Don't sell!

Most New Zealanders are unhappy about overseas investors buying local farmland, according to the poll described in your article about foreign ownership of our farms (Thurs 8).
Most women are opposed to selling farmland to foreigners, it says.
Most men are against the sales.
Most Maori are opposed to the selling of our land.
South Islanders in particular are strongly against the selling of NZ farms to overseas buyers.
Very wealthy New Zealanders went against the views of most of us and said they supported selling our farms to foreigners.
Federated Farmers chairman Don Nicolson said that the results of the poll pleased Federated Farmers.
He praised New Zealanders for having a ‘realistic compass’ when it comes to the investment market.
It clearly looks like we don’t want to sell our farms to foreign buyers.
That’s very encouraging to hear.

Dodgy pollster

Ha ha!

Searching for an image of a 'dodgy pollster', this odd picture came up.

I'm sure there's a dodgy story behind him!

Selling the farm

"Most New Zealanders have a pretty realistic compass on the New Zealand investment market" says Federated farmers chairman Don Nicolson, when shown a poll that reveals that 40% of New Zealanders are happy for overseas investors to buy local farmland.

I mull over Nicolsons statement.

I have strong reservations about it's truth.

"The poll of 500 people aged 15 was conducted by telephone" (This must be misreporting, surely!)

"Respondents were asked whether they believed overseas-owned businesses should be able to buy or invest in New Zealand farms or farmland"
(That seems like two questions right there Mr poll-writer! Invest or buy - which is it? Seems it's convenient to blend the two terms in the minds of ordinary New Zealanders)

The article begins;
"More than 40 per cent of New Zealanders are happy for overseas investors to buy local farmland - a level of support that has pleased Federated Farmers".
(Federated Farmers are pleased that New Zealanders support the selling of NZ farms to off-shore buyers?
That's a sad situation for us all to be in)

That's as dodgy as it gets, in my book!

Ngai Tahu and kelp

Tiny Metzger of Bluff makes poha titi from kelp in the same way his tupuna did i nga wa o mua and knows where to collect the live kelp needed to line the totara bark vessels in which the muttonbirds are stored.
He'll have thoughts about the Government's action in opening the kelp beds up for commercial exploitation, though I don't know them. I can guess though.
Here,  Alicia Hebbend raises concerns from Ngai Tahu Tribal Council senior fisheries advisor Nigel Scott, who says that he was disappointed that iwi concerns had been ignored over the granting of quota to harvest live kelp.

"The Kelp Bladder provides a unique environment and habitat for sea creatures like fish and crayfish that they rely on". Mr Scott said.

Maori Fisheries will receive 20 per cent of the quota.


“I’m picking we will probably leave it in the water”, Mr Scott said.

Despite the irony of that statement, I suspect he means it and Rakiura Maori in particular, will be deeply disturbed by this exploitive move from the Government and the kelp harvesting industry.

For myself, I'm disgusted by it.

These people don't like it AT ALL!

Professor Stuart Anderson, Faculty of Law, University of Otago.
Mark Bennett, Faculty of Law, Victoria University of Wellington.
Malcom Birdling, Keble College, University of Oxford.
Joel Colon-Rios, Faculty of Law, Victoria University of Wellington.
Richard Cornes, School of Law, University of Essex.
Trevor Daya-Winterbottom, Faculty of Law, University of Waikato.
Professor John Dawson, Faculty of Law, University of Otago.
Richard Ekins, Faculty of Law, University of Auckland.
Associate Prof. Andrew Geddis, Faculty of Law, University of Otago.
Claudia Geiringer, Faculty of Law, Victoria University of Wellington.
Kris Gledhill, Faculty of Law, University of Auckland.
Professor Bruce Harris, Faculty of Law, University of Auckland.
Professor Mark Henaghan, Faculty of Law, University of Otago.
Dr John Hopkins, Law School, University of Canterbury.
John Ip, Faculty of Law, University of Auckland.
Carwyn Jones, Faculty of Law, Victoria University of Wellington.
Dean Knight, Faculty of Law, Victoria University of Wellington.
Prof. Elizabeth McLeay, Faculty of Law, Victoria University of Wellington.
Steven Price, Faculty of Law, Victoria University of Wellington.
Vernon Rive, Law School, Auckland University of Technology.
Mary-Rose Russell, Law School, Auckland University of Technology.
Katherine Sanders, Faculty of Law, University of Auckland.
Dr Rayner Thwaites, Faculty of Law, Victoria University of Wellington.
Professor Jeremy Waldron, New York University School of Law.
Ceri Warnock, Faculty of Law, University of Otago.
Nicola Wheen, Faculty of Law, Univerity of Otago.
Hanna Wilberg, Faculty of Law, University of Auckland.

