Word of the day

Thanatopsis – a view or contemplation of death; a meditation on death, as in a poem.

Sowell says

The whole political vision of the left, including socialism and communism, has failed by virtually every empirical test, in countries all around the world. But this has only led leftist intellectuals to evade and denigrate empirical evidence.

— Thomas Sowell Quotes (@ThomasSowell) October 26, 2020

Rural round-up

Horticulture work ‘really hard’ at first, but there’s decent money to be made – Rob Stock:

Robert Doig spent three months pruning vines in Canterbury to take a break from his usual job as an auto industry sparkie.

The 31-year-old Cantabrian said he earned decent money in the spell from June to August, got fit, grew some muscles and loved working outdoors.

Now, he’s recommending horticulture work to people who’ve been left jobless as a result of the Covid-19 economic recession.

“It was great fun. The first few weeks were really, really hard, but it was a case of getting used to it, learning your own style,” he said. . .

IrrigationNZ delighted Northland water storage first fast-track approved:

IrrigationNZ is pleased to see that approval of a much needed water storage project in Northland to support horticulture, agriculture and provide drinking water is the first ‘cab off the rank’ under the Government’s Covid-19 Recovery (Fast-Track Consenting) Act.

IrrigationNZ CEO Vanessa Winning commented on the announcement made by Minister Parker today:

“These are exactly the types of projects we are keen to see more of as part of New Zealand’s Covid recovery process, and as a focus for regional investment. . . 

Sorting cows and calves today at #MangaRa Station. pic.twitter.com/Zs8BY6krbM

— William Morrison (@MorrisonFarming) October 27, 2020

Dairy exports dip in September:

The value of dairy product exports in September 2020 fell from the same month in 2019, Stats NZ said today.

The fall was price-led, as the overall quantity of dairy products exported rose over the same period.

 “New Zealand exported a greater volume of dairy products in September 2020 than in the same month last year, but received less in return,” senior insights analyst Nicholas Cox said. . .

Agrochemicals air quality study planned for Marlborough – Chloe Ranford:

Are pesticides degrading air quality in rural areas? It’s a question researchers have begun investigating in New Zealand’s largest wine region.

The Marlborough District Council plans to trial a new air monitoring programme to better understand the “localised impacts” of farm chemicals, like spray drifts.

The study is due to begin within a year, and comes 13 years after a consultant hired by the council suggested it begin tracking air pollution near schools and residential areas in Blenheim, concerned that airborne agrochemical impacted human and environmental health. . .

 

Celebrating 15 Years of NZ Young Viticulturist of the Year competition:

Members of the New Zealand wine industry were delighted to be able to come together in Martinborough early October and celebrate fifteen years of the Young Viticulturist of the Year Competition. The celebration consisted of a conference entitled “Investing in the Future” followed by a dinner at the Town Hall. It was a great chance for the viticultural community to discuss the opportunities and challenges which lie ahead for the industry as well as look back over the last fifteen years.

Since 2006, the NZ Young Viticulturist of the Year initiative has helped support and encourage ambitious young people to become confident, strong leaders in the NZ wine industry. Investing in the future has paid off and there are many inspirational success stories of previous contestants and winners becoming some of the great innovators, pioneers and decision makers of the industry today. . . 

I could spend all day with the cattle…. out feeding them im always back late…. love taking photos and capturing their personalities…even if it does mean lying in the grass avoiding poop lol @TheElanValley @sandwickfarm @NFFNUK @RxNature @nativebreedsGB pic.twitter.com/sS9mW0xfiZ

— Sorcha Lewis (@xSorchaLewisx) October 28, 2020

Cars can’t compare with cows when it comes to air quality – Steve Dittmer :

Here’s some sound science to clear the air on cattle’s contribution to air quality.

Many first heard of Frank Mitloehner when he exposed and invalidated the UN’s “Livestock Long Shadow” report and forced its withdrawal of wildly exaggerated cattle greenhouse gas emissions (GHG).

Mitloehner is in the animal science department and is an air quality specialist at UC-Davis. He is not only eminently qualified to examine the nitty gritty of livestock and their environmental impact, his classes in California give him constant exposure to the thinking of younger generations regarding climate change and cattle. 

Mitloehner has been chair of the UN-Food & Agriculture Organization panel to benchmark the environmental impact of livestock production and a similar National Academy of Science, Engineering & Medicine panel. . .

 

 

Once upon a time without oil

Not PC recounts a modern fairytale:

One crisp winter morning in Sweden, a cute little girl named Greta woke up to a perfect world, one where there were no petroleum products ruining the earth. She tossed aside her cotton sheet and wool blanket and stepped out onto a dirt floor covered with willow bark that had been pulverized with rocks. 

“What’s this?” she asked.

“Pulverised willow bark,” replied her fairy godmother.

“What happened to the carpet?” she asked.

