year, according to Invercargill-based Alliance Group, the world’s largest processor and exporter of sheepmeat. The skins are currently fetching about US$45-$50/dozen with the price expected to decline to US$40-$45/dozen, the farmer cooperative said. Prices generally fluctuate between US$50-$70/dozen. . .

 

The Meat Workers Union has today urged the Select Committee hearing submissions on the Health & Safety Reform bill to strengthen provisions that protect the rights of workers to be involved and speak out, saying that it’s becoming increasingly unsafe to raise health and safety concerns in some companies.

In its submission to the committee, the union said the industry is one of New Zealand’s most dangerous, with a history of high injury rates and disease.

“In just the past few months, we’ve seen a worker with a hook through his scalp, another with a serious cut to his arm being left for three hours trying to find someone to take him to hospital and another group of workers exposed to fumigation chemicals” says Graham Cooke, National Secretary. . .

 

The Ministry for Primary Industries did not have sufficient evidence to lay charges following two animal welfare investigations into incidents at piggeries earlier this year.

The investigations involved incidents at piggeries in Christchurch and Kumeu. Both involved video footage gathered by a third party.

MPI Director Compliance Dean Baigent said in both cases there was insufficient evidence to prove offences. . .

Third time’s a charm for Young Auctioneer:

PGG Wrightson auctioneer, Cam Bray proved that persistence pays off when he won the Heartland Bank Young Auctioneers Competition held during the Canterbury A&P Show recently.

Eight auctioneers from throughout the country competed in the third year of the Competition, and Cam was pleased to take out the win after competing in all three years.

“It meant a lot to me to win the competition. Auctioneering is a big passion of mine and I hope the win leads to more opportunities.” . .

Selaks Celebrates 80 Year Heritage:

New ‘halo tier’ range of Founders wines launched

Respect for the brand’s creators and a celebration of its heritage are at the heart of the re-launch this month of a limited release range of Selaks Founders wines.

Re-introduced to commemorate the celebrated brand’s 80th anniversary, Selaks Founders Wines are a rare treat only previously produced in recognition of Mate Selak’s passing in 1991. . .

 

 

Friday’s answers

Thursday’s questions were:

1. Who said: We need four hugs a day for survival, eight for maintenance and twelve for growth?

2. The musical Kiss Me Kate is based on which play?

3. It’s étreinte in French, abbracio in Italian, abrazo in Spanish and awhi in Maori, what is it in English?

4. What is a kissing cousin?

5. An air kiss, a hug, a handshake or?

Points for answers:

Andrei got four.

Alwyn got four.

Gravedodger got three and a grin for #4.

Rob got four with a grin for #1 and a nod for #5.

 

Answers follow the break:

Saving at last

New Zealand finally has a positive savings trend:

New Zealand households have together saved more than they spent over the past five consecutive years – the first time this has happened since 1989-94, Finance Minister Bill English says.

The latest revised annual National Accounts (Income and Expenditure) compiled by Statistics New Zealand show aggregate household savings – which includes the impact of debt repayment – totalled $2.8 billion in the year ended March 2014.

This represents a positive savings rate of 2.1 per cent of household disposable income.

The revised figures show that before 2009 – the year after the National Government was first elected – the household savings rate had been negative in all but one year since 1995.

“This news is the latest in a series of results that show households are getting ahead and that the economy is steadily rebalancing towards higher savings and away from borrowing and consumption,” Mr English says.

“Combined with average hourly earnings growing more than twice as fast as inflation, a sustained period of historically low interest rates, falling unemployment and good economic growth, the household savings data adds to a picture of New Zealanders making sensible decisions to strengthen their own balance sheets.

“The Government, which has also kept tight control over its own spending during the same period, has made changes that have encouraged New Zealanders away from debt-funded consumption in favour of a more sustainable and secure position.

“Households have been nudged towards this by a combination of factors including the 2010 tax package which lowered taxes on income and savings and increased tax on consumption and property speculators.

“The Government has also pursued initiatives that have made investments more attractive, including the government share offer programme which  helped stimulate New Zealand’s capital markets. At the same time, we’ve tidied up the finance company sector to help protect depositors, and made KiwiSaver more affordable.  

“Many low-income households are still finding things tough . However, the overall picture supports a rebalancing of the economy away from the debt-fuelled consumer binge that occurred under the previous Labour government, to a growing culture of saving and investing.

“While this helps households get ahead, low inflation and restrained consumption contributes to government revenue being lower than it otherwise would be, again reinforcing the challenge of getting back to surplus.”

The reason we’re dependent on overseas borrowing is because we’ve been spending more than we saved ourselves.

