Word of the day

Keening – the action of wailing in grief for a dead person; prolonged and high-pitched sound, typically in a way that expresses grief or sorrow;  the act of a person who keens. a wailing lament for the dead; intense mournful wailing after a death, often at a funeral or wake; making a loud, long, sad sound, especially because someone has died; a traditional form of vocal lament for the dead; wailing in lamentation.

Yes Sir Humphrey

Ministers should never know more than they need to know. Then they can't tell anyone. Like secret agents, they could be captured and tortured. By the BBC, that is!

— Sir Humphrey Appleby (@YesSirHumphrey) April 1, 2021

Rural round-up

Covid-19 coronavirus: Orchardists plead for Pacific Island travel bubble – Christian Fuller:

Orchardists say more than $600m is set to be lost to from regional economies like Hawke’s Bay’s as a result of the massive shortage of workers to pick fruit.

The region’s orchardists, exporters and growers reliant on seasonal work say they’ve worked through the season with “anxiety and desperation beyond belief”.

And they are calling on the Government to open a travel bubble with the Pacific islands to allow the free flow of what would normally be up to 14,410 workers arriving as part of the recognised seasonal employer scheme, in time for the 2022 season.

Thousands of tonnes of fruit is now being left on trees in Hawke’s Bay. . . 

NZ Pork slams blanket emissions policy – Annette Scott:

The pork industry is calling for the Government to recognise a different emissions policy approach for pigs.

In its submission to the Climate Change Commission (CCC), NZ Pork says a one-size-fits-all approach for livestock does not take into account non-ruminant livestock such as pigs.

New Zealand Pork chief executive David Baines says the unique nature of the pork industry in NZ means policy designed for the pastoral sector and ruminant livestock will not necessarily be the most effective means of facilitating emissions reductions from farmed pigs.

While welcoming many of the recommendations in the CCC’s draft advice to the Government, he says a blanket policy could disproportionately impact NZ pig farmers. . . 

Cattle heading down to do some more grooming pic.twitter.com/eBXMkW4uGo

— TG 🧢 (@timgortonz) April 5, 2021

Saleyards a magnet for Knight – Shawn McAvinue:

A retired trucking company owner continues to visit a stock sale in Central Otago to have “a nosey” and shout smoko.

Forbes Knight (89) first visited the Mt Benger Saleyards near Roxburgh after buying trucking company Millers Flat Carrying Company in 1954, aged 22.

Mr Knight, of Millers Flat, said in the 1950s, the footprint of the saleyards was much bigger and stretched across both sides of Teviot Rd.

The stock inside the pens were skinnier then because of a rampant rabbit population eating their feed. . . 

Plant production Young Achiever back for 2021:

Entries open now – are you the next plant producers Young Achiever?

NZ Plant Producers is very pleased to announce that the Young Achiever of the Year competition is back for 2021.

After being forced to cancel in 2020, the next competition will be held on July 14-15, at Growing Spectrum, Hamilton.

Young Achiever allows young people involved in plant production to gain an entry to the prestigious Young Horticulturalist of the Year competition. Entrants are tested on their practical industry skills, knowledge, and public speaking. . . 

Young chef wins ambassador award :

Even before his most recent win a few weeks ago, there was no doubt Sam Heaven was a young chef going places.

Despite border closures late last year, he won the Nestlé Golden Chef’s Hat Award for best chef in Australia and New Zealand aged under 25 in a virtual grand final cook-off.

After winning the title Heaven, 23, who works at the Park Hyatt in Auckland, thought that was it for competitions.

“After that last one I thought ‘that’s it, I’ve done heaps, it’s time to focus on my career’,” Heaven said. . . 

No filter needed !! pic.twitter.com/roELwi72H6

— Ryan Peach (@RyanPeach9) April 4, 2021

Debate over dingo versus wild dog, does the name matter – Chris McLennan:

Scientists who insist virtually all wild dogs are actually dingoes say the term was adopted because it was easier to sell.

They say “killing wild dogs is more palatable than killing dingoes”.

Wild dogs may be fair game for baiting, shooting and trapping programs run by landholders and governments, dingoes are often not.

Wild dogs are estimate to cost Australian agriculture more than $100 million annually. . . 

Yes Sir Humphrey

Ministers do not believe they exist unless they are reading about themselves in the newspapers.

— Sir Humphrey Appleby (@YesSirHumphrey) March 31, 2021

Prince Philip 10.6.1921 – 9.4.2021

Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, has died.

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, won widespread respect for his steadfast and constant support of the Queen.

It was a desperately difficult role for anyone, let alone a man who had been used to naval command and who held strong views on a wide range of subjects.

Yet it was that very strength of character that enabled him to discharge his responsibilities so effectively, and provide such wholehearted support to his wife in her role as Queen.