“The carpet was nylon, which is made from butadiene and hydrogen cyanide, both made from petroleum,” came the response.

Greta smiled, acknowledging that adjustments are necessary to save the planet, and moved to the sink to brush her teeth where instead of a toothbrush, she found a willow, mangled on one end to expose wood fibre bristles. “

“Your old toothbrush?” noted her godmother, “Also nylon.”

“Where’s the water?” asked Greta.

“Down the road in the canal,” replied her godmother, ‘Just make sure you avoid water with cholera in it”

“Why’s there no running water?” Greta asked, becoming a little peevish.

“Well,” said her godmother, who happened to teach engineering at MIT, “Where do we begin?” There followed a long monologue about how sink valves need elastomer seats and how copper pipes contain copper, which has to be mined and how it’s impossible to make all-electric earth-moving equipment with no gear lubrication or tyres and how ore has to be smelted to make metal, and that’s tough to do with only electricity as a source of heat, and even if you use only electricity, the wires need insulation, which is petroleum-based, and though most of Sweden’s energy is produced in an environmentally friendly way because of hydro and nuclear, if you do a mass and energy balance around the whole system, you still need lots of petroleum products like lubricants and nylon and rubber for tires and asphalt for filling potholes and wax and iPhone plastic and elastic to hold your underwear up while operating a copper smelting furnace and . . .

“What’s for breakfast?” interjected Greta, whose head was hurting.

“Fresh, range-fed chicken eggs,” replied her godmother. 

“Mmm,” said Greta.

“Raw.”

“How so, raw?” inquired Greta.

“Well, . . .” And once again, Greta was told about the need for petroleum products like transformer oil and scores of petroleum products essential for producing metals for frying pans and in the end was educated about how you can’t have a petroleum-free world and then cook eggs. Unless you rip your front fence up and start a fire and carefully cook your egg in an orange peel like you do in Boy Scouts. Not that you can find oranges in Sweden anymore.

“But I want poached eggs like my Aunt Tilda makes,” lamented Greta.

“Tilda died this morning,” the godmother explained. “Bacterial pneumonia.”

“What?!” interjected Greta. “No one dies of bacterial pneumonia! We have penicillin.”

“Not anymore,” explained her godmother “The production of penicillin requires chemical extraction using isobutyl acetate, which, if you know your organic chemistry, is petroleum-based. Lots of people are dying, which is problematic because there’s not an easy way of disposing of the bodies since backhoes need hydraulic oil and crematoriums can’t really burn many bodies, using as fuel Swedish fences and furniture, which are rapidly disappearing – being used on the black market for roasting eggs and staying warm.”

This represents only a fraction of Greta’s day, a day without microphones to exclaim into and a day without much food, and a day without carbon-fibre boats to sail in, but a day that will save the planet.

Tune in tomorrow when Greta needs a root canal and learns how Novocain is synthesised.”

Apropos of which:

Yes Sir Humphrey

Private Secretaries who can't occupy their Ministers are a threatened species.

— Sir Humphrey Appleby (@YesSirHumphrey) October 19, 2020

Quotes of the month

Late last year the National Farmers Federation set the laudable goal of increasing the value of farm production from about $60bn a year to $100bn a year by 2030. Good luck. The regulators and their enforcers have other ideas. Their intention is to limit the expansion of farming and, if possible, force it into retreat, turning farmers from food producers into unpaid stewards of native trees and grasses. – Nick Cater

From coronavirus to saving threatened species, absolutism, risk aversion and an absence of proportion are hallmarks of contemporary public policy. . . Ad hoc decisions are made in favour of assumed benefits without reference to the cost to farmers, farm output, export earnings or the cost of food.  – Nick Cater

God deliver us from the hands of zealots. They exist in different guises in every age, lay claim to being the era’s moral guardians and demand no more than complete obedience to their ordained order. They only burn heretics in sorrow, for their own good and that of society. . . .Now the bureaucratic state dictates morality and the devil is discrimination, in all his endlessly evolving forms. The crime is giving any perceived offence. The weapon is the law. – Chris Uhlmann

The truth is, if I do have sad eyes it’s because I live in a world where people with very superficial analysis are constantly impinging on each other with higher taxes and more regulations than would otherwise be necessary. – David Seymour

A vote for NZ First has always been a vote for disruption, chaos and a nihilistic anarchy to disrupt the status quo without any vision about what to put in its place. – Damien Grant

One of the best ways to tell a lie is to embed it in the midst of high-sounding verbiage. This is so common a method that one is sometimes unsure whether a lie is being told or an untruth merely enunciated. – Theodore Dalrymple

Many people can say fine words. That’s easy, but who can understand the detail and the workflow that can actually deliver it for you? – Shane Reti

We are creating our own hurdles at a rate higher than any other primary producer in the world. For every dollar spent on food worldwide, the farmer receives on average, less than 10 cents. – Jane Smith