At last we’re saving more than we spend.

The irony of that is lower spending means less GST and so makes it harder for the government to return to surplus.

While that will provide ammunition for the opposition the problem of that is political rather than economic.

Our economy is back on track to surplus and whether we get there this year or next, the economy is growing in a sustainable way without inflationary pressure.

 

November 28 in history

1095 – On the last day of the Council of Clermont, Pope Urban II appointed Bishop Adhemar of Le Puy and Count Raymond IV of Toulouse to lead the First Crusade to the Holy Land.

1443 – Skanderbeg and his forces liberated Kruja in Middle Albania.

1520 – After navigating through the South American strait, three ships under the command of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan reached the Pacific Ocean, becoming the first Europeans to sail from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific.

1582 – William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway paid a £40 bond for their marriage licence.

1628  John Bunyan, English cleric and author. was born (d. 1688).

1632 Jean-Baptiste Lully, French composer, was born  (d. 1687).

1660 – At Gresham College, 12 men, including Christopher Wren, Robert Boyle, John Wilkins, and Sir Robert Moray decided to found what became the Royal Society.

1729 – Natchez Indians massacred 138 Frenchmen, 35 French women, and 56 children at Fort Rosalie.

1757 – William Blake, British poet, was born  (d. 1827).

1785 – The Treaty of Hopewell was signed.

1811 – Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73, was premiered at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig.

1814 – The Times in London was for the first time printed by automatic, steam powered presses built by German inventors Friedrich Koenig and Andreas Friedrich Bauer, signalling the beginning of the availability of newspapers to a mass audience.

1820  Friedrich Engels, German philosopher, was born (d. 1895).

1821 – Panama Independence Day: Panama separated from Spain and joined Gran Colombia.

1829  Anton Rubinstein, Russian composer, was born (d. 1894).

1843 – Ka Lā Hui: Hawaiian Independence Day – The Kingdom of Hawaii was officially recognised by the United Kingdom and France as an independent nation.

1862 – American Civil War: In the Battle of Cane Hill, Union troops under General John Blunt defeated General John Marmaduke’s Confederates.

1893 – Women voted in a national election for the first time in the New Zealand general election.

1895 – The first American automobile race took place over the 54 miles from Chicago’s Jackson Park to Evanston, Illinois. Frank Duryea won in approximately 10 hours.

1904  Nancy Mitford, British essayist, was born (d. 1973).

1905 – Irish nationalist Arthur Griffith founded Sinn Féin as a political party with the main aim of establishing a dual monarchy in Ireland.

1907 – In Haverhill, Massachusetts, scrap-metal dealer Louis B. Mayer opened his first movie theatre.

1910 – Eleftherios Venizelos, leader of the Liberal Party, won the Greek election again.

1912 – Albania declared its independence from the Ottoman Empire.

1914 – World War I: Following a war-induced closure in July, the New York Stock Exchange re-opened for bond trading.

1918 – Bucovina voted for the union with the Kingdom of Romania.

1919 – Lady Astor was elected as a Member of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the first woman to sit in the House of Commons. (Countess Markiewicz, the first to be elected, refused to sit.)

1920 – Irish War of Independence: Kilmichael Ambush – The Irish Republican Army ambush a convoy of British Auxiliaries and kill seventeen.

1929 – Ernie Nevers of the then Chicago Cardinals scores all of the Cardinals’ points in this game as the Cardinals defeat the Chicago Bears 40-6.

1933  Hope Lange, American actress, was born (d. 2003).

1942 Manolo Blahnik, Spanish shoe designer, was born.

1942 – In Boston a fire in the Cocoanut Grove nightclub killed 491 people.

1943 – World War II: Tehran Conference – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin met in Tehran, Iran to discuss war strategy.

1948  Beeb Birtles, Dutch-Australian musician/singer-songwriter; co-founding member of Little River Band, was born.

1958 – Chad, the Republic of the Congo, and Gabon became autonomous republics within the French Community.

1960 – Mauritania became independent of France.

1961 Martin Clunes, British actor, was born.

1962  Matt Cameron, American drummer (Soundgarden, Pearl Jam), was born.

1964 – NASA launched the Mariner 4 probe toward Mars.

1972 – Last executions in Paris, of the Clairvaux Mutineers, Roger Bontems and Claude Buffet, guillotined at La Sante Prison.

1975 – East Timor declared its independence from Portugal.

1975 – As the World Turns and The Edge of Night, the final two American soap operas that had resisted going to pre-taped broadcasts, aired their last live episodes.

