BayBuzz Magazine - Nov/Dec 2011

AFTER MIDNIGHT Hawke’s Bay Buzzes In The Wee Hours

Adapting to

CLIMATE 03

NOV/DEC 2011

new zealand ~ $8.00

CHANGE

Get ready, it’s coming to a town near you

FISHING

FREEON EDITI

Any Day

Our Own Business Model

THE KING Of Classic Mercedes

Murray Douglas Pitches Business Hawke’s Bay

PLUS: Hastings vs Napier,

My Voice, backyard chooks, bottling biz, high-tech ed, arts leaders, Lawrencus Yulus returns

Seniors in the Bay The truth about getting old. kathy webb

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BayBuzz

Catch us online at www.baybuzz.co.nz

ISSUE NO.03 : NOV/ DEC 2011

Contents FEATURES

ADAPTING TO CLIMATE CHANGE

By Tom Belford

6

Whatever your opinion about global warming – the official governmental policy in New Zealand is to acknowledge it as a problem that requires action.

14

AFTER MIDNIGHT

t too s u j s 20 fe i voice rite a on MY li to my w my choice ssi busy suBybTom miBelford page uncil. to co

32

chickens are the new black

say in Luke ur Janet By yo s Have f Hasting ure o t u f co.nz the oice. mych e c i o .myv www

38 Find us

earthquake released more than the earth’s strain

your to have for you stings. w ways re of Ha eated ne the futu We’ve cr shape a typer ker or how we t tal ou a , ab ter ar it. say nt to he u’re a tex wa yo er we Wheth to say it, nt wa r you howeve

By Mark Sweet

By Michael Fowler

When the evening clock strikes twelve, most of us have called it a night.

But the Bay bustles in the wee hours. What’s going on?

40

26

uht processing plant adds value

By Keith Newman 42

the peter pan generation

Kathy Webb

IDEAS & OPINIONS toward a 21st century economy 22 Murray Douglas ~ Hawke's Bay Chamber of Commerce

Old age should be a time of fulfilment and security, but too often isn’t.

Kathy Webb takes a look at how well Hawke’s Bay is supporting its senior citizens.

we have our own answers here David Trubridge ~ Designer

24

34

educating our digital natives Claire Hague ~ Educator

44

mesmerISed

by MERCEDES

By Keith Newman

Keith talks to Mercedes maven Brian Whittington as the last of a classic car collection goes north.

CULTURE & HUMOUR VOICES OF ART IN HAWKE’S BAY 46 Kay Bazzard ~ Writer the good, the bad, and the beautiful Roy Dunningham ~ Art Historian

48

UNDERGROUND MOVEMENTS Brendan Webb ~ Journalist

50

on

WE WANT A BETTER PERFORMING HAWKE’S BAY, DO YOU? Daniel Absolom, John Absolom, Camellia Ahrens, Michael G Ahrens QSM, Emma Akeripa, Richard Alderman, Sarah Alderman, Margaret Allen, Matt

Mackie, Brian Mackie, Pam Maclean, Peter Maclean, Margot Macphail, John MacPherson, Nic Magdalinos, Tony Maidens, Jack Mains, Peter Maloney,

Allen, Pat Anderson, Mat Arcus, Graham Arthur, Sandra Arthur, Anthony Ashworth, Kevin Atkinson, Kris August, Bryan Austen-Smith, Gerard

Glenn Manahi, Rae Maney, Neil Manning, Shelagh Manning, KK Marffy, Rob Marffy, Kenneth A Mark, Robin Marriage, David Marshall, Gabrielle

Averous, Graeme Avery, RC & KA Bailey, Wayne Baird, John Baker, Neil Barber, Mike Barham, Adrian Barclay, Richard Barfoot, Angela Barons, Chris

Marshall, Trevor Martin, Brian Martin, Cecile Mauger, Jenny Mauger, Brian McAra, Lorraine McAra, Gary McCalmont, Pam McDonald, Tony McEwan,

Barons, David Barry, Michael Bate, Stephen Batty, Jeremy Bayliss, Weslie Bayliss, John Beaumont, Suzanne Beaumont, James Beech, Tom Belford,

Alison McEwen, Kevin McGrath, George McHardy, Kelly McHardy, Shirley W McKay, Ray McKimm, Tom McKimm, Stu McLauchlan, Ed McLoughlin, Donal McMahon, Blue McMillan, Paula

Lyn Bevin, Geoff Bibby, Elva Birch, Mike Bishop, Collin Blackman, Andrew Blair, Jo

McMillan,

Blogg, Karina Blogg, Anneke Boelchorst, Kim

McNaughton, Guy McPhail, Guy McPhail,

Bone, Tony Bone, Jo Bonner, Roy Boonen, John Bostock, Arthur Bott, Audrey Bott, Eva Bradley, John Bridgeman, Richard Brimer, Helen Bromley, Tony Brooker, Ross Brown,

Suppose … Just Suppose

Margaret Bryson, John Buck, John Buntain, Harvey Burgess, Jeff Burson, Mark Burt, Penny Burt, Dominic Busck, Monique Buurmans, Gray Byleveld, Paul Callaghan, Bill

Calver, Mike

Cameron, Christine

Campbell, Jay Campbell, John Campbell, Davis Canning, Mary Canning, Annette Carey, Rufus Carey, Matt Carney, Paul Carney, Kirsty Caro, Rita Caro, Dean Carran, Mark Carrington, Bob Carter, Heather Carter, Pete Carver, Kay Castles, Mark Caves, Brenda Chapman, Sam Chatfield, Paula Cheetham, Vickie Chrystall, Sandy Circuitt, John Clare, Lisa Clare, Geoffrey Clark, Susanna Clark, Sandra Clark, Shirley Clausen, Neil Cleaver, Terry Coffey, Ginny Collinge, Jeremy Collinge, Gerard Cook, Kay Cooper, Mark Cooper, Pat Cooper, Rachel Cornwall, Dale Cowie, Eric Cox, Barrie Crabbe, Dawn Crabbe, Alistair Craig, Murray Cranswick, Sue Cranswick, Louise Cullen, Brian Culy, Leanne Culy, Les Cunningham, Neville Cunningham, Alison Curtis, Gary Curtis, Douglas Curtis, Jan Curtis, Sir Selwyn Cushing, Rachel Dailey, Larry Dallimore, Brian Daly, Donnette Daly, Robert Darroch, Bruce Dawson, Justin Dawson, Grant Dearns, Tanya Dearns, Pete Deslandes,

Nino

D’Esposito,

Graeme

Dickey, Paul Dippie, Ray Doak, Margy Donnelly, Mark Donnelly, Mike Donnelly, Wanda Douglas, Rod Drury, James Drysdale, Pierre du Toit, Graham Duff, Graham Duley, Graham Duncan, Jane Dunkerley, Peter Dunkerley, Simon Dunn, Jo Eames, Gavin Earle, Rodney Earnshaw, Tony East, Lyndsay Eaton, Stephen Eaton, Peter Ebbett, Richard Edmunds, Anna Ellingham, Brem Ellingham, Robert Ellingham, James DR Elliott, Bruce Emerson, Liz Ensor, Nigel Ensor, Ken Evans,

That an independent re-examination of how local government is organised in Hawke’s Bay might show us opportunities to …

Craig

Findlay,

Claire

Fisher,

Gerard

Frame, Craig France, Vanessa France, Brad Friis, Dick Frizzell, Jude Frizzell, Richard Gaddum, Justin Garvey, Dick Geenty, John Gibbons, Lyn Gibson, Trish Giddens, Andy

Meechan, Nick Meechan, Bruce Meehan, John Meehan, Hamish Melville, BN Merz, E Merz, Peter Meyer, Dan Miller, Annette Jenny

Milne,

Jude

Minor,

Joie

Montederamos, Brian Monteith, Helen Montgomery, Louise Moorhead, Gordon Morris, Tori Morrison, John Morton, Max Morton, Bill Mouat, Johanna Mouat, Tom Deborah

Murdoch,

Daniel

Murfitt, Anna Murphy, Shayne Murphy, Kevin

Murphy, Anita

Murrell,

Bryan

like raising incomes, managing our resources, attracting

Musson, Wynn Nation, Anne Nelson, Peter

visitors and new businesses, and making wise infrastructure

Nichols, Guy Nichols, Bill Nimon, Garth

Newby, John Newland, Jo Newton, S.J. Nimon, Ivan Northcott, Graeme Norton, John Nott, Doug Nowell-Usticke, Jules

investments;

Nowell-Usticke, Phoebe Nowell-Usticke, Robin Nowell-Usticke, Tim Nowell-Usticke, Carol O’Connor, Mike O’Connor, Peter

• Better deliver programs and services to our various

Ogier, Chris O’Reilly, Denis O’Reilly, Brigid Ormond,

Donna

O’Sullivan,

John

communities – the elderly, those active in sport and arts &

O’Sullivan, Sherry O’Sullivan, Paul Ott,

culture, builders and contractors, consent applicants, and

Panton, Tony Parker, Louise Parsons, Alison

groups serving youth, the disadvantaged and vulnerable; • Better contain and even reduce costs of local government in areas where we might not need five of everything.

Rebecca Ott, Spencer Palleson, Roger Pavlovich, Dennis Paxie, Gareth Pearce, Giles Pearson, Bill Pepping, Lee Pepping, Chris Perley, John Peryer, Jenny Peters, Kees Peters, David Petersen, Di Petersen, Mike Petersen, Rachael Pettigrew, Sir Russell Pettigrew, Reg Phillips, Gary Pidd, Louise Pidd, Adrienne

Pierce, Andrea

Piper,

Michael Poppelwell, Steve Potbury, Eileen Poulsen, Cynthia Prince, Lorraine Pryor, Hayley Pugh, Mike Purchas, Shelley Quinn,

Wouldn’t you want to see such a comprehensive study of

Kate Radburnd, Simon Radburnd, Nickolas Radovanovic, Liz Randell, Mike Randell,

Hawke’s Bay’s performance, including governance, endorsed by

Shirley Randell, Des Ratima, Evelyn Ratima, Maggie Reddington, Jane Reed, John Reid, Ruth Reid, Bill Reilly, Murray Revell,

our region’s five councils?

Margaret

Revell, Amanda Rice, Richie

Richards, Gill Riley, Caroline Ritchie, David

We do!

Ritchie, Liffy Roberts, Nick Roberts, Shona Roberts,

Bruce

Robertson,

Rochelle

Robertson, Jason Roebuck, Peter Roebuck, Rose Roil, Megan Rose, Diarmuid Ruddle, Adam Russ, Diedre Russ, Rodney Russ,

That’s what A Better Hawke’s Bay is all about.

Adam Ryan, Joy Rycroft, David Sabiston, Gretchen Sabiston, Gordon Sanson, John

Flaschner, Jacqueline Flaschner, Fane Flaws, Simon Fletcher, Marshall Forman, Hamish

Margot

Blair McRae, James Medina, Carolyn

Mulligan,

• Better achieve region-wide social and economic goals,

Dean Evenson, Rob Fargher, Sue Fargher, Marion Fell, Peter Fenwicke, Jim Ferguson,

McNaughton,

Milmine, John Milmine, Jonathan Milmine,

Mary Brownlie, David Brownrigg, Jonathan Brownrigg, George Brummer, Tony Bryan,

John

Schiff, Ian Schofield, Hilary Scott, Bridget

Join nearly one thousand of your fellow citizens who are

Seque, Colin Shanley, Jack Shaw, Neil Sherratt,

Davina

Shrimpton,

Michael

Shrimpton, Brian Sides, Judy Siers, Peter

already with us.

Simes, Bill Sinclair, Abbie Single, Elizabeth

Gifford, Ken Gilligan, Terry Gittings, Janet

Sisson, Stewart Skeet, Brian Slader, Phyllis

Grace, Graeme Glass, Jill Gollary, Max

Smillie, Rob Smillie, Andrew Smith, Brena

Goodall, Raewyn Goodall, Jantha Gooding, Toni Goodlass, Karen Goodwin, Angus Gordon, Dinah Gordon, Hugh Gordon, Jane

www.abetterhawkesbay.co.nz

Smith, David Smith, Gerard Smith, Joanne Smith,

Maurice

Smith,

Mike

Smith,

Raeanne Smith, Kevin Smith, Marcus Smith, Mary Smyth, John Snadden, Kim

Gordon, David Grace, Rex Graham, Jacqui Gray, Jane Gray, Jeff Gray, Colin Green,

Snadden, Janice Snoad, Julie Solomon,

Rodney Green, Stasia Greene, Stephen greer,

Wattie Solomon, Mark Sowman, Sophie

Heather Gregory, Jenny Greig, Jillian Griffin, Rae Griffin, Gerald Grocott, Todd Goggin, Mr P Guerin, Mrs B Guerin, John Gumbley, David Gusscott,

Sowman, NB Speedy, WG Speedy, Gail Spence, Frank Spencer, Iris Spittle, John Spittle, John Springford, John Stace, Ros Stace, Kura Stainton, Antony

Natasha Hadfield, Jack Halka, Mike Halliday, Mark Hamilton, Shelley Hanna, Todd Hansen, David Hansen, Sally Hansen, Margaret Hapuku, Marie

Steiner, Jody Stent, Karrie Stephens, Jim Stewart, Nick Stewart, Aimee Stewart, Sophie Stewart, Bruce Stobart, Louise Stobart, Joan Stokes, Peter

Harding, Robin D Harding, Margaret Harraway, Michael Harris, Pauline Harris, John J Harrison, Keren Harrison, Matt Harrison, Robert Harrison,

Stokes, Bernie Story, Gavin Streeter, John Sumner, Ken Sutherland, Neal Swindells, Terry Taaffe, Gary Tayler, Karen Tayler, Andrew Taylor, Bruce R

Wayne Harrison, Damon Harvey, Don Harvey, Jim Harvey, Jo Harvey, Paul Harvey, Bruce Hastie, Bob Hawley, Craig Hay, Christine Helmore, Marcus

Taylor, Graeme Taylor, Tobias Taylor, Wendy Taylor, Phil Teague, David Tennent, Colin Thew, Art Thomas, Robyne Thomas, Clint Thomsen, Shelley

Helmore, Gary Hemmings, Lynne Hemmings, Brian Henderson, Collier Henderson, Doug Henderson, Sophie Henderson, Malcolm Herbert, Craig

Thomsen, Phillipa Tibbles, JGN Tinholt, Kevin Tinker, Ngahiwi Tomoana, Erica Tooomey, Bruce Tosswill, Julie Tosswill, Ian Toynbee, Pamela Tremain,

Hickson, Ian Hill, Kathy Hill, Haami Hilton, Rachel Hinchco, Michael Hindmarsh, Phil Hocquard, Sarah Hodgson, Phil Hogg, Peter Holley, Paul

Simon Tremain, Peter Tucker, Bruce Turfrey, Pat Turley, Guy Turner, Rebecca Turner, Richard Turner, Jackie Tweedie, Peter Twigg, Paddy Twigg, Ani

Holmes, Fiona Horne, Kate Howard, Linda Howard, Sam Howard, Van Howard, Winston Howard, Cal Huddleston, Tony Hughes, Diane Hunt, Brian

Tylee, Tessa Tylee, Amanda Tyler, Betty Tyler, Jay Tyler, Keith Valentine, Jeff Vandelaar, Magdalena VandenBerg, Rollo Vavasour, Sal Vavasour, Anne

Hurley, Margaret Hurley, John Hutchinson, Bruce Jackson, Stephen Jacobi, Dr Ron Janes, Bruce Jans, Debbie Jarman-O’Leary, Ryan Jennings, Sherril

Vink, Claire Vogtherr, Gordon Vogtherr, Rob Vork, Kevin Wagg, Conrad Waitoa, Nigel Wake, Linda Walsh, Shirley Allen-Wallis, Shirley Wane, Barry

Jennings, Anna Jepson, Tom Johnson, Andrew Johnston, Barry Jones, Blair Jones, Chene Jones, Tim Judd, Amal Karl, Linda Kaye, Ezra Kelly, Jeanette

Ward, Cam Ward, David Ward, Murray Ward, Andrew Wares, Malcolm Warren, Mark Warren, Robyn Warren, Alayna Watene, Nigel Watkin, Denyse

Kelly, Peter Kelly, Paul Kerr, Simon Kerr, Marcus Kight, Mark Kilmister, Mandy Kimber, Cliff King, Grainne King, Jan King, Richard King, Kate King,

Watkins, Anne Watt, Rob Watt, Stuart Webster, Carol Weir, Ray Weir, Reydan Weiss, Roger Weiss, Sarah Wells, Peter Wenley, Andrew White,

Roger King, Wayne King, Ged Klingender, Mike Knobloch, Cedric Knowles, Chris Knowles, Cathy Kyle, Rowan Kyle, Warren Ladbrook, Jason Lake,

Graham White, Hamish White, Davina Whitehouse, Sarah Whiten, Helen Whittaker, Jeff Whittaker, Paul Whittaker, Tim Whittaker, Charles Whyte,

Nadine Lake, Charles Lambert, Joss Lamers, Anne Lane, John Lane, John Latton, Pamela Owen Lawrence, Deanna Lawson, Steve Lawson, Kevin Lay,

Hamish Whyte, Tim Wilkins, James Williams, Kevin Williams, Luke Williams, Lyn Williams, Phil Williams, Sal Williams, Sheryl Wills, Jan Willson, Chris

Kathleen Lee-Price, Andrew Legge, Mike Lewis, Jane Libby , Graham Linwood, Collin Littlewood, Andrew Livingston, Sally Livingston, Gavin Long,

Wilson, Cyril Wilson, Kaine Wilson, Richard Wilson, Sue Wilson, Virginia Wilson, David Wilson, Annette Wimsett, Carol Winter, John Winter,

Ann Longman, Anna Lorck, Jo Lorrigan, Andy Lowe, Jarrod Lowe, Rick Lowe, Adam Lowry, Bill Mackenzie, Margs Mackenzie, David Mackersey, Al

John Wise, Karl Wixon, Jason Wray, Sharon Wrigley, Jenny Yule, Lin Zhang,

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nov/dec 2011 CONTRIBUTORS >

FROM THE EDITOR > I hope you’re enjoying BayBuzz.