This is not Monopoly money, it’s money that our kids and grandkids will have to pay back. – Judith Collins

Despite the Tramadol the pain is getting worse. Comes and goes but spikes at probably an 8.5/10 on the pain scale. Now to be fair that is the male pain scale, so probably just a 2.5 on the female pain scale, but nevertheless was enough for me to be actually yelling out loud. –  David Farrar

Age may be an imperfect proxy for maturity or competence; there will always be precocious children above, and incompetent adults below, the line wherever it is drawn.- Justice Jan-Marie Doogue 

Whatever this is, it’s not journalism as I understand it. It’s a continuation of a long-standing trend whereby journalists see themselves not as mere observers and reporters of the political process, but as active players and agitators. – Karl du Fresne

Onslow would save an average of 300,000 tonnes of CO2 per year at a cost of at least $1300/tonne. The current CO2 price is $32. Keeping the aluminium smelter in operation could save 2,500,000 tons of worldwide emissions each year at a cost of about $100 million or $40/tonne and has the potential to significantly minimise the dry year problem. – Bryan Leyland

There is a pit of doom major parties in New Zealand can fall into, when their soft centre supporters abandon them for their centrist opponent and another cohort of voters on the fringe deserts them for a more radical and exciting minor party. This happened to National in 2002, and to Labour in 2014, and Judith Collins has spent her three months as National leader grimly hanging onto the edge of this pit, trying to claw her way out while Jacinda Ardern stamps on her fingers and kicks at her hands, all the time smiling beatifically while reminding the rest of us to be kind. – Danyl Mclauchlan

Ardern has learned from her first term in government that if she promises anything substantive her caucus and the public service will fail to deliver it, so best to promise nothing. – Danyl Mclauchlan

When politicians call for reform of the tax system, they are really saying there needs to be more taxation in order to meet their expenditure. The perpetually aggrieved present an implausible argument that is deficient in equity and logic, which is – the more you distribute other people’s income, the wealthier the nation becomes.   –  Gerry Eckhoff

This year has illustrated for me that we are not a nation of dissenters, we are a nation of conformists. Margaret Thatcher once said that “when people have freedom to choose, they choose freedom”. Well, apparently not in New Zealand. Like so many other years in our history, 2020 is yet another year of compliance and conformity, and deference by individual New Zealanders to the power of the state. Even motorway road-signs ordering us to be kind don’t seem to arouse any concerns among the trusting, dependent New Zealand public. I have come to realise that those of us in whom those signs aroused Orwellian visions of the future are a very small minority indeed. – Chris Finlayson

We are trying to live a five star lifestyle on a two star income.   We spend like a fat cat and earn like an alley cat.  We want the cake with all the trimmings but we can barely afford the flour and sugar. – Owen Jennings

We are becoming a nation of low performing advisors.  Politicians from central Government to community boards cannot make decisions any more.  They don’t have the gumption or the training and they don’t have the guts to deliver. They hide behind faceless consultants and toothless committees.  Costs go up and productivity goes down. – Owen Jennings

Suddenly, the issues on which her government had previously been struggling to the point where election defeat looked more likely than not were totally forgotten. Two errant Ministers were got rid of, and, with the exception of a couple of overworked loyalists, the largely incompetent remainder were quickly put in the broom cupboard, until after the election. – Peter Dunne

Democratic values are under attack as never before in modern history. The breadth, intensity and viciousness of this attack is breathtaking. Where it will lead is impossible to say. That will largely depend on whether society recognises what’s at stake and has the will to dig in and resist it. – Karl du Fresne

Having realised decades ago that that the fight between capitalism and classical Marxist economics was lost, the extreme left opened a new front. They attacked liberal democracy’s soft underbelly: its values, conventions, institutions and philosophical foundations.Suddenly a whole range of bedrock values, from the right to free speech to belief in fixed biological gender, was under savage attack. The underlying purpose is to destabilise society and therefore render it amenable to radical change. – Karl du Fresne

Some woke ideas (most notably the belief that sexual identity is a mere societal construct, “assigned at birth” as if by some conscious and arbitrary human intervention) strike most New Zealanders as demonstrably barking mad, but that hasn’t stopped them being  embraced by radical zealots and championed by sympathetic polemicists in the news media. – Karl du Fresne

We hear a lot from such groups about the need to embrace diversity, but the one diversity they don’t tolerate is diversity of opinion. Yet free speech is the currency of liberal democracy. Once we accept curbs on our right to engage in free and robust discussion of contentious issues (but stopping short of advocating active discrimination or incitements to violence, which present law rightly prohibits anyway), we risk becoming what might be called an illiberal democracy: one in which we may still be free to vote for the politicians of our choice, but without our votes being informed by full and open debate. Putin-style democracy, in other words. – Karl du Fresne