1979 – Flight TE901, an Air New Zealand sightseeing flight over Antarctica, crashed into the lower slopes of Mt Erebus, near Scott Base, killing all 257 passengers and crew on board.

1984 – More than 250 years after their deaths, William Penn and his wife Hannah Callowhill Penn were made Honorary Citizens of the United States.

1987 – South African Airways flight 295 crashed into the Indian Ocean, killing all 159 people on-board.

1989 –  Velvet Revolution – In the face of protests, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia announced it would give up its monopoly on political power.

1991 – South Ossetia declared independence from Georgia.

2008 An Air NZ Airbus A320 crashed off the coast of France.

2013 – A 5.6 earthquake in Iran killed seven people and injured 45.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

Word of the day

Previse – to forecast, foresee or predict;  know or notify in advance; forewarn.

Rural round-up

New agriculture centre of excellence meets key barrier to growth in sector – BNZ CEO:

BNZ chief executive, Anthony Healy says the Centre of Excellence for Agricultural Science and Business programme, launched today at St Paul’s Collegiate School in Hamilton addresses a significant and ongoing issue with the talent pipeline in one of New Zealand’s most important growth industries.

The programme, which is a joint venture between St Paul’s Collegiate and the private sector, including BNZ, will develop and roll out a national secondary school level agribusiness programme as well as serving as a venue for profiling agribusiness as an exciting career choice.

Healy says that while 60 per cent of all the money New Zealand earns through exports comes from agriculture there is currently no structured programme at secondary school level to encourage students to take up careers in agricultural science and business, resulting in a lack of students undertaking training in one of New Zealand’s most significant industries. . .

 

Methane consuming microbes combat climate change:

A Lincoln University scientist is thinking small to help solve a big problem—climate change.

Dr Sally Price, a senior researcher at the Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences, is looking to raise funds so she can develop a set of guidelines for farmers to encourage the growth of naturally occurring methane-consuming soil microbes, called methanotrophs.

Methane is expelled by cows and other ruminant livestock through flatulence, and is a potent greenhouse gas which contributes to climate change.

She has been undertaking periodic research over the last 15 years into the role the microbes play, and has found the root systems of trees and shrubs help to break up the soil and allow the methane to travel down to the microbes. . .

Lincoln finds new partner in China:

 Exploring innovative technologies for improving processing, manufacturing and quality assurance in dairy across the whole value chain is the overarching goal of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed this week between Lincoln University and Yili Industrial Group.

The MoU is the first step in a business relationship considered to be of notable value to both parties, its significance reflected in the document having been witnessed by China’s President Xi Jinping at the Agri-Tech Industry Showcase in Auckland today.

Yili is one of China’s largest processers and manufacturers of dairy products. The company has previously entered into a similar relationship with Wageninigen University in the Netherlands, which has since advanced to include the establishment of a research and development centre on the Dutch University’s campus. . .

NZ Racing Board Appoints John Allen as New CEO:

The NZ Racing Board has appointed experienced Chief Executive Officer John Allen as its new CEO.

Allen is currently CEO at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and prior to that held the top job at New Zealand Post. He is also an experienced company director.

NZ Racing Board Chair Glenda Hughes says this is an outstanding appointment for the organisation and indeed the wider racing and sports industries. . .

 

Westland Milk Products Annual Meeting – Director elections and appointments

Westland Milk Products shareholders re-elected two long standing directors (including chair Matt O’Regan), voted in a new director for a casual vacancy and ratified the appointments of two independent directors at their company’s annual meeting today.

Existing directors O’Regan and Frank Dooley were re-elected for a four year term. Hugh Little was elected for one year to fill the casual vacancy left by the resignation of director Mike Havill. . .

Ballance farmers elect von Dadelszen for Ward B:

Ballance Agri-Nutrients farmer shareholders have elected Sarah von Dadelszen as their new Ward B director.

Mrs von Dadelszen brings a wealth of agricultural knowledge to the role with a mix of practical farming experience and specialist education and training.

David Peacocke, Ballance Chairman said he was pleased to have von Dadelszen join the board of directors.

“We had a record number of candidates for the Ward B election and the solid voter turnout shows that the co-op is in good heart, with farmers taking an active role in who represents them on the board.” . .

 

Thursday’s quiz

1. Who said: We need four hugs a day for survival, eight for maintenance and twelve for growth?

2. The musical Kiss Me Kate is based on which play?

3. It’s étreinte in French, abbracio in Italian, abrazo in Spanish and awhi in Maori, what is it in English?

4. What is a kissing cousin?

5. An air kiss, a hug, a handshake or?