KATHY WEBB Kathy has been a Hawke’s Bay journalist for 25 years. She was the first female chief reporter at the former Hawke’s Bay Herald-Tribune, and inaugural chief reporter at Hawke’s Bay Today, moving later to the Dominion Post and now freelancing. Hastings has been home for 40 years.

KEITH NEWMAN Keith is a journo with nearly 40-years’ experience across mainstream and trade media.

He’s won awards for writing about hi-tech, produces Musical Chairs programmes for Radio NZ and has published four books, one on the internet in New Zealand and three on NZ history.

MARK SWEET Napier-born, Mark worked overseas in Hong Kong and Scotland, but returned to Hawke’s Bay, launching Pacifica restaurant. Selected for the Mãori Literature Trust’s Te Papa Tupu programme where he was mentored in refining his just-released novel, Zhu Mao. He’s published Portrait & Opinion with Richard Brimmer.

TOM BELFORD Tom’s past includes the Carter White House, building Ted Turner’s first philanthropic organization, doing heaps of marketing consulting for major nonprofits and corporates. Tom publishes BayBuzz and writes an acclaimed blog for professional NGO fundraisers & communicators in North America and Europe.

SUBSCRIPTIONS >

This edition offers a broad selection of issues and entertainment. Big challenges like adapting to climate change and meeting the needs of our growing elderly population. Regional business developments. Opinions on growth, education and our local art scene. A peek at what happens in Hawke’s Bay ‘after midnight’. Urban gardening and car restoring. And even the return of local legend, Lawrencus Yulus.

All written by folks who know how to write. Indeed, three of our authors have recently released books, which I’m pleased to shamelessly promote.

For local history buffs, Michael Fowler has written From Disaster to Recovery: The Hastings CBD 1931-35.

If you’re an urban dweller, but still want to ‘live off the land’, you’ll welcome Janet Luke’s Green Urban Living: Simple steps to growing food, keeping chickens, worm farming, beekeeping and much more in New Zealand. And finally, for great fiction over the holiday, don’t miss Mark Sweet’s Zhu Mao, his first novel. Just released, it’s already #3 on the NZ best-seller list as I write.

Make yourself and a local writer happy … buy their books!

Most of five thousand copies of BayBuzz disappear within two weeks of becoming available at the various supermarkets and shops that help us distribute. By now, you know what you’re getting in terms of content.

But are you really enjoying the magazine and finding it stimulating, or at least irritating? We’d welcome more feedback from you. With three editions completed, we’d like to take stock and consider how to proceed from here. More of this?

Less of that? Add something entirely new?

You can send BayBuzz a letter. Email us. Or complete the online reader survey on our website.

Of course, an excellent form of endorsement is to subscribe! As you’ll see from the enclosed flyer and advert on page 37, with the help of some

generous local businesses, we’re trying to make subscribing to BayBuzz an irresistible bargain.

Finally, you’ll see an ad on page 4 from A Better Hawke’s Bay, a campaign supported so far by nearly a thousand Bay citizens. I participate in the group that’s initiated the campaign and will do all I can to help it succeed.

As BayBuzz editor, for several years I’ve continuously monitored the Hastings, Napier and Regional Councils; engaged them around issues; watched others in the community try to progress ideas and projects and navigate through the multi-council rat’s maze. I’ve seen enough.

Enough duplication, tunnel vision, inefficiency, ignorance (if not willful disregard) of each other’s activities, patch protection, missed opportunity and wasted time. In a steadily more complex and fast-paced world, time is becoming as precious an asset as water. And our councils are expert at wasting it, while the problems and challenges compound.

So personally, I’m persuaded that some rationalisation of the way we govern ourselves is required if the Bay is to move forward and advance the aspirations – whether for small efficiencies or large visions – of those who want better for the region’s people.

I’m putting this on the table now for BayBuzz readers because I don’t want any confusion.

BayBuzz plans to advocate reorganization. If anyone wants to champion disorganization, the status quo, they’re welcome to have a go.

Reorganization is not by itself the solution to the social, economic and environmental challenges the Bay faces; however, in some form still to be fleshed out (and that’s the value of the independent performance study that should occur), it is an absolutely essential piece of the solution.

Tom Belford

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BayBuzz PO Box 8322 Havelock North 4157 New Zealand Editorial Enquiries editors@baybuzz.co.nz Advertising Enquiries tessa@baybuzz.co.nz Or contact Tessa Tylee on 021 320 694

EDITOR Tom Belford

design & production Ed (aka Empire Design)

Senior writers Kathy Webb, Keith Newman, Mark Sweet,Tom Belford

art assistant Julia Jameson

columnists Ani Tylee, Brendan Webb, Claire Hague, David Trubridge, Des Ratima, Douglas Lloyd Jenkins, Elizabeth Sisson, Janet Luke, Kay Bazzard, Michael Fowler, Paul Paynter, Roy Dunningham

advertising sales & distribution Tessa Tylee Online Mogul creative Ed (aka Empire Design)

editor’s right hand Brooks Belford

business manager Silke Whittaker

photography Tim Whittaker

printing Format Print

Artwork by Fred Robertson, from ‘Adapting to climate change in eastern New Zealand’ by Gavin Kenny

LIMATE HANGE

ADAPTING TO

Whatever your personal opinion about global warming – occurring or not-occurring, man-made or natural, alarming or overblown – the official governmental policy in New Zealand is to acknowledge it as a problem that requires action. by ~ TOM BELFORD

Local effects of global warming The Ministry for the Environment (MfE) provides substantial guidance for local governments on climate change – what they should expect, which local government responsibilities are implicated, and how they might respond.

Most of us generally understand the main physical impacts of climate change – sea level rise, increasing temperatures, and more extreme and frequent severe weather events.

However, not until these effects are ‘mapped’ onto our own region and its typography, traditional weather patterns and economic activities can we really appreciate what is at stake. Various reports and publications from MfE, the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), and the Ministry of Agriculture (MAF) have begun to project impacts in a more localised manner.

In addition, Hawke’s Bay is fortunate to have scientist Dr Gavin Kenny of Earthwise Consulting as a Hastings-based, internationally respected expert on climate issues.

Since 2001 Kenny’s work has focused on local adaptation to climate change, including the impact on local agriculture.

Prior to that he served as Research Fellow and then Senior Research Fellow with the International Global Change Institute, University of Waikato. His work has begun to educate Hastings and Regional Council officials regarding the expected local impacts of global warming.

Continued on Page 8 »

“Climate change is one of the primary drivers of the future for this region. Climate change is happening now and anyone who thinks it’s not is either very naïve or deliberately avoiding the reality.”

Bee in the know ~ nov/dec 2011

Most public discussion occurs over mitigation – how to decrease greenhouse gas emissions. Hence we debate emission caps and trading, their stringency and timing, and their application to various economic sectors – agriculture being the most controversial.

However, in global terms New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions are miniscule (0.2% of global volume), although our per capita emissions are 11th highest in the world (World Resources Institute).

Our Government’s agenda seems principally economic – soften the blow of emissions restrictions on key sectors, gain credit for afforestation, capitalise on ‘green’ business opportunities, and exploit the shaky ‘green’ brand that benefits New Zealand products in global markets.

And as an afterthought, yes, occasionally try to make amends to our environment and salvage our moral standing with our grandchildren.

This article leaves the debate over mitigation strategy to others. And like official government, we take as a given that global warming is not a prediction to debate.

Instead, here, we try to bring global warming home to Hawke’s Bay, examining how it will affect our economic and physical security, and what our local officials are doing to anticipate and adapt to those consequences.

7

Dr Gavin Kenny Scientist and climate change expert

Feature We can’t sit down and do nothing, and then in fifty years say … S***, we better do something now!

Erosion First the trees ...

» These sources present a consistent profile of the physical changes to occur in Hawke’s Bay.

CLimate change in hawke’s bay • Temperature will increase by an average of 1°C by mid-century and 2°C by 2090.

Fewer frosts (but possibly higher risk during growing season) and a decrease in the day/night range of temperature.

More frequent heat waves; more days above 25°C. • Annual rainfall is predicted to decrease 4% by 2090, with an increase in drying westerly winds. More frequent and severe droughts – a 1 in 20 year event would become a 1 in 10 year event in low-medium temperature change scenarios, increasing to 1 in 2.5 years in medium-high scenarios.

• Extreme rainfall is projected to increase 8% by 2040 and 16% by 2090.

Bee in the know ~

nov/dec 2011

8

• Ocean storms reaching our shores are expected to be more intense, with stronger winds and heavier rainfalls, as well as larger storm surges.

• Sea level rise around New Zealand has been projected at 0.5m over 1990 levels by 2090. MfE recommends considering a 0.8m rise when undertaking risk assessments. However, as observed melting of polar ice has increased, projections of sea rise are increasing – a rise of 0.9 to 1.6m by 2100 could be possible. Regional variations are not well defined.

Says Kenny: “Climate change is one of the primary drivers of the future for this region. Climate change is happening now and anyone who thinks it’s not is either very naïve or deliberately avoiding the reality.”

Erosion Then the dwellings ...

Erosion Time to move out.

Effects of regional climate changes Each of these climate influences can have a variety of regional effects. A paper prepared by Dr Kenny for the Hastings Council describes them.

severe under the higher climate change scenarios. Such scenarios cannot be excluded at present, particularly given the lack of concerted international action to curb greenhouse gas emissions.”

Security of water supply, flooding and impacts on coastal communities are likely to be the greatest issues in Hastings District. The uncertainty of changes to rainfall in the western ranges link to changes in runoff and river flows in the river catchments that feed the Heretaunga Plains and its aquifer. Reforestation in hill country and increased on-farm storage, dams and bores could further reduce downstream water flows and aquifer recharge. Lower river flows would worsen already deteriorating lowland river ecologies.

In Napier, the chief impact would fall on water management. Already, stormwater from 75% of Napier must be pumped to sea. With more frequent intense rainfall events, this system becomes even more vital. And of course Napier has its own coastal erosion problem that will worsen at Westshore.

In Central Hawke’s Bay, the primary issues appear to be security of water supply, the stress higher temperatures could place on soil productivity, and increased erosion from both intensified rain events and increased winds (on top of drier soils).

In all parts of the Bay, more frequent and intense droughts would carry enormous economic, social and personal well-being consequences. For Hastings and Napier, officials have prepared quite alarming maps depicting expected extent of flooding from coastal inundation and/ or stopbank failure.

Sea-level rise • Increased coastal erosion – think Haumoana, Westshore • More extensive coastal inundation • Higher storm surge flooding • Increased drainage problems in adjacent low-lying areas • Seawater reaching further inland in estuaries and coastal aquifers Less, but more intense rainfall • Increased soil erosion, especially in hill country • Increased flooding, with associated infrastructure and property damage • Overwhelmed stormwater and wastewater systems • Less water security for irrigators • Reduced river flows and groundwater recharge • Changes in groundwater levels and leaching • Threats to roads and bridges Higher temperatures • Poorer soil condition and reduced pasture productivity • Adverse conditions for temperate fruit crops – think apples • Different and greater pest and disease problems – for both animals and crops • Health effects from extreme weather events • Increased fire risk in rural areas This is a daunting list, with easily imagined impacts on the region’s agricultural productivity, infrastructure investment and security, ecology, and development patterns and potential.

Adds Dr Kenny: “Possible impacts will have the potential to be a lot more

National guidance to act At the central government level, MfE, NIWA and MAF are all working on climate issues, including providing regionally targeted impact information and/or adaptation guidance.

MfE has published Climate change effects and impacts assessment – A Guidance Manual for Local Government in New Zealand. This 167page guide covers climate projections, effects on local government functions and services, scenario development, risk assessment and how to integrate climate change into council decision-making.

As the Guide instructs: “…councils and communities should be giving serious consideration to the potential future impacts of climate change on their functions and services.

Particularly important are infrastructure and developments that will need to cope with climate conditions in 50–100 years’ time. Examples include stormwater drainage systems, planning for irrigation schemes, development of low-lying land already subject to flood risk, and housing and infrastructure along already eroding coastlines. Climate change may also bring opportunities (eg, growing new horticultural crops in a particular area) to which councils may wish to pay attention.”

According to MAF’s website: “MAF’s role is to ensure New Zealand’s land based

sectors are resilient and can respond to the opportunities and challenges of climate change.” MAF’s ‘Plan of Action’ on climate change notes: “New Zealand agriculture and forestry will be exposed to a changing climate marked by warmer temperatures, increased drought in the east, more intensive, frequent and damaging rainfall events across the country and, potentially, new pests and diseases. The sectors are likely to benefit from enhanced growing conditions, as long as water is available, but only up to the global average temperature increase of 1–2°C. After that, the effects of climate change become increasingly negative.”

In practice, much of MAF’s attention to date with respect to adaptation has focused on water storage and irrigation.

Without question, successive Governments have accepted the need to adapt to climate change, and have provided guidance to local government. Mayor Lawrence Yule expects more guidance to come, perhaps in the form of a National Policy Statement that addresses all ‘natural hazards’, including sea-level rise, intense storm and rainfall events, and liquefaction.

How are our local decision-makers responding?

The Hastings and Regional Councils have more comprehensive efforts underway to anticipate climate change; Napier’s focus is more limited.

HB Regional Council HBRC notes that the Resource Management Act now requires that councils and others have particular regard to the effects of climate change when carrying out their functions.

The Council’s recent future scenarios report, looking forty years ahead, cites climate change as one of ‘three shocks’ likely during the scenario period. The Council routinely assesses ten ‘key risks’ requiring its attention, and climate change is one of those.

According to Liz Lambert, Group Manager for External Relations, the Regional Council’s work on climate change includes these elements: • All reviews of Flood Control and

Drainage Schemes include assessments of the impact of climate change, including provision for more Continued on Page 10 »

Bee in the know ~ nov/dec 2011

9

Feature Bordeaux is most similar to us – they are a bit warmer than us and a bit wetter, and they do a terrific job.

»

severe weather events. The predicted increase in severe rainfall of up to 17% by 2090 is estimated to result in a 25% increase in peak river flows. Improving stopbanks that protect the Heretaunga Plains to meet a higher 1 in 500 year event design standard (from the present 100 year standard) is estimated to cost $15 million.

• A proposed project to integrate

forestry into hill country farming, and financial support for research by Victoria University on ways to mitigate increased runoff.

• Incorporating the impact of sea

level rise on coastal erosion and inundation risk into the Regional Coastal Environment Plan, with further investigations to begin in 2011/12 to assess sea level rise effects across the Bay for a range of SLR predictions.

The focus is on hazards and coastal development, but with relevance to coastal wetlands and saltwater intrusion effects on coastal aquifers.

• Working closely with the primary

production sector – particularly horticulturalists, vintners and arable industries – to more proactively monitor and manage the new risks of pest incursion.

Bee in the know ~

nov/dec 2011

10

The granddaddy of all climate adaptation projects in Hawke’s Bay would be the water storage projects being studied for Central Hawke’s Bay (the Tukituki catchment) and the Ngaruroro River (affecting the Heretaunga Plains).

As Lambert notes: “The brief for the feasibility studies requires the service provider to consider and ‘allow for climate change scenarios’. These scenarios have been assumed to be those advised by NIWA and generally accepted practice of applying 50 and 100 year planning horizons. While the focus of this is on economic development and environmental sustainability, they will improve the resilience of the region to climate change.”

Hastings Council At point for climate change planning at HDC is Mark Clews, Principal Advisor: District Development, but this is just a piece of his portfolio. The Council has begun to insinuate climate adaptation into its various planning processes.

Urban/spatial development, resilience of its primary production economic base,

Coastal Inundation Hazard Zone for Haumoana - HPUDS

and coastal impacts are three of the District’s most significant climate challenges.

The Heretaunga Plains Urban Development Study commissioned a paper on climate impacts to inform that project. Now Hastings (and Napier) must decide how to reflect climate concerns in their District Plans, where the rubber meets the road.

Preview consultation about to begin on Hastings’ next Long Term Plan – under the rubric My Voice, My Choice – flags climate change as a scenario for comment.