I never vote early. If your candidate is arrested you cannot get your vote back. – Richard Prebble

History has shown that government-led recoveries don’t work. Regeneration has to be driven by business growth, not 50 shades of tax. You cannot tax your country into wealth. Urban New Zealand, when regulators are determined to drive your farming, energy and manufacturing sectors into the ground – we all pay the price. –  Jane Smith

Under the cover of Covid, I believe fear has overtaken free thinking, and we have forgotten that elections are not about the here and now – they are about deciding which pathway we take to protect future generations. –  Jane Smith

Electioneering is short, consequences are long. Our leaders should be running a country, not an arms race. How can we promise $11.7 M to a wealthy overseas owned “green” school but have child poverty at an all-time crisis level? –  Jane Smith

You don’t need a degree in telemetry to see that the myriad of policies touted on the electioneering circuit don’t add up, particularly the ones that not only bite the hand that feeds the country, but chop off both arms and legs – and then ask those food producing and manufacturing sectors to run an economic marathon. – Jane Smith

The great irony is that we were sold MMP on the basis that it made politicians more accountable, when the exact reverse is the case. It’s the very antithesis of transparency. – Karl du Fresne

Imagine someone scraping all the maddest bits from the carcass of Facebook — a reclaimed slurry of 5G alarmism, anti-vax propaganda and scaremongering about electromagnets — and turning it into a manifesto. That, very roughly, is the Public Party. – Sarah Ditum

Carve any subject down to its barest conflicts, and you won’t help people find enlightenment and resolution. Instead, you’ll make them feel attacked, embattled, inflexible. In a recent piece Amanda Ripley warned of the dangers of journalism that goes in pursuit of simplicity; and which has, unfortunately, the effect of making everyone more committed to the certainties they’ve already chosen. Instead, she says, they should look for complexity, arguing that “Complexity counters this craving, restoring the cracks and inconsistencies that had been air-brushed out of the picture. It’s less comforting, yes. But it’s also more interesting — and true.” – Sarah Ditum

But which aspect of inequality should we be worried about? There are inequalities of opportunity and inequalities of outcome; there is overall inequality and there is inequality at the tails of the distribution. Should we be more worried about absolute or relative positions – mobility or stability? What is really more important, the distribution of the economic pie or the level and growth of living standards? – Michael Boskin

It is time to start harnessing the power of the market rather than the government. That is how we will replace dependency with opportunity and upward mobility. – Michael Boskin

Well listen here people, and I say this as a Party loyalist and activist with a certain pedigree, I hold each and every one of you jointly and severally responsible for what happened last Saturday night.  Put bluntly. You had collectively forfeited the right to govern and we (the Party) paid the price. – The Veteran

A caucus that leaks is not and never can be an effective opposition. – The Veteran

The way in which we value food is mysterious. As an example, if you look at the price of apples in New Zealand in April (peak harvest time) and compare them with a takeaway coffee, the takeaway coffee is consistently higher: over the past 10 years the price of a takeaway coffee was 50 per cent higher than a kilo of apples. Interestingly, both apples and coffee are considered beneficial in getting you going in the morning (but there are around 10 apples in a kilo compared with one coffee). – Dr Helen Darling

Bad ideas owe their advance into mainstream thinking not just to bad people but also to otherwise decent people going along with such notions out of cowardice or other weakness. The censorship of any thinking which conflicts with the orthodoxies of identity politics is increasingly destroying the western university as the crucible of reason, along with its core purpose to advance knowledge through the free play of evidence, ideas and argument. – Melanie Phillips

Some might think that not just Lord of the Flies but George Orwell’s 1984 are no longer fiction but have become, terrifyingly, our contemporary reality.  Melanie Phillips

In no other country has the pendulum swung so far from traditional school knowledge towards more esoteric “21^st century skills.” Today, while nearly every school leaver gets a certificate, many of them – about two fifths – are functionally illiterate and innumerate.

The dumbing down of our school system is a scandal. And while those responsible probably had the best intentions, the bigger scandal is that they now try to explain away this poor performance.

It frankly baffles me that when someone points out our poor education results, they are routinely criticised of elitism, Eurocentrism or other such nonsense. The truth is that teaching a broad, knowledge-rich and stimulating education would help precisely those children without elite or privileged backgrounds.

The education system’s pursuit of noble and progressive goals has tragically sacrificed the future of Kiwi children. In doing so, it is not just cementing but widening ethnic and class divides. – Dr Oliver Hartwich

The only Green Party we have had in Parliament has been a collection of political activists far more energised by social concerns and antagonism to capitalism than environmental projects. – John Roughan

Genuine Greens understand that environmental values can very effectively be priced into business and market behaviour through carbon taxes or tradeable emissions permits under a descending cap. Some of the Greens in our Parliament have no idea how markets work. – John Roughan

The risks, as they say, are almost all to the downside. The question must be asked, are we all completely mis-pricing that risk?