What don't they like?
CERRA  - the Canterbury Earthquake Response and Recovery Act 2010.
Here's what they say:

An open letter to New Zealand’s people and their Parliament.
We write as a group of concerned citizens with academic expertise in the area of constitutional law and politics.
We share New Zealand’s deep concern about the physical damage to Canterbury and the personal trauma this has caused the region’s residents. All levels of government have an obligation to help the people of Canterbury rebuild their homes, businesses and lives as quickly as possible.
However, while we are united in wishing to help Canterbury recover, there is a risk that the desire to do “everything we can” in the short term will blind us to the long-term harms of our actions.  
In particular, abandoning established constitutional values and principles in order to remove any inconvenient legal roadblock is a dangerous and misguided step.
(emphasis mine)

There's more.

Feds advise voters

Odd, it seems to me, that the Federated Farmers has been given/have taken the prime Opinion spot in the Southland Times to give advice to Southland voters regarding the up-coming elections.
What a convenient platform for them, through Rod Pemberton, Federated Farmers Southland president, to espouse their farmer-friendly views!
Mr Pemberton devotes some of his article to praising the Government for their dismissal of Ecan and warns that other regional councils should consider that action carefully. He also warns councils that rural ratepayers money is not 'an endless supply of money to fund councils dreams'.
He says:
" Councillors need to remember that they are there to represent their constituents through leading efficient organisations that focus on deliverables rather than appearence, a council that is focused on fact, not emotion."

He tidies up his stern warning to voters and candidates alike by saying,
"It's so important that we ensure Southland is represented by the right people ..."
I did laugh.

Estuary art (Council approved)

Southland's weather map for today

Owaka calling

Two heritage apple enthusiasts, Barbara and Catherine arrived today with their bundles of scions collected from the roadsides and abandoned farmhouses of the Catlins and together we spent the afternoon grafting those onto rootstock and setting them out to grow in our purpose built beds.
The 'Catlins Collection' will stay in Riverton until we can find a custodian from over that way, then back they go!
In the meantime, it's going to be very interesting to see what treasures Barbara and Catherine have re-discovered!
Two years to wait til they fruit!

Palm kernel pests

"PALM KERNEL imports are tracking higher than ever, despite continued biosecurity fears about the controversial dairy cow feed."

Aside from the shameful situation brought about by the purchase of palm kernel - that is the destruction of rainforest in order to make room for new, made-lucrative by-the-market (dairy farmers, especially in New Zealand), the number of organisms from ants to lizards that are arriving here amongst the palm kernel is a major fear - or should be, were it not for greed obscuring the danger.

"Lachlan McKenzie, Federated Farmers dairy spokesman said farmers wanted to lessen their dependence on palm kernel because its price fluctuated. "In the last drought, it went up to $400 a tonne."


Environmental concerns were "from within a small minority", he added."

Huge quantities of this material is arriving  in New Zealand and the amount is rapidly growing.
It's the problem that we dare not speak about because it points at Fonterra and their dairy farmers and they are sacrosanct, aren't they?

Could I please have my hour back Mr Dunne?