For example, a discussion brochure on ‘Land Use’ cites likely climate impacts on the rural sector and asks ratepayers to think about these adaptation options: • Become the portal for rural land-users

access to locally tailored information on climate change adaptation.

• Promote

the establishment of a locally focused blog to foster discussion and information sharing on the possibilities for rural land-users to adapt and capitalise on changes to climatic conditions.

• Undertake a hazardscape analysis of rural

and plains community’s vulnerability and resilience to climate change as a basis for long term planning.

• Research rural based energy options

for rural production including bio-fuels from on-farm agricultural waste.

Clews doesn’t expect dedicated spending against climate adaptation in the next three years of the LTP. The work now is mostly about factoring climate impacts into infrastructure planning and understanding how active a role ratepayers want the Council to play.

Mayor Yule observes: “We’re not ready to tell people they need to move here or there. It’s more migrating to the point where we know that future development will be out of harm’s way.”

The most visible case of long term climate impacts potentially affecting near-term decision-making is probably the Haumoana/Te Awanga coastal erosion issue. Residents there want an engineering solution to protect the coast in the face of predictably more intense storms and sea surges.

Mayor Yule sees the effects of climate change as just one factor in the ultimate decision, saying: “If an engineering solution, that’s financially sustainable, can protect homes and our road for twenty years, regardless of sea level rise, then maybe that’s worth looking at.” At the same time, future buyers need to be fully informed about the risks and future development should target risk-free areas.

the system – can handle the worsening scenario … and the stormwater system is being upgraded methodically to those standards. It’s a question of how much to spend, how fast, to have a ‘rainproof’ system.

Since 1997, Napier has spent $7.6 million on stormwater upgrading and renewals. Its current LTP projects a total stormwater investment over the next ten years at $24.9 million. In addition, Ehlers notes, as climate effects are felt, Napier will eventually need to expand its stormwater system to remove water from the 25% of Napier that is not now pumped.

What will we grow?

In Hawke’s Bay, ensuring the resilience of primary production is a chief concern of climate adaptation planning.

However, the farming sector’s leading voice, Federated Farmers, has concentrated on mitigation – lessening and delaying the burden that mandating Continued on Page 12

»

nov/dec 2011

Other public assets BayBuzz asked the custodians of two major public assets in Hawke’s Bay – the port, and the airport – if they were doing anything to anticipate climate change effects.

Nigel Sutton, general manager of the Hawke’s Bay Airport, built on land that requires constant pumping, furnished the most surprising response: “I considered it essential that before investing in a longer runway and other infrastructure at the airport we should be reasonably sure that we would get an adequate life out of the asset. I undertook extensive research of the available scientific papers regarding, global warming, climate change and sea level rises. Contrary to the claims of some so called ‘climate scientists’ and the IPCC, carbon dioxide is not a pollutant and does not cause global warming, climate change or sea level rises. The sea around New

Zealand has been calculated to have risen by an average of 1.6 mm per year for the past 100 years and there is no scientific evidence that the rate of sea level rise is increasing. If we assume a life of the new airport infrastructure of 40 years the sea may rise by 64 mm in that time, which is unlikely to adversely affect the airport.”

“Climate does change, but it is generally over much longer time periods and for many reasons not altogether understood.

But the earth’s relationship with the sun and the sun’s activity would constitute by far the major influence although asteroids colliding with earth and volcanic activity can catastrophically affect climate from time to time.”

In contrast, Chris Bain, chief operating officer at the Port, responded: “…rising sea levels are the most obvious changes that may impact seaports. Ironically this may be of slight benefit – an increase in water depth will assist handling ever-larger vessels. When we constructed a new berth two years ago it was consciously designed at a greater height to account for possible future changes in sea level – 4.7m above chart datum compared to 3.8m for older berths.” Bain adds: “We are close observers of early stage environmental initiatives elsewhere in the world.”

Bee in the know ~

Napier According to the Napier Long Term Plan: “We are vitally interested in the known science of climate change as much of our important infrastructure is dependent on stability in this area. The airport, our residential developments and stormwater disposal methods are all impacted by changes in our climate.

Monitoring information that will give us guidance for good decision making around changes in our environment will be ongoing.” NCC assumes that “any climate change arising from global warming will not impact in any significant way on the Napier community during the period covered by the plan.”

The Napier City Council appears to have the least ‘orchestrated’ approach to climate adaptation. The ball is carried

by Johan Ehlers, Napier’s works asset development manager. Not surprising … as noted earlier, 75% of low-lying Napier’s stormwater must already be pumped to sea. Making that system work and planning its future capacity and upgrading is Ehlers’ brief. Sea-rise and, even more, more frequent intense rainfalls will complicate his task.

In 2008 NCC commissioned a report from NIWA, Impacts of climate change on high intensity rainfall in Napier, which said yes, Napier will endure more frequent intense rainfalls. In Napier, more intense rainfall will be exacerbated by in-fill development – more built-over land that cannot absorb water.

Still, Ehlers says current design standards – design against a 1 in 50 year event, with 55% of the water running into

11

Hawke’s Bay Environmental Action Awards 2011 Join in celebrating the great work done by entrants in the Environmental Action Awards.

The presentation ceremony is a free public event.

Lindisfarne College, Wednesday 16 November, 5.30pm – 7 pm.

Entries and winners in the categories - Outstanding Contribution to the Environment Award; Local Environment Action Fund (LEAF) Project Excellence Award; Sus’d Programme Excellence Award; DOC Catherine Tiffen Volunteer Award; DOC Natural History, Heritage Conservation Award; and Community Environment Award. The awards are held every two years so where you are doing great environmental work, plan ahead to enter in 2013.

The new look award scheme is a combined initiative with Hawke’s Bay Regional Council, Hastings District, Napier City, Wairoa District and Central Hawke’s Bay District working together with the Department of Conservation.

Feature Normally when we face uncertainty or risk in our lives we insure against it. Climate adaptation policy is actually our insurance.

» lower emissions will place on farmers.

Fed Farmers’ senior policy advisor Jacob Haronga emailed to BayBuzz: “We do not provide education materials, workshops etc on what farmers should be doing practically to anticipate climate change impacts. We lack the resources, staff time and in-house expertise to do this justice … Our members have been more concerned to see us achieve better outcomes on government policy and the ETS in particular.”

He adds: “Not a lot has been done to understand the adaptation options for most areas of rural New Zealand.

Hawke’s Bay remains the strongest exception, largely due to the work Gavin Kenny undertook a number of years ago.

More research needs to be undertaken to provide practical options for farmers in other areas to pick up and utilise.”

Dr Kenny might appreciate that compliment, but knowing this work began in 2001, he comments to BayBuzz ten years later: “Where’s the critical analysis of long-term economic resilience in our region? What are the key things we need to be doing to build resilience?”

Kenny is concerned about inattention to the linkages between land use on hill country farms (such as planting trees to curb climate-exacerbated erosion), large and small scale water storage schemes, and downstream impacts on waterways and water users.

Water availability is top of mind when BayBuzz asks Hawke’s Bay Fruitgrowers chair Leon Stallard or Te Mata Winery’s Peter Cowley about climate change.

Both seem comfortable that their

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Bee in the know ~

nov/dec 2011

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industries can adapt to slowly changing weather, within limits. Stallard talks of shifting varieties and even trying kiwifruit. He’s concerned that there will be enough winter nighttime chilling to shock fruit trees into dormancy.

The Hawke’s Bay Winegrowers Association has been looking at climate impacts through a MAF-sponsored project. That said, Cowley’s grapes actually would prefer another 1°C or 2°C of heat. Those conditions would more closely match Bordeaux, producing region of the wines against which Te Mata’s premium reds compete.

But water availability for irrigation is the bottomline to growers. Says Cowley: “We’ve all got used to having this aquifer … Our assumption is that it’s renewing itself on a daily basis.” If climate change reduced access to water for irrigation, “that would be a problem”, he adds dryly.

Are local councils doing enough?

No council staff in Hawke’s Bay are dedicated 100% today to the climate adaptation issue.

With the possible exception of planning and building long term public assets like roads, bridges, public buildings and water infrastructure, where more demanding design standards are coming into play, our region’s councils are mostly at the stage of self-education. They accept climate change as a given, and they are making the connections between the effects of climate change and the options for adaptation.

One might ask … how much is enough?

Staffs can educate and sensitise themselves, as HDC is doing by surveying senior managers on potential climate impacts in their areas of responsibility. They can monitor physical events and evolving science, generate impact scenarios and assess risks, and develop adaptation strategies – all in a context of predictive uncertainty.

But even assuming everybody agrees on the nature and scale of likely impacts (except Nigel Sutton), the answer is ultimately a political one … what priority to set now?

Dr Kenny argues that councils are “treading water”. There has been no basic building of capacity in councils, anywhere in NZ, to deal with this issue … merely the occasional one-off, one-hour workshops.

“If you want to build resilience to climate change into planning you need first to build staff capacity and knowledge in the relevant organizations and then you need to resource them properly to maintain

their priority focus on climate change.”

Once councils are focused, Kenny advocates a ‘resilience approach’ – “preparing for uncertainty and surprise, and ensuring the capacity to adapt and change over time.” Taking the case of stormwater management, planners would not just use ‘bigger pipes’, they would also look at ways households and commercial properties could minimise run-off into the system. Or, using ‘anticipatory design’ – a more substantial foundation might be constructed for today’s stopbank, spending more money in the near-term, so that it can be built higher more readily in the future.

Mark Clews speaks of planning against a goal of ‘no regrets’. He notes: “Normally when we face uncertainty or risk in our lives we insure against it. Climate adaptation policy is actually our insurance.”

“Where do people look for leadership on this? he asks. “It’s Council’s role to drive the conversation. We can’t expect national solutions to be applied locally. Locals need to deliver on adaptation and planning for resilience.”

Lawrence Yule puts it bluntly: “We can’t sit down now and do nothing, and then in fifty years say, S***, we better do something now!”

Regarding Hastings, Yule observes: “The critical thing is to decide whether you think it’s happening or not. We’ve never actually had that debate amongst Councillors; our officers are ahead of the Council. We’re doing things, but we don’t have a clear policy perspective.” In his view: “Our Long Term Plan should come out and say … our Council philosophy is that we believe climate change is occurring, and we’re following national guidelines in our planning.”

Ultimately Mayors and Councillors must decide how to weigh tangible present needs, voiced by very demanding voters, against less tangible future contingencies.

They determine what priority is given to the future versus the present. Most fundamentally this comes down to mind share and spending – how much attention should council staff devote to climate adaptation and how much should we spend on future contingencies, and how quickly?

For elected bodies already having difficulties keeping current with ‘routine’ asset maintenance expenditures, investing today in climate change adaptation might be asking too much of the democratic process!

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When the evening clock strikes twelve, most of us have called it a night. But the Bay bustles in the wee hours. What’s going on?

BayBuzz asked Mark Sweet to roam the nightlife and, in cinéma vérité style, he reports back in ...

After Midnight

Feature He’s a tough nut and declines painkillers.

It’s midnight on Saturday, and in the lobby of the Napier Police Station someone has posted a poem on the reinforced glass panel that separates us from them.

I am the one where you fear to be I have seen what you fear to see I have done what you fear to do All three things I have done for you

Continued on Page 16

»

It’s not uncommon to have all ambulances busy, especially in the early hours of Sunday, when the number of casualties pile up in proportion with the amount of alcohol that’s gone down.

Sergeant Karl Bauerfeind, Napier Police

Bee in the know ~ nov/dec 2011

From behind the barrier a sole constable will listen to your complaint or your plea for help. If you have to wait, it’s because he’s drawn the short straw, and is alone in responding to officers on patrol, minding the over-night guests, and processing new admissions. He works in a windowless room behind a computer. Monitors showing the cells are stacked on a wall.

Things are quiet. The All Blacks have beaten France, and The Warriors are through to the final of the NRL. “It’s unpredictable,” Sergeant Karl Bauerfeind says. “Last night we were fairly busy, but definitely, Saturday night, Sunday morning are generally our busiest times. We’ll know by two.” He’s riding with Matt tonight, and with two more cars, they are Napier’s Police rapid response team.

He pulls on his stab proof vest. He checks his web belt; room for the taser and pepper spray, but Matt’s carrying them tonight. Karl’s radio flickers, and a woman’s voice says an ambulance will be available in an hour for the incident in Maraenui.

It’s not uncommon to have all ambulances busy, especially in the early hours of Sunday, when the number of casualties pile up in proportion with the amount of alcohol that’s gone down.

In Hastings, ambulances are dispatched from the St John’s building in Eastbourne Street. At the main entrance a reminder of the ethos of St John’s is etched on a brass plaque: For the faith and in service of humanity.

Barry Wilson-Hunt and John Plastow don’t need reminding of why they love their work. “It’s a great job. You feel you’re doing something really useful,” says Barry.

John was a metallurgist first, then a banker on secondment from the UK to Wellington. That was over thirty years ago. He became a volunteer with the Ambulance Service, and soon it became his career. His Cornish accent has softened, but it’s still there.

They work a 13 hour shift, 6pm to 7am, and 60 seconds after the call comes in they’re on their way to Havelock at speed with lights flashing. Cars pull over.

A man has fallen and dislocated his hip.

He’s a tough nut and declines painkillers even though he winces as he’s strapped into the gurney and lifted into the ambulance.

When they arrive at the hospital, 39 minutes have passed since they got the call, and John gives the case details to duty triage nurse Karene Chilton.

From her desk Karene has a view to the waiting patients and their carers. A woman who has recently had a hernia operation is showing anyone who’ll look, the scar across her stomach where her navel used to be, and she points out the inflammation around the wound that has brought her to Emergency. A mother with her baby brushes her away, but an elderly woman in her dressing gown and slippers is given a detailed description of the surgical procedure.

Two drunk men sporting smashed up faces loudly relate their tales of fighting.

“You should meet my daughter,” says the older to the younger man. “She’d like you ‘cos you’re a lot like me.”

“We see it all here,” Karene says.

“Trouble with drunk people is they take up a lot of our time, you know, it takes longer to explain things to them, and they can be uncooperative.”

Karene left school early, and spent a decade doing office work and paying off a mortgage before training at the EIT to do the job she’d wanted to do ever since spending four months in hospital when she was nine. “It’s a great feeling to see a patient going home with a smile on their face after seeing them so sick not long before.”

Back in Napier things are still quiet, and new partners Rob and Jarrod are on Bluff Hill checking on curfews. Jarrod is twenty-five and a few months into the job. Rob changed career at forty to follow a long-time desire to join the Police. He was involved in the operation after Len Snee was shot. A tribute to Len hangs on the wall outside the smoko room; a stark reminder that Police can die violently doing their job.

A call comes in to assist a Council noise control contractor removing a stereo. Karl and Matt are there already and the presence of four Police officers quickly sees a drunken surrender of the offending amplifier. The Council will collect the $200 retrieval fee.

15

Feature I get lots of guys who fall in love and want to save me. Trouble is, I don’t want their love, and I don’t need saving.

» On the way back to base Rob and Jarrod

slowly patrol a route through Onekawa industrial area spotlighting windows and up the alleyways. In the city, they loop through the lane that serves the backdoors of the two busiest brothels in Napier. A man walking hurriedly turns his back to the passing car.

In Club Rendezvous, Ally Drake and her girls are having a steady night. Three of the five luxuriant bedrooms are occupied, while Kelly and Rachel chat at the bar with two Welshmen out for the World Cup. Serving drinks is Ally’s mother, Jude. “When Ally first said she wanted to go into this business, I was shocked. Then I got used to it, and now we’re partners.”

A nattily dressed man slips quietly in the door. He’s a regular and has a booking with Kelly. Knowing this client doesn’t like to mix, she moves quickly to the door leading to the rooms.

“I wont be long,” she says to the younger Welshman, who can’t take his eyes off her.

“It’s unpredictable,” says Kelly. “One night I did 13 jobs and didn’t take my knickers off. You know. They come in with their mates, and they’re just here for them, and they come out punching the air to impress their mates. But nothing happens. Then a week later I get 11 hard out jobs in a row.”

Five minutes into her job, Jude gives Kelly a call. “We take the girl’s safety seriously. If she doesn’t answer, we’re down there like a shot. And when this one’s twenty minutes is up, we make another call.”

Only women work at Club Rendezvous. “Having no men working – bouncers, barmen, or whatever – makes for a good atmosphere. The clients are more comfortable,” says Ally. “Like any service business we rely on word of mouth and repeat customers.”

Soon Kelly is back at the bar. The visitor from Wales has waited for her. His friend has gone off with Rachel.

People spill onto the street outside the bars in Ahuriri. Men raise their bottles to the passing Police, both as toast, and challenge. But there’s no trouble. In front of them, a Rav4 being driven slowly and erratically is showing the signs. They follow it to the Port, and the driver pulls over at the first flash of the blue light.

The breath test is negative; a baker, new to Napier, is off to work and still finding his way around.

Beyond the barbed wire fence at the Port, the tugboats, Te Mata and Ahuriri, are making their way out of the harbour guiding the container ship Lyttleton on its way. She’s tested the Port’s efficiency by needing 700 container moves; a

tough job for Bruce Browne and Jim McMartin. They work for different employers, but to be effective, sit side by side in the Len Hoogerbruug designed Port Authority building built in 1969.