Have we convinced ourselves that we are living in a hermetically sealed paradise, where nothing can touch us and what is happening in the rest of the world has no bearing on our jobs and livelihoods? If that is the case, we might be heading for a rude shock. – Steven Joyce

So how does this all end? Well, no matter what anyone says, there is no such thing as a free lunch. As the economic damage of Covid-19 plays out, asset prices will revert to more sensible numbers.

The only question seems to be whether it will happen gradually or suddenly. We will also pay for this massive fiscal and monetary stimulus in increased taxes, spending controls, higher inflation, more sluggish growth or a combination of all four. – Steven Joyce

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 abuse.

Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is people who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down. – Oprah Winfrey

Word of the day

Hellion – a disorderly, troublesome, rowdy or mischievous person, especially a child; a person fond of deviltry; mischievous troublemaker; rascal.

Yes and no

The preliminary results on the two referendum questions are yes and no:

Nearly two thirds of voters (62.5%) ticked yes for legalising euthanasia and 53.1% ticked no to legalising cannabis.

The final vote count will be announced next Friday. They won’t overturn the euthanasia result and will be very, very unlikely to change the cannabis one.

Sowell says

It would be hard to think of a more ridiculous way to make decisions than to transfer those decisions to third parties who pay no price for being wrong. Yet that is what at least half of the bright ideas of the political left amount to.

— Thomas Sowell Quotes (@ThomasSowell) October 25, 2020

Rural round-up

50 years of flower farming  – two families harness the power of sunflowers for bird food company – Emma Rawson:

Two Waitaki families farming in partnership for more than 50 years have developed a bird-loving business out of a crop sown on a wing and a prayer.

Riotous rows of yellow sunflowers beaming from fields south of Ōamaru are a shot of happiness in the Waitaki landscape. Sandwiched between crops of golden wheat and barley, the big friendly giants turn up the colour dial to a saturated yellow.

The exact location of the flowers, grown by the Mitchell and Webster families for more than 50 years, is usually kept on the low down.

Sometimes they are planted on Thousand Acre Road between Ōamaru and Kakanui, sometimes further inland towards Enfield. Crop rotation is the official reason; sunflowers need a five-year interval before being replanted in the same field since they are prone to fungal disease. However, transplanting the lots has the bonus of tricking the birds and keeping humans on their toes until the flowers hit their full two-metre height and yellowy glory at the end of January. . . 

Hawke’s Bay growers consider ‘every possible option’ to fill worker shortage – Thomas Airey:

Horticulture and viticulture growers are trying to be innovative and flexible in order to attract the employees they need to get through a worker shortage for the coming summer season.

There is an urgent need for local seasonal labour, with limited availability of overseas workers due to Covid-19 and 10,000 workers required to thin, pick, package and process the year’s crop between November and April.

The industry has joined up with the Ministry for Primary Industries, Ministry of Social Development, Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, Hawke’s Bay District Health Board and the region’s local government leaders to deliver a plan to the Government next month to resolve the situation.

Part of that plan includes a growers’ employment expo and information session on Tuesday, November 10, through which they plan to showcase the summer work and career opportunities in the sector. . . 

One-size-fits all-model no more – Anthony Beverley:

New Zealand’s farmers are among the most efficient and productive in the world — and they need to be.

Our world is demanding high-quality, environmentally-friendly food. At the same time, regulatory costs continue to build; our weather is increasingly challenging to bank on and farm profitability and balance sheets are under pressure.

As a result, farmers are increasingly looking more closely at the economic contribution of each part of their farms. Not all land is the same; some parts of farms — if farmers are really honest about it — cost them money to farm.

It’s the steep, rough hill country out the back that farmers are taking a second look at. Not only is this land unprofitable, but it’s often difficult and dangerous to farm. This land is typically erosion-prone and topsoil run-off is undermining farmers’ broader environmental efforts. . . 

Office view today quietly doing deskwork, then from corner of my eye a mob of R2 Heifers wander into view. Acceptable disturbance. Fine summer day in the mighty Kaipara. 😎 pic.twitter.com/QYozRWBXMe

— Jake Smith (@GreenhillStud) October 27, 2020

Award winner a hands-on business owner – Sally Rae:

Whether  about horses or lambs, alpacas or goats — Henrietta Purvis derives satisfaction from positive feedback from happy animal owners.

She and her husband Graeme Purvis operate Purvis Feeds from their Waianakarua property, south of Oamaru, selling lucerne chaff throughout New Zealand.

Very much a hands-on business owner who spends time both in the cutting shed and on the books, Mrs Purvis has been named the innovation category winner in this year’s NZI Rural Women New Zealand Business Awards . . 

Researchers find ‘sweet spot’ for kiwi fruit pollination –

Upping the proportion of female flowers in a kiwifruit orchard may boost production, according to new research.