Spring Festival

I'm at the Transition Towns Spring festival all day today, manning the Farmers Market and Heritage Orchards stalls.

See you there!

Help the kelp

This article supports my own concerns about the harvesting of living kelp which has been green-lighted by the Government.
I'm very concerned about this move and this article explains the ramifications from a science point of view.
Alarm bells are ringing over at No Right Turn as well.

Ogon goes country wide

New Zealand Gardener magazine has run an article on Riverton's driftwood art and used this fine photo of our now famous friend in his pre-felled state.

The article describes the well known and oft-asked-for ungulate too as:

"a spread-antlered moose with driftwood ribs, hooves, a great moosey head and ...well everything else a moose has, all fashioned from bleached branches and logs washed around the edges of the estuary."

That's some good writing in my opinion :-)

My contribution to quake relief

                                         











The editor of the New Zealand Gardener writes in her From the Editor column:

"We heard from many readers of NZ Gardener who'd been affected, including Joanne Churcher who asked for thanks to be passed on to our glasshouse columnist Robert Guyton. "I had followed his tip to put containers of water in the hothouse to keep plants warm - and so had about 20 two litre bottles of water when the quake hit," Joanna wrote. "We were able to give water to neighbours in need."

Glad to have been of some use Joanne.

Dairying in the South

Federated Farmers Southland dairy chairman Vaughan Templeton says his dairy farm 

"resembles a couple of lakes with a muddy patch in the middle".

Indeed.

Another extractive industry gets the go-ahead

SEAWEED ASSET: Sea-Right Investments managing director Roger Beattie has high hopes for a New Zealand bladder kelp industry.

This time it's seaweed.

The Government, in its hunger for extracting as much as it can from the environment and turn it into cash, has given the go-ahead to the harvesting of kelp from along our coasts.

This is, in my opinion, an extremely short-sighted and retrograde step to take. The gathering of beach-thrown sea weed was already a restricted activity but that is now small change compared to opening up the live beds for commercial exploitation, as has just occurred.

From the Times:
"Seaweed has been added to the fisheries quota management system for the first time, potentially opening the door to a major new industry."
"Until now bladder kelp, which can grow more than 50 metres a year, could be collected only if it washed ashore or, with a special permit, harvested in small quantities.


"Yesterday's announcement follows years of lobbying by companies to allow commercial harvest of seaweed, while conservationists argued it was an important part of the marine system which should be left alone. "

Left alone indeed, but it seems the advice of the conservationists has been disregarded.

"Roger Beattie, managing director of Christchurch's Sea-Right Investments, said New Zealand's huge coastline and the worldwide market for seaweed meant the industry could be worth "hundreds of millions of dollars a year".

My question is: How much of this harvested kelp will become food for cows?

Come in out of the weather

(From the Transition Town people - Robyn and I, along with our eldest son Terry will be there, showcasing some of our projects that fit the transition Town model of community development)


The Transition Town Spring Festival is all go for this Saturday 25 September 10.30am-4.30pm at the Invercargill Middle School Hall & the Dutch Hall both on Jed St, Invercargill.

The Festival is an opportunity to forget the wintery weather for a few hours and look forward to the Spring months.
The Festival brings together groups and individuals whose work is focused on sustainability and the environment. It is an opportunity to celebrate this work and to raise awareness of the things happening in
our region.
There will be a range of activities for kids & adults, as well as displays, talks, demonstrations & information.
There are a range of groups, organizations and individuals represented as well as a range of areas of focus - food & gardening, education, technology, health, the environment & conservation, waste and so on.

Fonterra in the rainforests

"A solitary excavator digging a canal to drain peatlands, on which a rainforest had recently stood. The area had been home to Sumatran tigers and orangutans, not to mention numerous small communities. The starkness of this image, showing man's ability to lay waste to the environment, was both powerful, and incredibly sad."

"Like many of you, we were shocked and outraged that New Zealand was supporting an environmental crime of such enormity."