As male consort to a female sovereign, Prince Philip had no constitutional position. But no-one was closer to the monarchy, or of greater importance to the monarch, than he was.

Prince Philip of Greece was born on 10 June 1921 on the island of Corfu. His birth certificate shows the date as 28 May 1921, as Greece had not then adopted the Gregorian calendar.

His father was Prince Andrew of Greece, a younger son of King George I of the Hellenes. His mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, was the eldest child of Prince Louis of Battenberg and sister of Earl Mountbatten of Burma.

After a coup d’etat in 1922, his father was banished from Greece by a revolutionary court.

A British warship sent by his second cousin, King George V, took the family to Italy. Baby Philip spent much of the voyage in a crib made from an orange box.

He was the youngest child, the only boy in a family of sisters – and his early childhood was spent in a loving atmosphere.

The prince began his education in France but, at the age of seven, came to live with his Mountbatten relatives in England, where he attended a prep school in Surrey.

By this time his mother had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and been placed in an asylum. The young prince would have little contact with her.

In 1933, he was sent to Schule Schloss Salem in southern Germany, which was run by educational pioneer Kurt Hahn. But within months, Hahn, who was Jewish, was forced to flee Nazi persecution.

Seafaring tradition

Hahn moved to Scotland where he founded Gordonstoun school, to which the prince transferred after only two terms in Germany.

Gordonstoun’s Spartan regime, with its emphasis on self-reliance, was the ideal environment for a teenage boy who, separated from his parents, felt very much on his own.

With war looming, Prince Philip decided on a military career. He wanted to join the Royal Air Force but his mother’s family had a seafaring tradition and he became a cadet at the Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth.

While there he was delegated to escort the two young princesses, Elizabeth and Margaret, while King George VI and Queen Elizabeth toured the college.

According to witnesses, Prince Philip showed off a great deal. But the meeting made a deep impression on the 13-year-old Princess Elizabeth.

Philip quickly proved himself an outstanding prospect, passing out at the top of his class in January 1940 and seeing military action for the first time in the Indian Ocean.

He transferred to the battleship HMS Valiant in the Mediterranean Fleet, where he was mentioned in dispatches for his part in the Battle of Cape Matapan in 1941.

As the officer in charge of the ship’s searchlights, he played a crucial role in this decisive night action.

“I found another ship and it lit up the middle part of it, whereupon it practically disappeared instantly under a salvo of 15in shells at point-blank range,” he told BBC Radio 4 in 2014.

By October 1942, he was one of the youngest first lieutenants in the Royal Navy, serving on board the destroyer HMS Wallace.

Throughout this period, he and the young Princess Elizabeth had been exchanging letters, and he was invited to stay with the Royal Family on a number of occasions.

It was after one of these visits, over Christmas 1943, that Elizabeth placed a photograph of Philip, in naval uniform, on her dressing table.

Their relationship developed in peacetime, although there was opposition to it from some courtiers – one of whom described Prince Philip as “rough and ill-mannered”.

But the young princess was very much in love and, in the summer of 1946, her suitor asked the King for his daughter’s hand in marriage.

However, before an engagement could be announced, the prince needed a new nationality and a family name. He renounced his Greek title, became a British citizen and took his mother’s anglicised name, Mountbatten.

The day before the marriage ceremony, King George VI bestowed the title of His Royal Highness on Philip and on the morning of the wedding day he was created Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth and Baron Greenwich.

The wedding took place in Westminster Abbey on 20 November 1947. It was, as Winston Churchill put it, a “flash of colour” in a grey post-war Britain.

Career curtailed

The duke returned to his naval career and was posted to Malta where, for a while at least, the couple could live the life of any other service family.

Their son, Prince Charles, was born at Buckingham Palace in 1948, and a daughter, Princess Anne, arrived in 1950. They were later joined by Prince Andrew (1960) and Prince Edward (1964).

On 2 September 1950, he achieved the ambition of every naval officer when he was appointed to his own command, the sloop HMS Magpie.

But his naval career was about to be curtailed. The worsening health of George VI meant his daughter had to take on more royal duties and needed her husband by her side. . .

Even in the 21st century it isn’t easy for the man whose wife has a public and powerful role. It would have been much harder half way through the 20th century when they married.

He had a difficult childhood. Once he married he had a life of great privilege and also one which required a devotion to duty and public service.

One of his legacies is the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme which requires participants to complete voluntary service, skills, physical recreation and an adventurous journey. I completed the bronze and silver awards when I was at high school.

Change does not change tradition. It strengthens it. Change is a challenge and an opportunity, not a threat. – Prince Philip

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.

Death, taxes, and childbirth! There’s never any convenient time for any of them. – Margaret Mitchell