Plant and Food Research scientists and collaborators from the USA have compiled more than 30 years of field-based data from kiwifruit research to create “digital twins” of pollination processes in kiwifruit orchards, and have used these to predict how growers can optimise their fruit set.

Digital twins are virtual replicas of physical systems – in this case mathematical models of the biology of the plants and the behaviour of pollinating bees.

These digital twins gave researchers the ability to examine complex scenarios which examine multiple, intertwined factors at once. . . .

Did you know when we put the platform into reverse milk gets pumped back into the cows?#FarmingWithKreg pic.twitter.com/XzlzOxTYCH

— DairyMan (@dairymanNZ) October 27, 2020

Brahmans from North Queensland are in demand from NSW graziers – Kent Ward:

Demand for larger lines of quality cattle has seen North Queensland become the go-to market for New South Wales graziers as they rebuild their herds.

The strong demand from southern restockers has not only provided competition at northern store sales, but also seen paddock deals culminate in thousands of cattle being trucked across the border in recent months.

Since March of this year, private agency firm Kennedy Rural has successfully sold and overseen the transport of in excess of 10,000 head of cattle into areas of NSW. . . 

Yes Sir Humphrey

Delivering the speech is just a formality you've to go through in order to get the press release into the papers. We can't worry about entertaining people. We're not script writers for a comedian. Well, not a professional one anyway.

— Sir Humphrey Appleby (@YesSirHumphrey) October 8, 2020

One of the Ws is missing

A public sculpture commemorating political pioneer Dame Hilda Ross and the 1919 Women’s Parliamentary Rights Act is to be unveiled in Hamilton on Saturday:

Dame Hilda Ross was the first Hamilton/Waikato woman elected as an MP in 1945 and became the second woman in New Zealand to become a Cabinet Minister in 1949. Artist Matt Gauldie’s bronze sculpture portrays Dame Hilda in Parliament, with one hand holding a copy of the 1919 Act which finally allowed women to become MPs, while the other is raised, advocating on behalf of women and children, whose welfare she considered her principal concern. . . 

One of the first things would-be journalists learn is that a good media story or release should answer the Ws – who, what, which, where, when, why and, if appropriate, how.

The first paragraph in the media release tells us who, what, where and why.

The following paragraphs add more whos, and whys but the media release leaves out one very important w – which party Dame Hilda represented in parliament.

Was it an oversight or deliberate?

Call me cynical, but could it be because she was a National MP that her party wasn’t mentioned?

Why would I think that?

Because often feminists, and other proponents of identity politics, don’t celebrate people on the right because, for them, it’s not enough to be a woman, or of a particular race or ethnicity or whatever other sub-section of humanity they file people under, you have to fit their political agenda as well.

These are the feminists for whom Margaret Thatcher is anathema; who ignore Ruth Richardson as our first female Finance Minister; and who pass over Dame Jenny Shipley as New Zealand’s first woman Prime Minister and label her successor as the first elected woman Prime Minister.

These people didn’t celebrate when National’s leader and deputy were Maori, that only became an issue when they could criticise the party when Simon Bridges and Paula Bennett were replaced.

If you want to learn more about Dame Hilda, Te Ara’s entry on her is here.

. . . Hilda Ross’s other major life interest – the welfare of children, women, the needy and the disadvantaged – first manifested itself during the influenza epidemic of 1918, when she worked with the sick. For the next 40 years she was vitally involved in welfare work at local and national levels. She organised committees to dispense assistance to victims of the Hawke’s Bay earthquake in 1931, established relief committees during the 1930s depression, and was a serving sister and later commander in the St John Ambulance nursing division. In 1927 she established, with the bookseller William Paul, the Waikato Children’s Camp League; the following year, the league held its first holiday camp for children from impoverished backgrounds. Hilda Ross remained closely involved with the camp for the next quarter of a century, returning every summer to attend the camp, where she cooked the breakfasts for more than 200 children and organised nightly concerts. Her interest in children’s welfare also led to her becoming an honorary child welfare officer for Hamilton in the early 1930s, and in 1939 a justice of the peace, in which capacity she served in the children’s court. Intensely devoted to patriotic duties, during the Second World War she formed (and was commandant of) the Hamilton Women’s Auxiliary Volunteer Corps, and was president of the Lady Galway Guild and the Hamilton Ladies’ Patriotic Committee.

Family matters occupied her at this time as well, and for several years a grandson lived with her following his mother’s death. With her husband’s death in 1940, Hilda Ross began a new career in local body and national politics. She was elected to the Waikato Hospital Board in 1941, and to the Hamilton Borough Council in 1944 – the first woman to hold a council seat. Her connection with the Greater Hamilton Society saw her become deputy mayor in 1945. She resigned that post later in the year when she was elected New Zealand National Party MP for Hamilton, a seat she held until her death.