"Just over a year after Fonterra's activities were first reported on, the dairy giant is now importing palm kernel in greater quantities than ever - it is likely that more than one million tonnes of palm kernel will be imported for Fonterra's farms this year. That is nearly a quarter of the global palm kernel trade!"

Read more 

and more

Family reacts on cue

What did my family think about my Cue TV performance?

"Too much coffee Dad!

Edwards on the ugliness of ACT

"But what offends me most, given these latest revelations,  is the hypocrisy of ACT, a vigilante  rabble whose uninformed, unintelligent, 12^th century views on crime and punishment would see us return to the brutality of the chain gang and ultimately the obscenity that is capital punishment."

He doesn't like them at all!

Read "The End of ACT – Good Riddance to Bad Rubbish"

Blue sky!

And some seriously thin winds but hey!

Blue sky!

Got the Collie-wobbles!

"ENVIRONMENT Southland chairman Stuart Collie yesterday admitted he was a member of both Act and the National Party but was adamant he could remain impartial in his council role."

The irrepressible Paddy Lewis on 'Credo Quia Absurdum Est' busts Stuart Collie wide open with this tidy piece of investigative blogarism, revealing that Collie is a Rodney Hide man and can't keep his bias to himself, according to some of his fellow councillors.

" According to the Act Party website yesterday (26 February 2005), Mr Collie is the party’s Invercargill and Clutha-Southland electorate contact."

It's all water under the bridge, you'd hope, but it does make Mr Collie's recent comments regarding impartiality ring a little hollow.

I couldn't help feeling that Mr Collie's letter to the editor had a whiff of hypocrisy about it.
Tonight's Cue TV candidates panel coverage might further the sorry tale even more, who knows!

4 in a row - Cue TV, tonight.

We're on at 9:30pm, for those of you who can hook into Cue TV and that's everybody! It runs on Sky.
If you miss that show, it's on again 7:30am and 11:30 pm Thursday then again on Sunday at 7:30 pm.
If it's madly popular and rates higher than America's Top Model, I'm sure Cue would show it again, prime-time, so text now to ...
The 'panel discussion' went well and I enjoyed it, despite Lawrence Livingstone's attempts to push me out of frame and the untimely ringing of his cell phone!
I'll be looking to see if I look trustworthy (I am that but I want to see if I look it!)

The smell of burning rubber

Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee, Solid Energy's Don Elder and L&M Energy's Chris McKeown are 'talking up', 'aggressively pushing' and bullishly describing how 'the rubber is about to hit the road' in their fields of interest: coal-seam gas, urea and diesel production and methane.
That's Big Boy talk from the Energy Men.
The biennial Petroleum Conference in Auckland is giving their passion wings and they are bristling with confidence about their projects.
Elder went all coy though, when asked whether Solid Energy "should be privatised following a moment of controversy the day before when the chief executive of New Zealand Oil & Gas suggested that the Government should sell it's assets to private buyers".
Bit of a wet blanket, that chap, letting the cat out of the bag like that!

Spring in Southland

Secret weapon!

I've just finished a meal of baked beans in preparation for recording the candidates debate tonight at the studios of CUE TV.
When the right moment comes, I'll unleash my best ploy!
It's all, they say, about strategy!

Whooomph!

That's the sound of the banked-up snow coming down off my steep roof, onto the veranda then onto the garden! (in case you wondered, I'm growing squash!)

Waterview

WATERVIEW OBJECTIONS TO BE BULLDOZED

It's a long, long way from here, but it seems as though we might still be able to catch a glimpse of the Government's proposed 'Waterview Connection' from Southland.

"excavation and tunneling will run 24 hours a day. And when the job is done there'll be ventilation buildings that fill a rugby field and that have chimneys eight storeys high."

I'm very glad I don't live in the area!