Bruce is responsible for the containers stacked on site; deliveries and arrivals.

Jim covers the containers onboard the ships. The monitors show him the plans and cross-sections of the Lyttleton’s cargo space, identifying where each container on the inventory is stacked.

She’s a multi-port trader, so he has to make sure the containers that come off first, went on last. “When a container meant for one place ends up in another it can be very expensive,” Jim says, dryly.

Bee in the know ~

nov/dec 2011

16

Constables Rob and Jarrod (also above) from Napier’s Police rapid response team

Greig Madden, Napier Port

their lines from the Lyttleton; another vessel quietly worked through the night, while nearby residents sleep.

Onshore, the dispatcher from Wellington is alerting a 111 call – “Twenty people fighting at a house party.

Assaulted female made the call.

Her name is …”

“Look what that f***in’ bitch did to me,” she says, showing Karl the bite marks, and scratches on her arms.

She tells her story of jealousy and miscomprehension. People leave quickly on Police command, but one of the unwelcome guests refuses.

“Is this your house?” Karl asks the complainant.

“Yes ‘tis.”

“Do you want this person to leave your property?”

“Yeah. She assaulted me, the bitch.”

Matt has come to the banned woman’s side, and suggests they walk to the road and talk. She calls over her shoulder.

“Lying bitch. If I assaulted you, you’d be f***in’ dead.”

Patiently, Karl questions the caste of drunk women whose big night out has included being transported in a Hummer, and, “more shots than you’d f***in’ believe.”

Continued on Page 18

»

Bee in the know ~ nov/dec 2011

On the wharf Greig Madden is perched 30 metres off the deck. He works two nights a week on a shift rotation. “There are nine of us,” he says. “We just do it.”

Doing it is plucking and depositing containers from an enormous crane that has a maximum load of 38 tons, extended, but normally Greig works closer to the fulcrum, where he has up to 100 ton capacity.

A port is a dangerous work environment, and Health, Safety and Security advisor Paul Houston is responsible for maintaining the motto, ‘You will have a future as well as a past if you put safety first instead of last.’

As he drives cautiously along the wharfs, Paul sees two dark figures walking towards a ship. They should be wearing the compulsory fluorescent vests. He radio’s. A woman’s voice replies, “I see them. They’re crew. I’ll pick them up.”

“We transport all crew to and from the ships. It’s a safety issue,” says Paul.

In front giant forklifts are at work. “We don’t have backing alarms on vehicles.

It’s for the sake of the residents living on The Hill, but it’s dangerous if people are wandering around.”

Beyond the breakwater, one kilometre from shore, the tugboats are slipping

17

Feature Drunk people want cheap pies.

She calls over her shoulder. “Lying bitch.

If I assaulted you, you’d be f***in’ dead.” drunk napier woman

» Seems more than one of the women

Bee in the know ~ nov/dec 2011

18

has had a go at the complainant. She’s crossed a boundary, but nobody’s saying exactly what it is, just vaguely, about pulling two men in a week.

Karl will make an arrest if he has to, but he knows that separating the feuding parties, and a good night sleep, is the best solution. It doesn’t take him long to find Aunty who has a lead role in the drama. He suggests Rob and Jarrod drive her home and she readily accepts. As they drop her off they hear an ambulance being called to an asthma sufferer in Havelock.

Havelock North is a town with two tales. In daylight there’s coffee, very good coffee, and world-class cafe cuisine, and more women’s shoe shops than Manhattan.

After dark it’s the party capital of Hawke’s Bay. The Diva and Pipi crowds have their own homes to go to, but youth don’t, so they gather in The Village and party on the streets, unless there’s a real party on, where they can mass in their hundreds, rallied by text messages that cover the Bay. John slows the ambulance, mindful that some of the revelers are incapable of judgment. When they reach the asthma sufferer she is distressed, but Barry calmly encourages her to concentrate only on her breathing, while checking her airflow and her blood pressure.

As the ambulance passes the 24-hour Mobil station, Deep Virk can be seen standing behind the reinforced glass service hatch that protects him from the customers. A tall man is stooping so he can be heard, while his friend slithers against the wall. “Everything is pre-paid,” says Deep.

A dinged Mitsubishi pulls up, and four women dressed all in black, with equally black hair, spill out. They want five pies and assorted drinks. And chocolate.

“There’s no takeaways or dairies open so they come here. After midnight can be like hell. They’re so drunk they don’t know what they’re doing.”

Port safety advisor Paul Houston

Deep left India three years ago. He was nineteen. He’s glad to have the job.

“When it’s not busy I clean and stock up.

It’s not boring, but it can be lonely.”

And about the new McDonald’s planned for next door, Deep says, “No difference. Probably drive-by at night, and we’re cheaper. Drunk people want cheap pies.”

At present, the nearest McDonald’s is in Heretaunga Street operated by Marcus and Lynette Pohio. It’s a model of fast food efficiency. They’re open 24/7. The nightshift begins at 10pm and ends at 6am.

“We have the initiator, the chaser, and Jim McMartin, Napier Port

the assembler; that’s buns, dressing, and quality,” says Charles Ranginui, who’s nineteen, and a duty manager. “School wasn’t for me, so I got a job here through the Youth Transition Service when I was thirteen.”

“At our busiest we’ll have eleven in the kitchen, 8 on the counter, and 8 on drive-through. Graveyard shift is 7 all up.

It’s mostly Family Pack specials.”

Sheryl Tupou is a regular graveyard manager. She often works with her son and daughter on the same shift. It’s not uncommon to have close family members working together. “We have a mother, three daughters and a son-law,

and several mothers and daughters,” says Charles. “We all work together as a family anyways, so it’s nice when real families are working together.”

When John and Barry arrive at A&E with the asthma patient, Karene has sad news for them. A young man with multiple health problems who they’ve assisted many times has died. “It’s rough,” Barry says, “We all got to know him and his family really well.”

The relationship between St John’s folk and hospital front line workers is a close one; they share the ups and downs.

“If the ambulance crew say they’re concerned about a patient, I process them straight away. They know.” says Karene.

In Napier, 111 reports a breach of Protection Order. “The offender is on the property.” A woman answers the door.

Her face is freshly bruised and elastoplast patches cover ripped skin from the last bashing. She knows Rob. He’s been here with her before. She tells him the offender is under the bed. He has over 60 convictions, and his assaults have seen her lose her children. Jarrod moves to cover the back of the house, and when Karl and Matt arrive, they call in a dog

team in case the offender makes a run for it.

Minutes away Mike and Stein are on their way home. They’ve been a team for four years. Stein leads the way and pulls on the leash as she finds the bedroom door.

“Heal.” She crouches like a sprinter at the blocks. Another command, and Stein’s bark is full and fierce.

“Come out or I’ll let the dog off.”

Silence. “One last chance before I let the dog off.” Silence. “Okay, have it your way.” Mike flicks the clip, but in the pause before he releases the catch a voice calls out from under the bed, “Okay, okay, I’m coming out.” The woman basher doesn’t resist and walks meekly to the car. Only when he’s safely cuffed in the back seat does he start yelling abuse. “He’ll go to court on Monday and we’ll oppose bail,” says Karl. “It’s important we give the victim a chance to make changes in her life.”

Back in Hastings, the Ambulance is rushing to a house in Camberley.

A woman has a severe headache and neck pain with no apparent cause. John and Barry both think, ‘Meningitus?’ There’ve been clusters around the country.

Continued on Page 20

“There’s no takeaways or dairies open so they come here. After midnight can be like hell. They’re so drunk they don’t know what they’re doing.” deep virk, havelock north mobil

» Bee in the know ~ nov/dec 2011

19

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Feature Come out or I’ll let the dog off.

“We have the initiator, the chaser, and the assembler; that’s buns, dressing, and quality.”

Charles Ranginui duty manager Hastings McDonald’s

charles ranginui

Sheryl Tupou graveyard manager Hastings McDonald’s

» Before they can take the woman to

Emergency, and pass on their concerns to Karene, they have to arrange for her children’s care. Her husband responds quickly to her call for help. He’s down the road celebrating the football victories with his mates.

In McDonald’s, Sheryl and her team are still revved-up from being hit with a sudden surge, where they were pushed to meet the under 2 minute, 10 second maximum wait time for drive-in customers.

At the port Greig is near to completing the stacking of the container ship Bahia.

With 450 moves, controllers Jim and Bruce feel less stressed than the Lyttleton job.

Kelly in Club Rendezvous is still with the visitor from Wales. He’s paid for extra time, and he’s talking nostalgically about his homeland, and how Kelly would love it there. “I get lots of guys who fall in love and want to save me,”

she says. “Trouble is, I don’t want their love, and I don’t need saving.”

The Police rapid response team are on their way to a brawl in Taradale, and as they pass by Pak ‘n Save, the brightly lit interior is spotted with figures packing the shelves, and next door a queue of cars snakes around the fringe of Burger King.

Deep Virk in Havelock watches two men, their trousers holding up their bums, start to scuffle on the forecourt.

It’s 4am.

“The trouble with drunk people is they take up a lot of our time, you know, it takes longer to explain things to them, and they can be uncooperative.” karene chilton triage nurse hawke’s bay hospital

Bee in the know ~ nov/dec 2011

21

Barry Wilson-Hunt and John Plastow from St John’s ambulances in Hastings

Acknowledgements: Thanks to all the night folk who helped me with this story. Everything I’ve written is what I saw and heard on my nights out; however, my visits weren’t all on one night, and I’ve spliced here and there, like the Lyttleton sailed on a Tuesday, not Sunday morning, and I don’t know if the Welshman is one of the guys who wants to save Kelly.

Toward a 21st Century Economy by ~ MURRAY DOUGLAS chief executive, hawke’s bay chamber of commerce

Bee in the know ~

nov/dec 2011

22

In the archives of the Hawke’s Bay Chamber of Commerce are scores of reports on economic development, development strategies, economic plans, and endless minutes of meetings going back over 15 years.

These volumes are the products of the many iterations of regional economic development agencies (EDAs) that have been created – Vision 20/20, the Hawke’s Bay Economic Development Agency, Hawke’s Bay Inc and more recently, the short-lived Venture Hawke’s Bay. Apart from the weight of these seemingly rubbish bins of paper, what strikes you is the virtual absence of follow through or sustainable success of 15 years of efforts and talk about economic development for the region.

I certainly don’t question the motivation of the partners involved in these endeavours nor indeed the staff.

The litany of effort, and failure to fulfil, has come about more because the various EDAs were short lived, had huge key staff turnover (eight CEOs in 12 years), and were often stillborn in terms of the gap between thinking and action.

Meanwhile, Hawke’s Bay gradually slipped down the regional rankings in economic heft … in the last very hard three years bouncing between last and third-to-last in most regional key indicators. This prospect is not assisted by a slowing population increase, which is a key economic activity generator in its own right.

It need not be this way Hawke’s Bay is the fifth-largest urban population in New Zealand. Our region generates a relatively high export GDP

contribution and has a number of very productive and innovative businesses and plenty of good ideas.

Yet we have some long-term structural issues that have been well known. We continue to be low in average household wealth, an outcome of lower wages; hugely vulnerable to commodity demand and price cycles, whether drought or global pricing; and slow and, in some areas, negative population growth. Being relatively low in tertiary qualifications per capita compounds this, along with the hollowing out of government jobs from the region. As a result, employment in the region in the last five years has been virtually static.

We can gild the lily in many ways to explain what has happened, but the simple situation is that Hawke’s Bay punches below its weight. Yet as an outsider coming into the Bay, I am astonished that our region is not amongst the top three or four for economic growth and business vitality. In other words, the answer lies in our own hands.

Yet, as noted before, the various EDA organizations have persistently been unable to make headway and provide sustainable growth, with a deeper and enriched economic base.

Business Hawke’s Bay Business Hawke’s Bay has been born out of frustration with this situation. It was triggered by the quiet demise of Venture Hawke’s Bay (VHB) at the end of 2010.

In reality, VHB had spent a great deal of its limited ratepayer-funded resources working on tourism development and to a lesser extent on economic development.

But when the Chamber of Commerce found out that this effort was all to be

‘lost’ when VHB disintegrated, it set out to create a new body. But a different body and a different approach.

The key differences are twofold: First, it is private sector led. Previous EDA iterations have been either combinations of the private sector with council control or fully councilcontrolled. Business Hawke’s Bay is funded predominantly by the private sector and has a fully private sector Board. This Board consists of ten individuals who have demonstrated considerable achievement in business.

Equally importantly, they either have a global reach in their business or they have spent time outside the Bay and come back aware of the wider economic space.

Second is the key understanding that parochialism, petty politics and gamesmanship have no place in this very serious business, a lesson arising out of the pyre of Venture Hawke’s Bay. Collaboration, cooperation and stakeholder openness are the hallmarks of this new organisation. An advisory group of the economic managers of all the councils, the Chamber, Hawke’s Bay Tourism and some other key practitioners meets weekly and advises the Board, but cannot vote.

This is the fundamental paradigm change between Business Hawke’s Bay and its predecessors. The entity is collaborative, partnership is the method, and we actually begin to see Hawke’s Bay as one economic entity.

Pleasingly I can say that, with a couple of hiccups, the advisory group are working very well together. We are seeing co-branded efforts which provide a great vehicle for the future of Hawke’s Bay.

Ideas & Opinions The simple situation is that Hawke’s Bay punches below its weight.

Hardly rocket science Work-wise, a great deal of initial effort is being undertaken by the advisory group and the Board to get the foundations right and ensure Business Hawke’s Bay can deliver on its promise of assisting real sustained economic growth. Business Hawke’s Bay is not trying to be overly clever. Some basic economic development is required. Sadly these economic development fundamentals are not currently available, so we need to do some very basic things, such as find out what actually does go on in the Bay business-wise. This initial inventory is where the joint efforts of all parties is proving successful.

A key process will be what is termed ‘economic gardening’. Our home-grown entrepreneurial enterprises still constitute the key engine for our future. Good gardening will mean businesses get early and more coherent access to advisory services and support. Hardly rocket science, but certainly historically not well-marketed, coherent or sustainably approached.

Relocation and business attraction and export growth will receive attention in due course.

Infrastructure will not be neglected, with a heavy emphasis on e-commerce around Ultra Fast Broadband. The providers will cooperate in showcasing the benefits and applications, to ensure these transformational technologies become routine to combat our region’s distance to market.

Economic development is not a game to be played between election cycles or for a rush of blood headline. It is hard work with a strategic emphasis for planned medium to long-term outcomes.

The key performance objectives of Business Hawke’s Bay are a steadily growing population and growing average household wealth. Moving these indicators takes courage and persistent commitment beyond day-to-day matters.

And the reason for growth – jobs, jobs, jobs.

Next February, Business Hawke’s Bay will present a strategy describing in more detail how we will work to meet these long-term goals and the pathway to build on what we are good at, while adding new marketable products and services for a 21st century economy.

Taxation

Business planning Trust administration Business comparisons with peers

06 871 0793 www.borriegroup.co.nz

nov/dec 2011

Company administration

murray douglas

Bee in the know ~

Accounting services

“The key performance objectives of Business Hawke’s Bay are a steadily growing population and growing average household wealth.”

23

We have our own answers here by ~ DAVID TRUBRIDGE

Bee in the know ~ nov/dec 2011

24

When I first took my designs to Europe, I felt that I was bringing obscure oddities which, if I was lucky, a few people might like. I believed that to really succeed internationally, you have to do international design. That was not my objective – I was just looking for a few more sales.

I was surprised to discover that what people liked most was the difference – to them it was exotic. It taught me a very important lesson: what we have here, our unique and seemingly idiosyncratic ‘localness’, is actually one of our greatest assets. And it is not just an artistic asset, it is also a social one.

Why do we persist in aping the US model?

Can we now accept that the American dream is over?! Fundamental to that dream is the premise that unmitigated business creates general prosperity. All statistics prove that it is now simply not true; there is no trickle down, only an upward sucking. Over recent decades the few very rich have got immensely richer, and the rest relatively and absolutely poorer. The middle classes are chained to working merciless hours with little or no holidays, just to keep up. The number of those below the poverty line in 2010 has increased to a scandalous 15%, or 46 million.

Unemployment is officially 9% (22% for unskilled young and 14%

for “involuntary underemployment”).

But unbelievably in America if you are unemployed for more than six months you are classed as a “discouraged worker” and struck off the register! There is an estimated 3-5 million of these ‘nohopers’ who don’t even feature as a statistic. The prison rate is by far the highest in the world, and you can still be murdered by the state. Its government has degenerated into a bickering mess of rabidly selfish obstructionists, intent only on protecting their wealth, pitted against the weak and ineffectual of a similar stripe.

So much for a wealthy, prosperous nation!! It may have an amazing list of achievements, but socially it has become a disastrous failure.

Yet here in NZ we hear the same old cries that we are lagging behind Australia, that Hawke’s Bay is lagging behind the rest of the country . . . we must improve our business, grow our exports, work harder. For what? To become like America?! Of course our business and political leaders say this because, apart from being one and the same thing, they are the few who will get richer. But do we have to be so blind as to believe them and work for them?