Hilda Ross continued her involvement in welfare matters in her various parliamentary positions. As minister in charge of the welfare of women and children (1949–57), then minister in charge of child welfare (1954–57) and minister of social security (1957), her only cabinet post with a portfolio, Hilda Ross took a close personal interest in the problems of welfare recipients, particularly the elderly. Her office was frequently crowded with people seeking assistance, and as she was the only female minister at the time, many people believed that they would receive a more sympathetic hearing from her than from some of her male parliamentary colleagues. While prepared to arrange housing and welfare matters, and to offer tangible aid when necessary (including giving from her own pocket), Hilda Ross could also be blunt, and did not suffer fools gladly. Her belief in the importance of marriage and family led her to deliver stern lectures to spendthrift or neglectful husbands and fathers. Parents whose children were under the supervision of the Child Welfare Division could receive sharp letters rebuking them for their child-rearing practices or expectations that the state would provide for their families.

Her parliamentary duties furthered her interest in issues of importance to women. She represented New Zealand at the United Nations Status of Women Commission in Geneva in 1952, and supported the campaign for equal pay launched by female public servants; she also advocated compulsory domestic education courses for all girls and women, no matter what their career choice. She received, and accepted, invitations to speak at women’s conferences, greet débutantes, and open nurseries and kindergartens: ‘I suppose you could call me New Zealand’s kindergarten opener-in-chief’, she reflected once. For her services to social welfare the American Mothers’ Committee cited her as ‘Mother of New Zealand’ for 1951, and in 1956 she was made a DBE, only the third New Zealand woman to be so honoured. . . 

 Her achievements are definitely worth celebrating and I am pleased she is being recognised with a statue.

I’m also pleased that while the media release, by intent or accident, omitted to mention that Dame Hilda was a National MP, the party hasn’t forgotten her.

It has a memorial fund in her name to promote greater opportunities for women in politics.

Word of the day

Delible – capable of being deleted, effaced or erased.

Sowell says

When someone tries to lay a guilt trip on you for being successful, remember that your guilt is some politician's license to take what you worked for and give it to someone else who is more likely to vote for the politician who plays Santa Claus with your money.

— Thomas Sowell Quotes (@ThomasSowell) October 24, 2020

Rural round-up

Dairy industry short hundreds of staff –

The dairy industry says despite a big push to try and attract locals, it is still hundreds of staff short this season.

Dairy NZ chief executive Tim Mackle said there were about 800 vacancies farmers were still looking to fill. The busy calving period had been challenging and exhausting for those who were unable to plug gaps, he said.

Mackle said a government-backed GoDairy course launched in May to attract and upskill locals did help, but like many in the primary sector, it had not seen as much demand for work as was expected.

“GoDairy was designed during the first Covid-19 lockdown in April when unemployment was expected to reach upwards of nine percent, if not higher, by late 2020. . . 

Is food too cheap? What makes up the price of your fruit and vegetables – Dr Helen Darling:

Warnings of an acute shortage of workers to harvest food crops in New Zealand are growing. But the problem – and potential solution – are more complex than they may seem, and give rise to the question: ‘Is food too cheap?’ Food Truth’s Dr Helen Darling considers the issues.

Spring brings hope on the orchard; trees burst to life with blossom signalling a good crop, however, the usual horticultural fears of frost, rain and hail have been joined this year by a significant shortfall of orchard workers.

The situation is not new, but it is usually addressed by the influx of seasonal workers from the Pacific Islands. This year is different, of course, because closed borders mean fewer workers are now available. Commentators (and there have been many) claim orchard workers are paid too little, and Kiwis are too lazy to do the work. The reality, however, is that it is not that simple and it raises the rather interesting question of who is responsible for our end-to-end food system? . . 

Helping the meat industry nurture female talent – Sally Rae:

When Ashley Gray was studying communications in Auckland, she dreamed of working for a large, “glossy” public relations agency.

The last thing on the self-described city girl’s mind was a job in the meat industry and yet, fast forward a few years, and she wears multiple “hats” within the sector.

Among those roles is chairwoman of the New Zealand chapter of Meat Business Women, a professional networking initiative founded in the United Kingdom by Laura Ryan in 2015.

The New Zealand meat sector and Meat Business Women recently signed an agreement aimed at boosting the number of women in the industry . . 

Stud Romney hogget with a cracking set of triplets. pic.twitter.com/yZ11zqDYYa

— Ross Paterson (@waikakagenetics) October 26, 2020

Growers employment expo in Hawke’s Bay

Hawke’s Bay growers are facing their most challenging season, with about 10,000 workers needed between November and April for thinning, picking, packing and processing the region’s world renowned produce.

COVID-19 has severely impacted the availability of overseas workers so the industry is looking for local heroes to help.

Hastings Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst says we feed the country and the world with our produce and the industry needs everyone’s help in these unprecedented times.