The ugly side of snow

The big snowfall has caused an extrordinary amount of damage to buildings in Invercargill, none more so than the stadium, with Wrens building coming in a close second with their collapsed roof. The museum, it turns out, has a roof designed perfectly for events like this, unlike the $100 000 glasshouse in Tweed Street that took a shattering from the weight of the fallen snow. Glass and snow are a bad combination when it comes to clean-up time, but the thought of that is not nearly so bad as that of the dairy farmers pumping the milk that couldn't be collected due to dangerous roads, into their effluent ponds!
Nasty combination!

The Obligatory Snowman

Tree damage

Several of my trees have collapsed under the weight of snow - and it's still snowing!
Half of this koromiko Hebe salicifolia has sprawled across the rhubarb bed and will need to be turned into firewood to fuel our outdoor firebath (we won't be using that for a while!) 

Stone cold

Another angle

It's reported that the roof of New World in Windsor is down as well!

The power of snow!

Stadium down!

It was fun for a while but it all of a sudden got serious for our Southland Stadium!
Our house roof has a pitch of 47 1/2 % and I'm betting the Stadium guys are wishing there's had too!
What a mess!

Stage 3 watering can

Ogon in winter

You may remember Ogon in the estuary.
Here he is in the snow!

View from the north window

Snowbird

Can up-date

(N)ice family!

Ice flowers

@10:00am

Snow gardening (today)

Probably won't be digging in the soil today, nor planting seedlings, sowing seed, tilling, hoeing, raking - nothing.

Lynda's blog

NZ Gardener's 'Editor at large', Lynda Hallinan has a blog and here it is.
This post talks about our Environment Centre and the wonderful apple peelers therein.

Cadmus teeth - FS&SB

Sowing discord: In Greek mythology Cadmus, the bringer of civilisation, slew the dragon that guarded the sacred spring of the war god, Ares. Athena, Goddess of Wisdom, bade Cadmus sow the dragon's teeth and up sprang the spartoi - an army of ferocious warriors. Painting by Maxfield Parrish

Chris Trotter @ Bowalley Road has, not only this marvelous Maxfield Parrish painting of Cadmus sowing discord, but a very good description of the state of affairs around the Foreshore & Sea Bed issue (re-named Takutai Moana - Marine & Coastal Area Bill).
He also has written, here, a very sobering description of the situation in Canterbury.

Hail!

For the moment, they're smaller than this (but more numerous!).
I've said goodbye to my plum crops for this year.

South City billboard

Thanks to a creative couple in Selwyn Street, I've the most inventive billboard of any candidate!
There's another in Pomona Street as well.
The 'tick' is suspended by what appears to be chain, perhaps to attract the swinging voter!
Thanks Bio & Co.

Inanga update!

Pioneer Generation is fighting the 'gollum' clause that might prevent the damming of the Nevis River.
Damming the river isn't the primary threat the rare galaxids face, says chief executive Peter Downing, trout are!
Mr Downing said that Pioneer did not agree that that amending the water conservation order to prevent damming or diversion was necessary for the protection of the galaxids, which is exactly what you'd expect the chief executive of the company wanting to dam the river to say.
I'm all for the gollum, naturally enough.

Whitebait update!

"Anyone who sees people whitebaiting in the Avon, Heathcote, Halswell and Styx rivers, the estuary, and the tidal reaches of the Kaiapoi River should notify the Police"

Crikey!

Read more!

Who to vote for Invercargill/Rakiura?

Meat eating

"The animals we raise for human food in this country come out of millions of years of evolution that has fitted them to eat foods that human beings don’t, and turn them into foodstuffs like those that human beings evolved to eat. Do we feed them their proper foods by putting cows out to pasture, say, or letting chickens scratch for insects and vegetable scraps? Of course not.


Instead, we feed them on grains that could just as well be food for human beings, laced with chemicals and drugs, and “enriched” as often as not with the ground-up bodies of other animals that have been discarded as unfit for human consumption."

The Archdruid's next post is up.

"Most people I know who raise either one respond to the hard necessity of slaughtering by doing their level best to see to it that their animals have only one bad day in their lives."