European settlers first came to New Zealand to escape constraining class structures. They created a pioneering egalitarian society that, as we all know,

led the way in some human rights.

What has happened to that? It has been systematically broken down by businessman/politicians like Roger Douglas and John Key pushing towards the American corporate model. There is no other reason for this than selfish gain for themselves and their buddies.

Like America, those that vote for it sadly believe in the dream that they too can be rich, though of course most won’t.

Take the kids fishing any day We do have our own different models.

People live in Hawke’s Bay, not to get rich, but to escape the treadmill and to find a more meaningful life, with time to take the kids fishing on any day. Most of New Zealand is like that. The people that work for me can take time off whenever they choose (as long as commitments are met) because family is more important.

We are not lagging behind, we are ahead, with our own different values. We need to stick to them and not be diverted by calls from business.

Also part of our culture is Mãori tikanga and the supportive strength of whanau. These traditions have developed in order to ensure their survival as a group, not as an individual. That distinction is critical: if we value the individual, most will be trampled on and cast out by the rich and powerful who write their own self-serving laws.

Ideas & Opinions Our unique ‘localness’ is actually one of our greatest assets.

If we value the group, as Mãori do, we care for all those in the community, and look after the weakest. Isn’t this a better model that any caring person would rather be a part of? Most of the smug well-off couldn’t care less.

Our local business leaders exhort us to export more. Why? Well, apart from lining their pockets, we have to pay for all our imports. What are they? Cheap junk that too often breaks on its first use? Addictive baubles that only leave us craving another seductive gadget as soon as we get them home? Badly made furniture from Asia that won’t last? Out of season foods? Sure, there will always be some things we can’t produce locally, but is it that much?

Why, for entertainment, do we buy monster TV screens to watch appalling American TV? Why don’t we create our own entertainment, and support local events more? Why are advertising agencies coercing us into funneling our dollars into international corporations?

Why are they not using their creative energies to promote the local community?

“Up to $800 increase in cost to fly to Europe next year with new carbon accounting scheme” – said a recent

news headline. Welcome to the future.

Globalisation and ‘free trade’ are based on materials being carted back and forth across the globe in search of (temporarily) cheap labour. This is only possible while we use up irreplaceable and rapidly dwindling energy stored over millennia from decayed forests.

The full cost of pollution and carbon emissions is not being paid, but when it inevitably is, like the airline ticket, shipping costs will escalate and global free trade will become a dream of the past. Cheap wages in China won’t last as their standard of living and expectations continue to rise. Is this where our captains of industry want to take us?

Out on a rotten limb that will soon break off leaving us dependent on exports and imports that have become prohibitively expensive?

The future lies in our local community, not in globalisation. Think about every dollar you spend – will it remain here or will it go overseas to a multinational?

How do we create our own sustainable community model as an alternative to the self-serving and polluting corporate model constantly being rammed down our throats? I will write about this next time.

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Bee in the know ~ nov/dec 2011

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“People live in Hawke’s Bay, not to get rich, but to escape the treadmill and to find a more meaningful life, with time to take the kids fishing on any day.”

25

THE

PETER PAN GENERATION

Old age should be a time of fulfilment and security, but too often isn’t. Kathy Webb takes a look at how well Hawke’s Bay is supporting its senior citizens as thousands of Baby Boomers begin to swell their ranks. by ~ KATHY WEBB

“Getting old is not for the fainthearted.” Tania Kiwara smiles but she’s not joking. As a social worker for Age Concern in Hastings, she sees it all – lonely, isolated, depressed old people, sometimes suffering physical violence or financial and emotional abuse, topped off by their inexorably deteriorating health.

There are 22,000 elderly people -defined as aged 65 and over -- in Hawke’s Bay, constituting 13% of its population.

They’re a relatively low-profile but high-

needs sector of the community, absorbing 37% of the region’s annual health budget, mainly through hospital stays and emergency department visits.

Caring for our elderly to an acceptable standard is a challenge, but the systems are coping.

However, the reality is that things in that neck of the woods are going to get a little scary. Within a mere 15 years, the number of officially-old Hawke’s Bay residents is set to rise to 36,000. That’s

25% of the regional population, as the population bulge of Baby Boomers join their ranks. During the next 30-40 years, these Boomers, born during the 20 years from 1946 -1964, will form a demographic tsunami, putting taxpayers and service providers through the wringer for cash and services.

That raises the question of how well Hawke’s Bay is already looking after its elderly, and how it can prepare for such a radical demographic change.

Feature Without transport they become isolated and depressed.

financial abuse every month. Usually, it’s been perpetrated by family members.

It can be on a small scale, such as a youngster using a grandfather’s eftpos card to put petrol in his car. Or it can be large scale, with “significant amounts of money rorted” through misuse of powers of attorney. Sometimes the elderly are pressured into re-mortgaging their homes or guaranteeing loans to other family members.

“Or sometimes the children might move back in with them and live off them and not contribute anything. That’s abuse,” says Kiwara.

Transport and housing for the elderly are both areas that will need a lot of improvement as Baby Boomers nudge into the ranks of elderly, says Lockley.

Those with family scattered overseas face a dilemma when they give up driving.

Without transport they become isolated and depressed, and their general health goes downhill.

The Gold Card that allows them free bus rides during off-peak periods is “good if the bus comes down your street” and you’re mobile enough to climb up and down the bus steps, says Kiwara.

Another option is the mobility scheme run by the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council, which provides a 50% subsidy on taxi fares. However, qualifying cardholders often find it difficult to come up with the other half of the fare, says Lockley.

“We’re lucky. Hawke’s Bay Health has listened to the voice of older people.

It’s being heard at board level.” ruth lockley hastings age concern

A stoic bunch Today’s seniors tend to be a stoic bunch – undemanding, trusting and politically unassertive. They were raised to be polite, law-abiding, hard-working, thrifty and community-minded. Their lives were shaped by the 1930s Great Depression, then many lost fathers and brothers to the Second World War. Kiwi society during their childhood Continued on Page 28

Who’s who?

During the next 40 years, the number of people aged 15-64 working and paying tax to support our elderly is expected to grow by only 85,800 from 2,849,100 to 2,934,900.

However, the number of people aged 65 and over will grow from 580,000 to 1,325,200 of which 322,000 will be aged 85 and over.

27

30% 13.5%

17.5%

22.3%

25.4%

26.3%

25%

20%

15%

580,000

803,800

1,079,600

1,268,800

1,325,200

10%

5%

»

Bee in the know ~ nov/dec 2011

The Boomers are coming According to Health Hawke’s Bay’s report Improving Health Services for People in Hawke’s Bay, we must start right now.

In 15 years, the elderly will be using up 50% of national public health funds.

About 40% of over-65s have chronic health issues such as diabetes, cancer, or heart or kidney problems. By the time they’re 75, about 34% of them have two or more of those conditions.

Ageing Baby Boomers are generally healthier than their parents and grandparents at retirement, but other problems are beginning to surface and make it difficult to plan accurately for future demand.

Diabetes is rampant among our obese population. Hawke’s Bay Health chairman Kevin Atkinson says it is going to present the health system with “a crisis”.

The NZ Alzheimers Society says Baby Boomers are starting to suffer from this form of dementia in their 40s and 50s. No one knows why, although it’s a phenomenon not confined to New Zealand. In the US, 10 million Baby Boomers (one in every eight) are predicted to have Alzheimers by 2050.

Apparently, many Boomers will also suffer from osteoarthritis as a result of their too-heavy bodies being overstressed by activities such as jogging and high-impact aerobics. Their children will get it in their hands from excessive texting and computer-related carpal tunnel conditions.

Then there is migration. An estimated 250,000 Kiwi Boomers live overseas. If even half of them decided to come home to retire, the taxes of a diminishing number of working-age Kiwis would have to pay another 125,000 pensions, and potentially 250,000 more hip replacements and 250,000 more cataract operations.

In the meantime though, Kiwara and her manager Ruth Lockley say Hawke’s Bay is doing relatively well in caring for its elderly. “We’re lucky. Hawke’s Bay Health has listened to the voice of older people.

It’s being heard at board level,” they say.

There is a range of volunteer and professional support organisations providing everything from companionship and hot meals delivered, to lessons in using new technology, advocacy services, or social and physical exercise programmes.

It can be hard out there in the community for vulnerable elderly, says Kiwara, who hears of about ten cases of

2011

2021

2031

2041

2051

0%

Percentage/Number of New Zealand’s population 65 years and over

Feature Baby Boomers, through sheer weight of numbers, have always been a problem.

Jack Fairless “Everything’s changed. It’s different altogether,” says Jack Fairless, 85, stirring a pot of stewing apples.

Bee in the know ~

nov/dec 2011

28

He’s got a comfortable Masonic flat in a quiet cul de sac in Hastings. The lounge is filled with books and photographs of ships and family. A large, comfortable armchair raised off the floor on some blocks of wood faces a modest television set. There’s nothing flash or valuable here, but it’s home base for Jack, a widower, who spent many years at sea as a ship’s engineer, still loves the sea, and still loves to travel.

“It’s wonderful for education, meeting people and participating,” he says. “I’ve met some lovely people in my time.”

He took a cruise to Noumea a few months ago, and in October hopped on a bus to Taupo to spend a day with his American granddaughter who was on a flying visit to New Zealand.

Jack has a car but doesn’t use it. It’s not to save money. He prefers to use the bike.

“It keeps me fit.” He’s had five bikes stolen, one of them so rusty he never thought anyone would look twice at it. An avid reader, Jack sometimes bikes to the nearest bus stop then uses his Gold Card to catch a bus over to Napier, where he spends hours browsing through the library.

“Old age is here before you know it,” he says, but life’s okay. “There’s nothing you can do about it.” Each morning “you get up and go. You don’t sit looking out the window. I’m not regimented”.

He’s got a 91-year-old mate. They go to midday meals at the RSA three times a week, and the Heretaunga Club every second Monday.

When he looks around him these days, he doesn’t envy people bringing up children.

“The whole show has been upgraded these days. Computers, cellphones, and if you have children in sport they need large quantities of cash for everything that goes with it. It’s a whole different world.”

Jack is the father of two sons with PhDs in engineering. One lives in Boston, the other up north. He misses them. “You always miss your family. We were always close. My wife was the same. She was a wonderful hostess.”

Occasionally he makes a toll call to his sons, but Jack prefers to exchange letters.

With talking, you’ve forgotten all about it in five minutes. It’s not a means of communication for me.” It might be different if he had family around to teach him how to use modern technology, he says.

But that’s not how it is.

» was well-ordered. Crime was rare.

Household doors and windows could be left wide open day and night during summer. Few families had cars, so most people walked or cycled everywhere.

Families were close-knit. Discipline was strong, money tight. Toll calls were made only when someone had died; handwritten letters kept families in touch. Clothes were home-made, often from recycled fabric including flour bags. Food came from large backyard vege gardens, chooks and fruit trees.

There was no television; children played outside in backyards or roamed the local countryside.

It was a simple world, light years away from the modern, electronically-driven, rush-rush society they now live on the edges of, but, says Kiwara, it gave them a huge advantage. Facing the vicissitudes of old age, they have resilience; and living on a tight budget, they have financial discipline that has not been required of their children and grandchildren.

“It will be hard for the next generation, who have two incomes but live from weekto-week,” says Kiwara. Many haven’t got savings in the bank, or a mortgage-free home. “So they can end up two people living in private rental accommodation.

That costs $260 a week, then a spouse dies. How do you maintain that?”

The fact is, Baby Boomers, through sheer weight of numbers, have always been a problem.

They filled post-war infant classrooms to overflowing, 45 to a teacher, while education officials scrambled to build new schools. They have challenged the established order and re-written the rules all the way.

They lived the golden years, when Britain bought every pound of butter, mutton and wool we could produce. They had genuinely-free education, plenty of good food, and free access to modern medicine that took the terror out of illness. Their expectations are high, but they’re in for a shock. The Peter Pan generation is about to get old.

According to a recent study by Auckland’s AUT University and the housing charity Abbeyfield, people aged 50 or older do not feel or see themselves as old. Most feel 20 years younger, and believe others see them as younger than they are. At the same time, though, nearly half had experienced age-discrimination, and many were concerned about the prospect of loneliness, lack of retirement income, health problems and costs,

“It will be hard for the next generation, who have two incomes but live from week-to-week.” tania kiwara hastings age concern

boredom, the cost of living, and feeling that they were ignored or not taken seriously by younger people.

Boomers with dinner-table stories of the Great Depression still ringing in their ears have in fact bought their own homes and saved for retirement. The problem is, many lost a lot, and some lost everything, when sharemarkets, finance companies and businesses collapsed in 2008.

Greta Wham, co-ordinator for the Hastings Budget Advisory Service, is helping such people prepare for old age with nothing more than National Superannuation to live on.

Some owe large amounts of money into the bargain, says Wham. Another group have worked hard but never earned enough to be able to buy a house or save for old age.

“A lot of Baby Boomers have made provision. They will find it easier. But you have to have the money while you’re working, to make provision. Some can’t.

There is Kiwisaver, but we are seeing a large number of people wanting to withdraw their savings because they can’t manage. They don’t have the option of hanging in there for longer-term gain.

They need that money to solve some immediate problems.”

Wham says it will be “interesting” in about 30 years to see whether the Boomers’ children have changed their attitude to money as they, in turn, approach retirement.

At the moment, “their expectation is

Continued on Page 30

»

Marie Dunningham “We used to be biffed out of the house straight after breakfast, and they didn’t worry about us unless we didn’t show up for meals during the day.”

Marie Dunningham and her sister had a lot of freedom as pre-schoolers, but by the age of seven were expected to shoulder a full quota of household chores.

“Children were given a lot of responsibility in those days,” she says, although girls never got pocket money, or bikes, or the opportunity to go out with their friends.

“There were big limitations on girls, and of course you didn’t go to university. My mother never wore trousers until after the Murchison Earthquake. My father wouldn’t let her.”

Dunningham resented the hypocrisy of guest speakers at her high school. “Men would always come and say wonderful things about women, but everything about our education told us we were rubbish. The whole school was really down on girls. Even as a child I thought it was rubbish.”

Dunningham, 73, is editor of the Hastings Grey Power magazine, a vocal advocate for elderly people, and a skilled, forthright and entertaining submitter at Hastings District Council hearings.

After leaving school she trained as a nurse and worked for Plunket, visiting 24 babes and mothers every day. It was a job that gave her insights into the daily lives of a wide cross-section of society and the lives women led, and it encouraged her sense of social justice.

She remembers the humiliation of being told one day by a shop manager that as a

married woman, she was not permitted to buy a coffee table on hire purchase.

He was wrong. The law that enforced such discrimination had been repealed, but Dunningham still had to stamp her foot to make him back down.

“I’ve fought all my life for a better deal for women, and from there, for the elderly,” she says. “I like to think I have been at the forefront of changing things for women, and getting them out of the home, getting equal rights.”

Dunningham and husband Roy still live in the Havelock North house in which they raised their children.

They’ve always lived carefully. While their friends were buying new cars and going on overseas holidays, the Dunninghams were paying a few more dollars off their mortgage. Now well into retirement, they are comfortable.

“We’re not rich, but we don’t owe anybody anything, that’s the main thing.

The furniture’s old but I don’t want new stuff. I don’t care anymore,” she says. “If we want a bottle of wine we can have one.”

The pair both enjoy good health, for which she is even more thankful.

Dunningham has friends in dire financial situations. “I know a lot of people over 65 who haven’t got a freehold home. Some got divorced during their 50s and now they’re living in poorer houses and still paying them off. Others who depend on extra income from savings have seen their interest yields slip from $4000 a year to $1000. They’re dipping into their funeral funds.

It worries her. A lot.

Bee in the know ~ nov/dec 2011

that they can have whatever they want by borrowing money”, she says. “Older people are far better at living on low incomes. They have grown up having to make do. That’s not an attitude with younger people.”

The Boomers began turning 65 and handing in their retirement notices in January this year, while we were all preoccupied with the Royal Wedding and impending World Cup. But Kevin Atkinson, chairman of Hawke’s Bay Health, is ready and waiting for them.

The board is well down the path of reorganising the way it offers healthcare to elderly people, he says. A disjointed array of general and specialist services is to be replaced by fully co-ordinated clusters of care services, linked with a geriatrician, effectively acting as one-stop health shops.

Atkinson expects this new mode of service to be in trial “before the end of this financial year”.

It is vital that more emphasis goes on preventing acute illness and keeping people out of hospital and rest homes as much as possible, he says. The board is already spending $40 million a year on subsidised care in rest homes, compared with $44 million on pharmaceuticals and $90 million (21% of its budget) on primary care for the whole regional population.

The most intensive users of hospital beds and services in Hawke’s Bay are the 2,860 people aged 85-plus. In 15 years, there is likely to be about 4,780 of them -- a 60% increase.

29

Feature The preference of all ages is to live at home as long as possible, so we need to be constantly looking at ways to assist that.

Ted Duffill Life is good, says Ted Duffill.

Vice-president of Grey Power Hastings and Districts, Ted has given many years to leadership roles within the organisation, and at 80, is still writing to Ministers of the Crown seeking redress for some, assistance for others, and policy changes on a broader scale.