“More than 8,000 local people are permanently employed in Hawke’s Bay in and around the horticulture and viticulture sectors, from pack-houses to the port. However these jobs are at risk if the fruit is not picked. . . 

Woolhandler wins two major titles at Waimate – Yvonne O’Hara:

Amber Poihipi is passionate about the wool industry and wool handling.

That passion contributed to her success when she won both the New Zealand Spring Championship and South Island Circuit senior woolhandling finals at Waimate.

Based in Winton, Ms Poihipi has been working for Shear Tech Ltd owners Ray Te Whata and Matt Watson for about a year.

She has been in the industry full-time for 14 years, and has worked throughout New Zealand and also spent six years in Australia, as well as several months in the United States, grading wool in a mobile woolshed.

“It was very different working out there in a trailer, and we graded into short, long, strong and coloured wools and we didn’t skirt,” she said. . . 

Good view, good beet, good day. pic.twitter.com/iMWHs0roqq

— Ally Hunter Blair (@Wyefarm) October 26, 2020

The farmers trying to  save the world and how you can help :

Farmers are using innovative methods, on their farms and further afield, to reduce their environmental impact. Some are creating products you may not know about, others are using techniques and technology designed to slash their carbon footprint. Just how far has environmentally friendly farming come, and what questions should you be asking about how your food is produced?

Slashing food waste

Fruit farmer Charlie Fermor has two main environmental focuses: to reduce food waste and find the most environmentally-friendly packaging for his farm. And he’s found ways to do both.

“We’ve always tried to be as efficient as possible on the farm, and reducing waste is probably the biggest part of that.” . . 

Yes Sir Humphrey

It is folly to increase your knowledge at the expense of your authority.

— Sir Humphrey Appleby (@YesSirHumphrey) October 8, 2020

Ports close hole govt left open

Ports of Auckland has closed a hole in the country’s Covid-19 defense that the government left open:

New Zealand’s biggest port has sharply criticised the Government’s lack of COVID-19 rules for international shipping crew, and together with Tauranga Port has introduced its own rules. 

Ports of Auckland told customers in an advisory, obtained by Newshub, that recent positive cases represent “significant failings”.

Foreign ships manned by foreign crew are critical to trade, but swapping crews on these vessels represent an obvious risk. 

Current rules mean foreign crew can fly into Auckland and travel to a port to board a ship without mandatory testing or any isolation. 

“We see crew transfer as a weak point, so we’ve acted immediately to close that,” Matt Ball, General Manager of Public Relations and Communications at Ports of Auckland.

“What we’ve done is introduced a rule that crew can only transfer if they’ve undergone 14 days of managed isolation beforehand.”

The requirement, which includes double tests while in isolation, was implemented after the Auckland marine engineer tested positive after working on the Sofrana Surville. Also on deck that day were eight Filipino seafarers, who’d just flown in and boarded the ship without a test or isolation. . .

In an advisory, the Ports of Auckland told its customers: “We had thought that the New Zealand authorities had a robust process in place for international crew exchanges, but this case has identified some significant failings.” 

In the advisory, it states that the New Zealand authorities need to tighten up the crew change process and that this point has been made very clear at the highest levels. . . 

The company saw a hole and plugged it, why didn’t the government do it months ago and why isn’t it requiring all other port companies to follow Auckland’s example?

The failure to test high risk workers, including port, airport and quarantine workers was first highlighted by Newshub on August 13 – almost two months after a testing strategy was announced.

On August 17, when questioned about the lack of testing of quarantine workers, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said officials didn’t know testing rates were not up to scratch.  

“No one of course said to us at any point, that I recall, that what we asked for was not happening,” Ardern said. 

However, newly released documents show Cabinet did know.

An August 7 briefing told Ministers weekly testing of quarantine workers hadn’t started and only 12 of 2,100 port workers had been tested.

A spokesperson for the Prime Minister says issues with testing of border staff have now been rectified.

Can we rely on that reassurance? Is every other port taking Auckland’s strict approach?

We’ve managed to stamp out community transmission of Covid-19 at significant financial and social cost.

The only vulnerability is with incoming passengers and workers on planes and ships. The only way to keep the disease from spreading in the community is to ensure it can’t get past the border.

That requires plugging every hole and ensuring they stay plugged not just for New Zealand’s sake but for that of the crew on ships and for the people in the next port the ships will visit.

 

 

 

Word of the day

Palidan –  any of the twelve peers of Charlemagne’s court, of whom the Count Palatine was the chief;  a knight renowned for heroism and chivalry; a paragon of chivalry; a trusted military leader (as for a medieval prince); a leading champion of a cause; any knightly or heroic champion; any determined advocate or defender of a noble cause.

Sowell says

If you took all the fraud out of politics, there might not be a lot left.

— Thomas Sowell Quotes (@ThomasSowell) October 18, 2020