Bee in the know ~ nov/dec 2011

30

Ted shares a lovely home with wife Ngaire on a small lifestyle block on the outskirts of Hastings. His days are absorbed in keeping the grounds immaculate or tending to his few sheep and chooks, or the flower and vege gardens and orchard, raising plants in the glasshouse, or restoring his beloved old cars. His latest project is a Jaguar.

“There’s not enough time in the day,” he beams.

Ted and his brother were raised in Wellington by his father, a silversmith, but Ted says there was no silver spoon in his mouth. The business supported the three comfortably, but the thing he values most is that his father always had time for him. He used to cook for the boys, and take them fishing or for long walks.

Out in the world later on, Ted found adventure and hardship.

After several years in the Navy as a young lad, he left and found himself at a bit of a loose end and nowhere to live. A few nights sleeping rough at the Ellerslie racecourse with newspaper stuffed down his shirt and trousers to keep out the cold was motivation enough. He wangled a job in a bakery and during the night shift used to shove bread out one of the windows to a friend who was hungry.

Eventually Ted had enough money saved to catch a train to Wellington and the ferry to Picton, then on to Christchurch, where a kindly landlady took him under her wing and got him “sorted out”.

After a spell trapping rabbits for a living, Ted joined the Department of Railways and worked his way up.

He built his first home at 27. “The biggest mistake I made was not building it at 20,” he says. “A lot of the chaps I worked with had a government house as part of the job. I used to tell them to buy their own houses, but they said they had insurance policies to take care of that, but of course inflation killed those.”

He paid into a pension scheme, which he says has made all the difference to his quality of life in retirement. He’s always lived carefully and with a golden rule: “If you can’t afford it, don’t buy it.”

Having said that, “people who haven’t used their incomes well should not be punished in old age”.

Ted Duffill

» The financial consequences of that for

the health sector could be eye-watering, but Atkinson is not panicking. There are two reasons, he says.

Firstly, today’s 65-plus seniors are far healthier than their forebears. They go to the doctor at an earlier stage of illness, rather than waiting until it becomes serious and they need hospital care. The predictions made in 2000, of a crisis in the health sector by 2011, simply haven’t happened. “It’s difficult to extrapolate the health needs of past generations with those in the future,” says Atkinson.

In health terms, 85 is going to become the new 65, and 100 is going to become the new 85, he says. We will have a much healthier elderly population. Even now, only 20% of those 85 and over in Hawke’s Bay are living in rest homes.

“The preference of all ages is to live at home as long as possible, so we need to be constantly looking at ways to assist that.”

We also have time on our side. Of the 34 countries in the OECD, 14 have higher percentages of their populations aged 65-plus than New Zealand does. They will face the challenge of a rapidly-ageing population before we do, so we will be able to watch and see how they handle it.

In the meantime, “Diabetes will be a crisis. Obesity is impacting on people in their 20s”, says Atkinson.

As people are given more ability to manage their own healthcare, he’d also like to see more discussion around ‘advanced directives’ or ‘living wills’.

These can include instructions that an elderly person does not wish to be

resuscitated or treated after a serious medical emergency.

“The cost of keeping a seriously ill person alive is astronomical,” he says, and “when you can’t reverse the acuity” (which means the patient is not going to recover), it needs to be an option. “As communities, we have to think about that sort of thing. We need to talk about it more and be more mature about it.”

Atkinson says society must also re-think retirement at 65. With better health and a shortage of people in the workforce and paying taxes, there’s no reason we shouldn’t be providing “a greater role for people in their 70s”.

Housing the elderly The Hastings District Council adopted its Positive Ageing Strategy in 2007.

Napier is in consultation phase.

The Hastings strategy contains a long list of items that affect the elderly, and which the council should take into account in the course of its work.

This includes maintaining a network of footpaths suitable for older pedestrians, wheelchairs and mobility scooters.

One of the most important sentences pertains to enabling superannuitants to remain in their own homes: “Commit to maintaining rates as low as possible,” it says.

Rates are based on a property’s land value, and bear no relation to the owner’s ability to pay, or their use of council services. The more desirable an area, the more expensive its properties – and the higher its rates.

What you can expect The current NZ Super rates after tax at rate ‘M’ (as at 1 April 2011): Qualifying As

Weekly Rate

Annual Rate

Single

(living alone)

$339.92

$17,676

Single

(sharing)

$313.78

$16,317

Married, civil union or de facto couple

$522.96

$27,194 $13,597 ea

(both partners qualify)

Married, civil union or de facto couple

$497.02

tania kiwara

$25,845 $12,923 ea

(one partner qualifies)*

Married, civil union or de facto person

“The Gold Card that allows them free bus rides during off-peak periods is “good if the bus comes down your street” and you’re mobile enough to climb up and down the bus steps.”

$261.48

$13,597

(partner not included)

This table and more information can be found on www.sorted.org.nz

nov/dec 2011

Currently, there is conflict over the practice of some rest homes charging residents – even those whose fees are being paid by the taxpayer because they have no money -- up to $140 a month to use their en suite toilets.

Hastings Grey Power vice-president Ted Duffill says this is creating a two-tier system in which only the wealthy can get access to a toilet at the moment they need one.

The chief executive of the NZ Aged Care Association, Martin Taylor, is reported as saying that only 25% of rest home beds for fully-subsidised residents are currently tagged to such additional charges, but most new retirement complexes are being built with “premium-only” rooms because that

is “the only way to get a return that is in tune with the risk”.

An investigation by Grey Power, the Greens and Labour produced A Report Into Aged Care: What does the future hold for older New Zealanders? It paints a picture of an unregulated, short-staffed industry driven more by profit than best care for the elderly, and “fast reaching crisis point”. “Many New Zealanders are receiving substandard care,” it asserts.

In complete contrast, it’s not hard to find people living happy and secure lives within retirement and rest home communities, and families with nothing but praise for the care being provided.

Whatever the reality in any particular rest home, it is clear the industry overall has some bad apples and an image problem.

It is equally clear that in its current state it will not appeal very much to the grey-haired tsunami as a final destination in life.

Perhaps today’s 65s will seek an alternative: “Male, 85, keen cyclist, seeks flatmate. Share cooking. Free wi-fi.

No loud music.”

Bee in the know ~

Rates go up every year throughout Hawke’s Bay, often by more than the rate of inflation in the national economy. The rates on a typical Hastings or Havelock North home are $1,700-$3,000. Napier’s average residential rate is $1,550; Wairoa’s are more than $2,000 a year on land values a tiny fraction of those in Napier-Hastings. It’s getting harder and harder for pensioners to pay that from incomes of $17,000 a year.

Lockley says affordable and suitable housing for the elderly is already a headache, and it seems set to get worse. Many people loathe the idea of retirement villages and rest homes, but Lockley says there are plenty of lonely elderly stuck out in the community who would love to move into one, but can’t afford to. They haven’t got homes to sell to finance the move.

It won’t be until they are too frail to live unassisted that the taxpayer will step in and pay care fees for them.

Hastings is fortunate in having clusters of privately-owned flats for the elderly close to the inner city, she says. Hastings District Council also owns 220 flats available for rent by low-income elderly, and Napier City Council has 303.

But Kiwara says a lot more planning has to be done around housing the elderly in both cities. “Older people are still a minority focus. If that attitude doesn’t change we are in real trouble, and that’s not unique to Hawke’s Bay.” Residential care for our frail elderly has become big business. Once provided by churches and charities, it’s now the domain of corporate investors who expect a return on their money. It’s an industry notable for poor pay, staff shortages, high turnover of staff, and some shocking court cases resulting from fatal mistreatment of vulnerable old people.

31

RD

ELFO by ~ TOM B

“You have a voice … we invite you to use it … here are more ways you can tell us what to do.”

Bee in the know ~

nov/ dec 2011

32

That’s the message the Hastings District Council is attempting to communicate with its new online initiatives aimed at engaging the public around district issues. In the closing days of October, HDC launched a new website and complementary Facebook page, both seeking greater public participation in the Council’s planning and decision-making.

In turn, these new digital tools are part of a broader initiative – called My Voice, My Choice – designed to make communicating with the Council more citizen-friendly. The Council’s communications and marketing manager Paul Evans says, “The whole point is to give people the opportunity to have their say in the way that’s most convenient to them … Whether you’re a texter, a typer or a talker, we want to make it easier to make your views known.”

It might be as easy as giving a ‘thumbs up’ or ‘thumbs down’ to a set of options on the Facebook page, spurring your friends to do likewise. Evans hopes the Facebook page will have 2,000 friends within twelve months.

The new website at: www.myvoicemychoice.co.nz is purpose-built to be inviting and easy-touse. It’s cleanly designed, offering ongoing feedback on various topics, a running update on all comments, and a regular polling capability. Its sole purpose is to stimulate and capture citizen response on the ‘hot topics’ currently in the Council’s planning and decision-making pipeline.

As such, it is separate from the Council’s main information website, which currently attracts about 12,000 unique visitors per month, and its new marketing site aimed at attracting visitors to the Hastings District.

Evans points out that this investment in digital engagement has not required new funding. The work has been done mostly in-house, mainly by HDC’s resident webmaster Chris Webb, with an external cost in the $2,000 range.

My Voice, My Choice certainly jumps the Hastings Council to ‘Best in Class’ amongst area councils with respect to use of digital media. Hopefully their effort will set off some kind of digital arms race for citizen engagement.

Evans says that My Voice, My Choice will look for additional innovative ways to reach out to the public, as opposed to giving citizens only the traditional choices – interrupt your dinner and drive yourself to an inconvenient 5:30 pm public forum (where you might be disinclined to

speak up anyway), or write a laborious formal submission as part of some official consultation. Neither of these options is attractive to many ratepayers.

Evans talks, for example, of having Council interviewers taking citizen surveys ‘on the spot’ using iPads. And of going ‘on location’ to video-record residents around the district on particular issues, producing videos that can then be viewed on the website or Facebook page, perhaps alongside a video brief on the issue, to stimulate further reaction … perhaps even citizen-response videos.

But will they drink?!

The new My Voice, My Choice initiative will get its first ‘pilot test’ in connection with the Council’s early outreach for next year’s Long Term Plan. Council staff have produced a series of fifteen theme booklets – now available online or in hard copy – that “address the key areas the Council feels need strong consideration” when the Long Term Plan is officially prepared next April-May. Digital tools aside, this ‘preview consultation’ approach represents a bit of a breakthrough regarding Council’s LTP adoption. Many in the community have felt that the ‘die is already cast’ by the time citizens are asked to formally submit.

As HDC staff concede, internal work is already today well-advanced in framing the

Feature We put up lots of barriers and this is about pulling those barriers away.

You can find My Voice, My Choice here: www.myvoicemychoice.co.nz www.facebook.com/VoiceChoice

there’s some water there.”

He’s optimistic. “We put up lots of barriers and this is about pulling those barriers away.” Evans thinks the Council will tap the clearly growing trend for people to engage online for all sorts of purposes, and claims many in the community have told the Council they do have views that they’d like to communicate, but just don’t find existing options convenient or comfortable.

It’s up to you, reader, to prove him right or wrong.

nov/ dec 2011

coastal futures, and more. All are available at: www.myvoicemychoice.co.nz along with supporting documentation for those who wish to dig deeper.

My Voice, My Choice deserves high marks for inviting Hastings citizens into serious issue dialogue at a timely stage.

Other councils in the region should be doing the same, but they’re not.

So the Council is doing its bit to ‘bring the people to the water’. But will they drink?! Paul Evans says: “We can’t make them drink, but we want them to know

Bee in the know ~

issues and formulating the plans that will first appear ‘officially’ for public reaction in April in a ‘draft’ Long Term Plan.

A lot of momentum builds up behind that ‘draft’ plan by the time the public traditionally gets its first whiff. ‘Draft’ is more like ‘printer’s proof’.

HDC’s new preview consultation is informal, with the theme booklets offering easy-to-digest background and choices in areas like land use, water futures, urban centres, housing options, community safety, job growth and skill development,

33

Build your future!

0800 22 55 348 www.eit.ac.nz

Mercedes Mesmerised by

Petrol head Brian Whittington in his shed

Keith Newman talks to Mercedes maven Brian Whittington as the last of a classic car collection goes north.

Mercedes-Benz is 125 years old

Feature You wouldn’t believe what’s in the Bay.

Brian Whittington readily admits he’s a petrol head with a penchant for powerful, luxury vehicles from American muscle cars to his passion for classic Mercedes — last count, around 60.

His great appreciation for the MercedesBenz – the 125 year-old pioneer of the horseless carriage – has seen him acquire “36 good ones” over the past forty years.

Whittington, who’s just turned 70, was the eighth Hawke’s Bay classic car owner to adopt the Petrolheads name for a monthly run. “Our wives were going out for coffee so we thought why don’t we go off and have lunch somewhere.”

Today there are 112 enthusiasts; gatherings attract an eclectic assortment of Ferraris, Aston Martins, Audi R8s, Mustangs, MGs and even a 1929 Bentley race car. “You wouldn’t believe what’s in the Bay,” says Whittington.

He prefers to give his various Mercedes sport models, perhaps the 1960s in-line six cylinder fuel injected 230 SL with pagoda roof, an outing on Petrolhead Fridays.

However, options were getting thinner when BayBuzz dropped by. Only a dozen or so vehicles in various states of restoration and repair remained in his massive Puketapu shed and workshop.

Cars have character He has driven all the cars at various times, putting the registrations on hold until needed. “I took them out on rotate,

After all these years On saving up his hard-earned cash driving pea harvesters and tractors for the Bird’s Eye cannery in Hastings, Whittington headed out on his great OE with fellow traveller Brian McAra from Havelock North, at the age of twenty years.

After touring around Britain and Europe he took a job demonstrating trucks and tractors at the newly acquired Unimog division of Mercedes-Benz in Single Fin, southern Germany.

While at the Mercedes factory he heard of plans to produce the first white 220S Mercedes saloon in a colour previously reserved for the sports models.

Whittington was determined to have one, knowing he’d have to own it for two years before it could be taken home.

He placed his order, specifying blue upholstery, and was told full payment was

He’s in the middle of restoring it to factory specifications. Despite having done 658,000 miles – around a million kilometres – it still runs like a dream.

required before delivery. In 1964, after ten months of saving up “the equivalent of five new Mark III Zephyrs”, the production manager called him into the factory — they’d put aside the first model off the production line.

He couldn’t wait to get it out on the autobahn and was pleasantly surprised how quickly it reached 100mph — just to confirm its stability on the road he took his hands off the wheel. “I thought wow, that’s really something.”

Swapped on the lot Whittington began selling MercedesBenz cars and was offered a position in North America. However, he opted to return home to look after his parents’ Pakowhai property when his father took ill in 1965.

A Tauranga car dealer offered to swap the 220S saloon Whittington had driven around Europe for a brand new Mercedes off the lot. “I thought it was a good deal, but I know he sold it for about 40% more than the new price.”

Whittington went back to the big American Fords, Dodges and Chryslers his father and uncles had driven until the early 1970s … until his friend Kelvin Frickelton at Cable Price Motors in Wellington challenged his allegiance.

He sent up a maroon Mercedes 280 SE 3.5 four door V8. This wasn’t just any car — it had history. The Russian embassy vehicle had been tailed around Wellington in 1974 by SIS agents convinced former government official and author Dr Bill Sutch, was selling state secrets to a KGB agent.

“It was driving that V8 that made me realise it was time to move back into the Mercedes; the quality and the road handling was just superb.”

Whittington also ended up with the embassy’s sister vehicle, an identical dark blue model, plus a multitude of other

Bee in the know ~ nov/dec 2011

Bay’s lost opportunity Most of his meticulously maintained classic Mercedes have been loaded on to car transporters headed for fellow connoisseur Kevin Rush’s Manukau City Mercedes museum.

Whittington and fellow car enthusiasts had hoped to establish a local museum to display their vehicles as a tourist attraction, possibly to raise money for charity.

However, he was put off the idea when others who had attempted similar ventures warned he would be worn down by bureaucracy and years of negotiation with councils. “It could have been another draw card for Napier or Hastings. That’s the sort of thing people love to visit.”

When Mercedes parts specialist Kevin Rush came to Hawke’s Bay for Art Deco week last year he took one look at Whittington’s collection and offered to sell the cars on his international websites.

“I knew I needed to do something with them so I reluctantly agreed and was very happy when he decided to buy them himself so they could stay together.”

drove them around for a bit, then put them back into storage. Many were oneowner cars before I got them.”

Even if they’d not been used for a decade, he’d often find that with a new battery they’d start first-off. “They’ve all got character. I know how they drive.

You can get two the same but they’re all different.”

A few fine specimens were still parked in the yard, including the magnificent CL 600 V12 twin turbo 2003 Mercedes built to order for Graeme Hart, one of Australasia’s richest men.

It cost $350,000 new and features bulletproof double glazing, heated and ventilated seats with massage pulse control, Parktronic voice command, adjustable suspension, 18 inch mags and reaches 100km in 4.6 seconds.

“It’s a head of state car, sheer luxury.

You don’t just buy these, they have to be built to order and it took twelve months from the time he put the money down to delivery,” says Whittington.

He has a sportier model, the latest S500 V8 with all “the bells and whistles” which he’ll also keep, until its time for an update.

Every car has a story to tell, and while the white 1964 Mercedes 220S in the yard might not look like a show stopper, it’s a keeper. Whittington has owned it twice; once straight off the German production line and again in 1995 when nostalgia got the better of him.

He’s in the middle of restoring it to factory specifications. Despite having done 658,000 miles – around a million kilometres – it still runs like a dream.

35

Feature I agreed to take a few, but he just kept finding them.

classic Mercedes through his relationship with Frickelton.

“Kelvin saw I had a big shed and while he would have liked to keep the cars himself he had no room. I agreed to take a few, but he just kept finding them.”

Collectors conspire If wife Carolyn answered the phone she would simply say “No Kelvin, he doesn’t need another car”. However the two enthusiasts conspired to have the vehicles delivered on the quiet.

Another acquisition was the 1953 Mercedes-Benz 300 Adenauer, a handbuilt touring car, imported new and owned by Christchurch businessman John Owens for 43 years.

The ‘3 litre overhead cam, aluminium head, straight six with twin downdraft carbs and 4 speed manual synchromesh gears’ is described as ‘elegant, powerful, exclusive, and expensive’ with extras including a VHF mobile telephone and dictation machine.

Soon Mercedes were jammed nose to tail in Whittington’s expansive shed, some up on hoists and others parked in the yard. In another shed a couple of kilometres away are a further twenty or so more mainstream Mercedes.

Some have been rescued after being parked up for years, while others were purchased for restoration or parts.

His motto is take them back to factory standard, including upholstery, carpets and even the colour coding and brand of paint.

His first restoration was a 1958 DaimlerBenz Ponton, the first new post war passenger model, and his current project

Bee in the know ~ nov/dec 2011

36

Whittington’s motto is take them back to factory standard

is a rare 1955 Mercedes 180 diesel.

Asked why he has a Rolls Royce Silver Spirit in his collection, he says it makes him realise how much better the Mercedes is. “They’re not really the car many people think they are; it might be Rolls Royce under the bonnet but the transmission and diff are Cadillac and the suspension is Citroen.”

End of an era Whittington returned to the German Mercedes factory where he worked in the 60s for the 1986 centenary, and as an early employee from the Unimog years he was asked to sign a document marking the anniversary of that company.

His love affair with powerful luxury vehicles was further celebrated when he and wife Carolyn joined five other Kiwis and six Aussies for a 5,000km drive across America’s meandering Route 66. A

Mercedes seemed inappropriate, so they drove the latest Mustang.

During that trip Whittington learned his friend Kelvin Frickelton, who had supplied him with all but ten of his best Mercedes, had passed away. From that point he began reflecting on the future of his prized collection.

Despite the lost opportunity for Hawke’s Bay there’s some consolation in knowing his best cars will have pride of place at the new Mercedes museum in Manukau.

He’s saddened, however, that there’s no place to display the amazing examples of automotive history that collectors have amassed around Hawke’s Bay. When BayBuzz left, Brian Whittington was looking forward to the next cruise with the Petrolheads, with stopovers planned at another Hawke’s Bay’s classic vehicle restorer, then lunch at some out of the way pub.

It’s easy when we’re local.

No-one can assist you better than your local Business Development Manager Robin Wilson.

Have a chat to Robin today on 06 830 0427 or email Robin.Wilson2@anz.com

anz.co.nz ANZ National Bank Limited.

11779

Count your BayBuzz Christmas blessings Subscribe to BayBuzz and receive a heap of special gifts!

Order your one-year subscription and receive gift vouchers from eight premium merchants.

That’s right! You can stock up at The Hawke’s Bay Opera House, Pipi, Clearview Estate, Poppies, Globe Theatrette, Chantal Foods, Taste Cornucopia and Gourmet Direct AND get six issues of BayBuzz delivered to your door…

A total value of more than $125.00 for only $50!

And don’t forget: ‘Tis the season for giving…

You can also give someone special a BayBuzz gift subscription. They’ll receive six issues of the magazine, plus eight gift vouchers, all for the special gift subscription price of $40.00 GST inclusive.

So be good for goodness sake: SUBSCRIBE NOW! And if you’re already a BayBuzz subscriber, don’t worry, Santa will be sending your vouchers along.

SUBSCRIBE NOW AND GET YOUR GOODIES! Purchase your BayBuzz subscription and Santa will send your gift vouchers – worth more than $75 – from: The Hawke’s Bay Opera House, Pipi, Clearview Estate, Poppies, Globe Theatrette, Chantal Foods, Taste Cornucopia and Gourmet Direct.

Subscription Details Dear Santa: I would like a one-year subscription to BayBuzz, plus my eight gift vouchers, all for the price of $50, GST inclusive. Please post my personal subscription and my vouchers to: Name: Address:

Option 1 – Pay by cheque Make cheque payable to BayBuzz. Post to: BayBuzz, PO Box 8322, Havelock North

Option 2 – Complete your transaction online on the BayBuzz website Go to www.baybuzz.co.nz/subscribe and follow the instructions there. You will be able to make an electronic bank transfer or pay by credit card.

I would like to make a gift subscription, including vouchers, for $40, GST inclusive. (Don’t worry, if they already subscribe, we’ll let you know.)

Please post gift subscription to: Name: Address:

Grow your own sweetener

Grow some veges

Fresh eggs for protein

Chickens are the New Black

Save that water

by ~ janet luke

Composting

Bee in the know ~

nov/ dec 2011

38

Sure it might be easy to live off the land when you have 20 acres at your doorstep, but what can the rest of us do when it’s only a few paces to the back fence? With some clever thinking and some readjustment on how we see our outdoor urban spaces, we urbanites can also live the good life whilst still having a life!

Fresh eggs for protein Free range, fresh eggs are something very easy to produce in town. Keeping chickens in town is the ‘new black’ as more and more families realise how easy, fun and rewarding it can be. Chooks are the best eco pet. Not only do you get fresh eggs but you also get feathered gardeners, compost makers, fresh manure parcels and garbage disposals to boot.

Councils are pro people keeping a few chooks in their backyard as long as some simple regulations are followed. The most obvious being no roosters. A family only require around 3 chooks to keep them in eggs. Three chooks will produce around

Grow veges and herbs

15 eggs a week for a good part of the year.

A small townhouse garden could accommodate some bantams. Being half the size of hens they require less space and will still lay eggs, though not as many.

Even if you have no garden you could keep some quail in a hutch on a balcony.

Quail will produce an egg most days; their eggs can be eaten like chicken eggs, obviously just in larger numbers.

Grow your own sweetener A beehive is a great option for town, as it is the surrounding airspace not the size of your garden that counts. Bees do much better in town than out in the country due to the year round and diverse range of pollen and nectar sources. Place a hive on your garden shed, carport roof or balcony and the bees flight path will not cause any grief with passers-by. Bees are not high maintenance pets – no vet bills, no daily walks, you can still go away on holiday and no real on-going costs once set up. You get beautiful local, raw honey to spread on your toast and use for baking in place

of that horrible white refined stuff … and enough to give to friends and family. Your community’s edibles are pollinated too.

There is a lot to learn about beekeeping and legal regulations you must follow, but it is not difficult and bees are extremely fascinating and rewarding to have.

Grow some veges Whatever sized garden you have, you can grow some vegetables. The only requirement is at least six hours of sun a day. No garden space? Then use any sort of container which has some holes in the bottom for drainage. Polystyrene boxes are perfect for an array of lettuce, herbs or fast growing veges. The secret is grow only what you like to eat and make regular small plantings so you get a small steady supply, not a glut all at once. There are many space saver varieties such as mini cabbages and cauliflowers, dwarf broad beans and cherry tomatoes. Grow sprouting broccoli as this variety will produce side sprouts when the main head is harvested. Use a small space effectively

Feature We urbanites can also live the good life.

by companion planting. Do what the American Indians have been doing for centuries and grow the ‘three sisters’.

Plant corn and then plant runner beans at the base of each corn. The beans will use the corn stalks as support as they grow up.

Plant mini pumpkin or cucumber and let it grow as living mulch around the corn and beans. Three crops in one space and each benefiting the other … perfect.

Grow mesclun for your own organic salad. Cut the leaves with scissors and it will regrow several times.

Composting No room or time for a large compost heap? Dig a shallow trench in your garden next to your plants and bury your kitchen waste as it is produced. Avoid meats and dairy though or else you will have rats playing tag! Make a compost tumbler out of a recycled plastic barrel. Daily mixing of the organic matter produces compost in just weeks and the barrel doesn’t take up too much room.

Only have a small balcony or patio? Buy or make a worm farm. These little critters will devour all your kitchen scraps, office paper, pet hair and vacuum cleaner dust!

They will reward you with fertile worm wees which will make your plants smile with delight. A well-functioning worm farm will have no odour and can be kept in the garage or laundry. Keep a bokashi bucket under your sink and compost this way.

Grow some fruit trees Hawke’s Bay is one of the best places for growing fruit. Grow dwarf nectarine, apple or peach trees in large pots.

Espalier fruit trees along boundary fences or to disguise ugly bare walls.

Grow cocktail kiwifruit, grapes, thornless blackberries or raspberries on a pergola, fence or even a balcony railing. Next time you are considering building a fence, plant an edible hedge instead. Feijoas, dwarf apples, dwarf almonds or apricots, citrus or hazelnuts are all options.

And last, but not least …

difference to our environment, our family’s health and our budget … and it can be really fun and rewarding too!

For more simple ideas on how to live more sustainably in the city read Janet’s new book, Green Urban Living – simple steps to growing food, keeping chickens, worm farming, beekeeping and much more in New Zealand.

New Holland Publishers: www.greenurbanliving.co.nz

Save that water Install a rain barrel on some of your downpipes. Collect rainwater to water your plants or wash the Beamer with a clear conscience!

By making some small, simple, changes we collectively make a huge positive

Bee in the know ~

nov/ dec 2011 39

Earthquake released more than the earth’s strain by ~ MICHAEL FOWLER

Bee in the know ~

nov/dec 2011

40

Leading up to the 3 February 1931 Hawke’s Bay Earthquake, relations between Hastings and Napier were at an all-time low – but were about to get worse.

Attempts to secure a full-service public hospital in Hastings had been frustrated over decades by the Napierdominated Hawke’s Bay Hospital Board, and by politicians in Wellington. In turn, Hastings and rural districts were blocking progress on Napier’s breakwater harbour, preferring development on the inner harbour at Ahuriri.

Napier’s long-term goal to reach a population of 30,000 was also under threat – having insufficient land to expand, and its nearby neighbour, Hastings, was growing fast – which meant resources for the hospital, new industries and government departments could be lost to Hastings.

On the day of the 1931 Hawke’s Bay Earthquake, Napier suffered more than Hastings in terms of deaths (162 in Napier and 93 in Hastings) and damage to buildings. With no on-going water supply in Napier, the town’s CBD burned to the ground, and firemen looked on hopelessly.

Watching Napier burn from Scinde Island (Napier Hill), according to Mr H Latham, was a group of Hastings businessmen. And according to Mr Latham, these men, aware that the Napier Hospital was wrecked, overheard

them say, “Napier is done now. Hastings is made. We will get the hospital in Hastings now.” These comments were forgotten in the heat of the earthquake, but would later be stated publicly.

Several days later, newspapers around New Zealand began reporting that Hastings might try and take advantage of the fact that most of Napier was evacuated, and its infrastructure was in ruins. Attempts were made to site the Napier-based Hawke’s Bay County in Hastings, and build a new base hospital there as well. Napier business owners were encouraged to relocate to Hastings, and an old 1870s plan to build a wharf and town near Haumoana resurfaced.

Mr H. Latham, mentioned previously, was a member of the Napier 30,000 Club, whose aim was to advance and expand Napier.

In November 1931, he wrote a letter, which appeared in the Daily Telegraph stating, “The ordinary humane sympathy one was entitled to expect was absent and in its place was an almost ghoulish elation at the prospect of Hastings benefiting by Napier’s affliction.” Mr Latham recalled the incident of the businessmen on Scinde Island, who stated Napier was doomed, and also that people in Hastings were singing that same chorus. Hastings mayor George Roach took offence to this letter, and replied that his accusations were “...

wicked untruths and libels upon the Hastings people, who have surely suffered enough by the earthquake disaster without Mr Latham, or any other irresponsible taking it upon themselves to besmirch their good name.”

Mr Latham was not finished however, and replied to Mayor Roach stating “Napier has suffered infinitely more without the tentacles of an octopus being thrust into our midst endeavouring to suck away our remaining vitals.”

An ex-Hastings resident, now living in Napier, wrote defending Mr Latham, saying that while he was in Hastings for a few months in 1931, he attended a public meeting, where he reported the majority of speakers said “To h— with Napier, what does it matter; now is our chance— let us take it!”

No further correspondence was received from Mayor Roach.

Some may have been surprised that civil war did not break out between Hastings and Napier; the feelings were so bad between them, and this was not unnoticed around New Zealand.

There was always some issue occurring between Hastings and Napier since the 1880s. The post-quake events brought a new low, with some other towns in New Zealand watching on to see if Hastings could gain the upper hand, and claim the status as capital city of Hawke’s Bay.

Feature Napier is done now. Hastings is made.

The relationship between both towns was, not surprisingly, badly damaged for many years afterwards. Hastings felt it had been unfairly treated by Napier for many years before the 1931 earthquake over the hospital, and Napier felt betrayed by the post-earthquake actions of its neighbour only eighteen kilometres away.

Unfortunately the memories of these events remained in the consciousness of a generation, and suspicion and distrust of each town carried on into the decades following. © MICHAEL FOWLER 2011

Michael Fowler’s book: From Disaster to Recovery: The Hastings CBD 1931-35 Hard copies can be purchased at: www.michaelfowler.co.nz Or as an eBook from: www.amazon.com/kindle

Not stimulated enough?

Go to www.baybuzz.co.nz/brainfood and try these articles and speeches.

Guaranteed to stir your juices!

Dame Anne Salmond, professor of Mãori Studies & Anthropology ~ We could do with a change of heart Pure Advantage ~ Proposal for a National Green Growth Strategy Dr Russell Wills, Children’s Commissioner ~ The Green Paper for Vulnerable Children Steve Jobs, Apple co-founder ~ Lessons about life – Stanford University address (video)

41

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UHT processing plant adds value by ~ KEITH NEWMAN

Bee in the know ~

nov/dec 2011

42

Hundreds of thousands of 250ml teat capped plastic bottles filled with Whakatu spring water are being shipped out from Napier Port to allay the fears of Japanese mothers concerned about radioactivity in their own water.

The lucrative contract to supply quality spring water with nutritional additives will soon be followed by fruit juices, then UHT treated infant formula and pet milk, mainly bound for lucrative South East Asian markets.

The products originate from the production lines at the gleaming new $66.2 million Etika Dairy processing plant at the Whakatu industrial park.

The factory, designed to add value to Hawke’s Bay dairying and horticultural industries, is the brainchild of food and beverage entrepreneur Neil McGarva, in partnership with Singapore-based Etika International, and a handful of committed local investors.

After 12 years as a food safety auditor in Auckland, McGarva – a Whakatu old boy – established specialised baker Pandoro Panatteria with his sister Kaye and husband Richard Tollenaar, in 1992.

Do you do pet milk?

Within a decade his next venture, The Natural Pet Treat Company, was exporting quality dog tucker around the world, and the Japanese in particular were asking, did they also offer pet milk?

On inquiring, McGarva found nothing produced locally and few options on the international market. It was clearly a good niche to get into, but not without significant investment to produce quantities that made commercial sense.

As he investigated he found the same UHT bottling and processing equipment

could be used in other niche areas, for example no one was producing lactose free milk. “As a dairying nation you would have thought we would have cottoned on to that, but Fonterra and others were too focussed on their core commodity business.”

He took on a group of investors for the pet milk project, but still other ideas were brewing in his mind. He’d heard about milk for baristas that retains its froth, even after use, but this was only available offshore and in a tetra carton.

The ideas kept coming; flavoured milks, fruit juices, energy drinks, but this would require an even bigger production facility, with higher capacity and more start-up capital.

Vital ingredient found While doing the rounds in 2008, McGarva met with Naturalac Nutrition Ltd (Horleys) managing director Richard Rowntree and asked about producing protein drinks for the sports nutritionist.

Rowntree suggested Singapore-based Etika International, which had acquired his company in 2006, might be interested in a joint venture. A year later the deal was sealed for local subsidiary Etika NZ to take a 60% shareholding, creating Etika Dairies.

Etika International is a major distributor of dairy and beverage products throughout South East Asia.

“Without Etika we wouldn’t be here,” says McGarva.

Early investors, uncomfortable moving beyond the pet milk plan, sold their shares, leaving only husband and wife team Neil Pulford and Claire Vogtherr holding the majority of the Hawke’s

Bay end. They were joined by local businessmen John Thompson and Doug Leyser to complete the 40% local shareholding.

Claire and Neil made their investment six years ago, based as much around the original pet milk plan as their faith in Neil McGarva’s vision and drive.

The element of risk was part of the excitement that kept Claire and Neil on board and despite the changing specifications, they knew his venture had to be good for the Hawke’s Bay economy.

Says Vogtherr: “We knew we were in for a long and interesting journey. Neil is very dynamic in his thinking; he’ll find new technologies and markets and move with that — we were comfortable moving with him.”

Capacity commitment The entrepreneurial couple put up the capital to invest in the plant equipment, while McGarva sought a major cash injection to move the project forward.

“At one stage we thought we’d lost it and the ride had come to an end,” recalls Vogtherr.

That would have meant selling off the assets to get their investment back. But then the deal with Etika came through, and there was a sigh of relief all round.

McGarva is confident that even if no one else took his product Etika would find an outlet. “We already have strong interest from China and Japan who view New Zealand as a safe place to source food which means our product can attract a premium.”

The main output will be contract manufacturing for Etika Group along with bottling pet milk, flavoured milk, soy milk, milk-based energy drinks and

Feature Etika Dairy bottles are re-sealable, re-useable and recyclable.

Claire Vogtherr

liquid meals, fruit juices and standard UHT milk for third party labels.

There’s an imminent announcement of a major partnership with a “leading New Zealand dairy company” which will take half the current capacity for product for the local market. A technology sharing relationship with Fonterra is perhaps a clue to what lies ahead.

Etika Dairies is projecting revenues of $20 million in its first year and planning to ramp up capacity from 6,000 bottles an hour to 30,000 during the second year. This will require a second much larger blow moulder.

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Bottling it up The Etika bottling plant can mould any type of bottle from concept through to finished product within weeks. The lactose free and re-frothable barista milks will be delivered in the old Kiwi retro 1litre milk bottle shape.

Whey protein is used as scaffolding in the barista milk so the foam holds, and unlike fresh milk it can be re-foamed after use. The lactose free variant is naturally sweeter and doesn’t need sugar.

“A cappuccino is 80% milk so this is an alternative to soy milk for the lactose intolerant and they’ll come in shelf stable bottles so you use less fridge space.”

While Hawke’s Bay only produces 150 million litres of milk a year that’s more than sufficient for the needs of Etika Dairy.

The factory will also be an outlet for local growers and pack houses for nonexport grade juicing product, mainly apples and some kiwifruit, although McGarva is open to feijoas, pears or cherries as a frozen ingredient to blend.

Hawke’s Bay fruit growers typically only have a few months when they produce in volume and their quotas for juicing are quite small. “I can process six tonne of fruit an hour,” says McGarva.

nov/dec 2011

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confidence and value.

The bottles used by Etika Dairy have an enhanced gas and UV light barrier to ensure the content remains stable for 12 months without the need for refrigerated distribution and storage.

The UHT process is the same as that used by Tetra Pak for its UHT milks, and while it’s slightly more expensive, the bottles Etika Dairy is using are resealable, re-useable and recyclable.

Bee in the know ~

All boxes ticked That’s why the 1.6 hectare site at Whakatu industrial park was chosen.

“Properties like this are rare so we just had to grab it — it ticked all the boxes,” says McGarva.

As there’s a lot of waste from the processing plant it needed a trade waste capability, 360 degree truck access, high quality water and access to a good port … only 20 minutes away.

To run a boiler to generate steam, it also needed to have access to the gas mains, which is much cleaner than diesel or electricity and about one-third of the cost.

The factory, which began production in October, will be the first in the world producing UHT liquid infant formula in a bottle with a teat cap. The patented teat cap comes through Australian company Poppet International.

The concerns about water in some parts of the world mean powdered milk has to be reconstituted, so marketing infant formula with local water provides

An opening for Bay The deal with Etika International had already been done before Prime Minister John Key signed the ASEAN free trade agreement in 2010, and opens the way for further mutually beneficial business.

“This is so good for Hawke’s Bay,” enthuses Etika Dairy shareholder Claire Vogtherr. “With all the trouble in America and Europe we have to align ourselves and the future of the region and our country with South East Asia.”

She believes the Whakatu plant is just the beginning. “Etika has a lot of subsidiaries and their job is to feed people in Malaysia, Vietnam and across Asia.

We need to be asking what else can this region produce that these people want to eat, even things we haven’t thought of yet.”

Given the right indicators she believes Etika could make much greater investment. “We have the capacity in Hawke’s Bay to replicate what we have done at Whakatu by processing different food products.”

Vogtherr says the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council’s water harvesting plans have been “immensely valuable” to the plans of Watties and McCains, and suggests a capacity study is needed to better gauge what the region can deliver in the way of high value added exports to South East Asia.

On declaring the Etika Dairy processing plant open on 1 September, Prime Minister John Key agreed that if Hawke’s Bay wanted locals to be better paid, it needs to achieve higher returns for its goods rather than being a vulnerable commodity trader just riding above the exchange rate.

43

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Max and Ella Simcox study, play, and communicate on their mobile devices

Educating our digital natives

Bee in the know ~

nov/dec 2011

44

I made two fatal miscalculations in my last article for BayBuzz.

The first was assuming my husband wouldn’t read it, given that he featured in what he would subsequently view as an unflattering light. A born again cyclist, he never reads a magazine that hasn’t got some Tour de France hero in lycra on the front. I had reckoned without his friends (who told him to read it) and the internet (to which he marched in high dudgeon to see what all the fuss was about … and then made a fuss).

My second mistake was randomly selecting algebra as the butt of my “we need to keep school relevant to the world of work” sermon. The very day after I had triumphantly sent off my final version to BayBuzz, I attended a meeting in Wellington regarding some very interesting national work being done on matching current NCEA standards to five vocational pathways. The employer and industry groups who are working on this project all selected algebra as a “compulsory” area of knowledge for any young person wanting to work in their respective professions!

Did I tell my mathematics teacher husband? No. But no doubt he’ll read this anyway … see above.

In an attempt to restore my credibility, I thought I would focus on a different educational challenge this time: how on earth can teachers, schools and tertiary organizations keep up with our kids when it comes to using technology in teaching and learning?

by ~ CLAIRE HAGUE

I saw a great cartoon about this recently.

A doting Dad asks his 3 year old how his first day at kindergarten went. “Stink” says the toddler, “they didn’t even have Wi-Fi!!”

Even if they did have Wi-Fi – would the staff have known what it was, let alone how to use it? Actually, based on some very unscientific and anecdotal information I’ve been receiving about this, if we’re talking early childhood sector, and primary school, the answer is probably yes. Children are utilising technology in mind-boggling ways in their earlier years at school, which is a real credit to them and to their teachers.

Secondary and tertiary organizations are now scrambling to keep up with these children as they come through into their respective domains.

But let’s back-track a little. You might have heard the terms ‘digital native’ and ‘digital immigrant’. Our young people are digital natives. Most of them have grown up with technology, and digital natives in fact see technology as an extension of themselves. They are very comfortable using a variety of devices at once (you’ve probably marveled at your teenager using a cell phone, i-pod, and computer simultaneously). And they prefer to get their information from a range of preferably visual and audio sources – when they want it and not when someone feels like dishing it out to them in a photocopied handout.

Additionally, digital natives apparently thrive on living their lives in the public

eye – witness the uptake of Facebook and Twitter – whereas I would rather rip my hair out than share anything personal with who knows what in cyber-space!

Digital immigrants, on the other hand, are those of us for whom technology is something we have had to adopt and learn to use. And yes at the moment it tends to be the more mature of us who fit this category. Given that the teaching profession is mainly made up of ‘mature’ digital immigrants like me, it is within the education sector that the impact of this digital divide is most readily seen, resulting in the relevance of the traditional role of the teacher being actively challenged.

Once the fount of all knowledge, teachers now compete with technologies that allow students not only to access knowledge when they feel like it, but to contribute to it with other people. And if, like me, you are cynical about the results of co-created knowledge, apparently more errors have been found in the Encyclopaedia Britannica than in a recent study of Wikipedia – contributed to by random people all over the world!

Apple’s envoy to the tertiary sector, Stephen Atherton, voices concerns about limitations placed on the creative use of technology by school policies and procedures. Yet cell-phones and unfettered internet access can cause lots of headaches for schools and tertiary organizations to deal with. As Principal of a secondary school some years ago now, I banned cell-phones, for example, because

Ideas & Opinions It’s blindingly obvious that teachers can’t and don’t know everything.

day and night about their learning and assessments. Web-based applications that allow students to work on a project together are becoming commonplace.

Blogs and on-line forums keep kids connected to their studies even when they’re not at school.

A number of Hawke’s Bay schools have been involved in professional development “clusters” where teachers

nov/dec 2011

from across different schools are trained in the use of educational technologies.

Innovative teachers can showcase their work to other schools. Schools can purchase technology equipment en masse, and work together on protocols for their use. These schools have banded together to form video-conferencing links that allow specialist teachers in, say, Physics, to teach students from a number of different schools, within and out of Hawke’s Bay. And students from different schools

have been able to learn together on-line utilising web-based links amongst the cluster schools.

Even the concept of where learning occurs – at school, or online, or in the community, or in a blend of all three – is up for discussion and debate. Sure, some schools and tertiary organisations are further down the road than others with all this, but those who are focused on engaging today’s young people in education are committed to the journey.

There is so much more to be thought about and debated with regard to this topic.

Questions about equity of access to technology for all children, for example, are good ones and can best be answered by the increasing numbers of low decile schools successfully using technology to re-engage children in the learning process. Even the examination system is being considered for a technological revolution.

As these ideas evolve, one thing is certain.

Technology gives us a wonderful opportunity to reframe education; to develop our young people’s ability to think critically about the knowledge they access, filter it, and apply it to the myriad new challenges arising in the world today. Our schools and tertiary organizations provide a great environment for digital natives and immigrants alike to work on this together, and in doing so make a real contribution to the development of their local and global communities.

Bee in the know ~

I saw their potential for nefarious things such as text bullying.

What I failed to realise then was that banning things because they are problematic and a distraction to learning from the perspective of a digital immigrant such as myself, only enhances the perceived irrelevance of school versus real life for many of our digital natives.

For young people, the exciting stuff going on in their cell-phones and computers must surely render textbooks and sequential learning something to be suffered through, rather than actively engaged with.

So how can educational institutions actively recognise technology as an extension of their young people’s lives, and harness it as part of their teaching and learning processes?

Well, many already do.

Current professional development for teachers is now addressing these very issues. In today’s world it’s blindingly obvious that teachers can’t and don’t know everything. The concept of a teacher as a facilitator of learning, rather than the traditional ‘sage on the stage’ is now widely accepted in education circles.

So there’s a revolution going on in some schools, and a quieter evolution in others.

Student ‘tech angels’ roam the corridors assisting teachers to utilise technology in their classes. Course information is available and continually updated for some students 24 hours a day online.

Students text teachers at all hours of the

45

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Rosalind Elliott & Charmian Jolly Maree Mills

Statements Gallery

Voices of art in Hawke’s Bay by ~ KAY BAZZARD

In Hawke’s Bay there is a remarkably high level of participation in creative activities, reflecting the huge number of artists per capita in this country, more so than in most other countries.

I recently asked several key voices in the Bay’s art community for their perspective on the ‘health’ of art in the region – Rosalind Elliott and Charmian Jolly, joint owners of Statements Gallery, Napier; Maree Mills, director of the Hastings City Art Gallery; and Dr Suzette Major, Head of School at EIT’s School of Arts and Design.

Conversation ranged from the condition of the art market to the vibrancy of the Bay’s broader creative community.

Bee in the know ~

nov/dec 2011

46

The art market Rosalind Elliott is optimistic about the future of the art market in Hawke’s Bay in spite of what she describes as a dismal ‘bear’ market – a reflection, she says, of the world’s depressed economy. Art sales are discretionary spending and that stops when things get tight.

When Elliott and Charmian Jolly bought Statements in 1991, the country was emerging from the 1987 stock market crash and the ensuing recession. By 1991 the art market was buoyant on the back of the global recovery and, fortunately, the Statements Gallery was poised to take advantage of this surge, being the only commercial art gallery in Hawke’s Bay at that time.

While we have seen the closure of

galleries such as Judith Anderson and Jane Gray, Statements Gallery, Paperworks and a few others have survived thanks in part to Napier being a tourist town with cruise ships and visitors. The Black Barn Gallery in Havelock North has put Hawke’s Bay on the map with their high profile in the art sector and a stable of ‘name’ artists whose high value works they exhibit.

Hawke’s Bay has a strong collecting culture. The Hastings City Art Gallery experienced excellent sales at this year’s Creative Hawke’s Bay ‘Invitational’, the HCAG’s annual regional exhibition.

There are art buying groups who collect work jointly and a huge number of art supporters of that Bay staple – the charity auction. And the Bay enjoys a substantial core of wealthy residents who are not affected by financial constraints and continue to invest in the over-$30,000 artwork.

The New Zealand art scene has changed dramatically over the past ten years. The catalyst was Helen Clark’s tenure as Minister of the Arts, when the category ‘artist’ was included in the accepted work descriptions by the Ministry of Social Development. This allowed artists to pursue their creative work with support from the taxpayer.

Not entirely by coincidence, the type of art being sold has also changed in the last ten years due to computer technology, with young artists finding new ways to express their ideas.

Passion … and an online profile Most artists struggle to sell their art; most aren’t comfortable in the role. Traditionally it has fallen to the commercial dealer galleries and the public art galleries to provide exposure for their work.

The success of a commercial dealer gallery relies on the goodwill established by the directors of the gallery in the minds of its artists and public. Mills observes, “They have to work very hard for their mark-up and those not doing so will lose their artists and end up having to close.”

So, what has ensured the survival of Statements Gallery in these economic times? “It takes dedication and a love of this work,” Rosalind Elliott says. “To make sales requires a great passion for what we do, and is reflected by the professionalism of the Gallery; in its style, as determined by its owners and in the way the artwork is displayed. Charm and I know each of our artists very well and can tell their story to any potential customer. It gives us such pride to see our pieces in other people’s homes looking splendid. We want them to enjoy their chosen artwork as much as we do.”

The Statements directors strongly believe that artists need to sell their work.

It is a signal of acceptance and worth, which, in turn, motivates the artist to evolve and explore fresh ideas. Commercial galleries provide a casual relaxed space where people can wander, peruse works of art and have the opportunity to buy

Culture I don’t think an artist can survive without a digital profile these days.

Art Education The School of Arts and Design at EIT is flourishing, with around 140 students studying for the Degree of Visual Arts & Design, and about 300 students overall.

Dr Major is determined to keep the school small, limiting numbers on courses and building up the course offerings steadily over time. Subject areas are art, design, fashion, film (and stage and set design), with a certificate course in contemporary music beginning in 2012.

Existing courses have been redesigned to be project-based learning, where small teams of students work collaboratively on real projects, working through design issues and across skill sets, problem-solving and researching structural questions to bring a project to a viable design model.

This year’s students were challenged to ‘re-design’ Marine Parade, with the teams presenting their finished scale models to the Napier City Council.

Dr Major notes that project-based learning is being used in art education institutions in the UK and Australia, but this is the first time it has been introduced into New Zealand. The benefit of project-based learning is a team working experience as the students develop real-world projects. This makes the qualification more relevant to a career in the creative industries.

To succeed at selling their work artists

need a business mindset, and thus business skills are a part of all courses on offer at the Arts and Design School, providing training in financial management and marketing, teaching innovative ways the artist can promote themselves and their work once their course is completed.

Art & councils Maree Mills acknowledges that the arts community is very lucky to have great support from respective councils, which is not always the case in other provinces. The HCAG has enjoyed real commitment, as does the Hastings Community Art Gallery, which offers a high turnover of exhibitions of local artists’ work. And of course councils have supported the Hawke’s Bay Museum and Art Gallery upgrade now underway.

Mills says, “I think Hawke’s Bay could benefit greatly by overcoming the Napier/Hastings divide. As an outsider coming in, I don’t see the city divide, but see a region. I live in Haumoana and enjoy both cities. I tell people I live in Hawke’s Bay. I understand that amalgamation is a very political topic; however, in these times where economic sustainability is paramount, it is very much a necessity, I believe.”

“A co-ordinated Arts Culture Heritage Strategy, for example, would enable us to create complementary events, share resources, etc. I understand that this was an objective of Creative Hawke’s Bay, but they never really had the buy-in required from the Councils … this is a very complex and emotive issue. It requires a major shift in thinking and an acceptance of the ‘more’s more’ law.”

nov/dec 2011

The creative community Looking at the broader creative community, Maree Mills observes: “People need enjoyment, beauty, intellectual stimulation and they acknowledge that by participating in all manner of events and creative endeavours. I think it illustrates the huge role the arts play in a tight economy.”

She points to the growing excitement about the building of the new Hawke’s Bay Museum and Art Gallery, the growth in student enrolments at EIT’s Arts & Design School, and the growing support for HB Opera House with improved ticket sales of their events.

Mills recounts that Hastings District

CEO Ross McLeod recently asked the HCAG staff: “What makes Hastings a place where talent wants to live?” and observed that thriving arts and culture in a city attract creative individuals across professions and foster the small, enterprising niche businesses.

With a doctorate in art marketing, Suzette Major, appointed a year ago at EIT, brings her extensive knowledge of the business of art to the Bay. From her research, Dr Major notes that the creative industries are growing faster than the economy as a whole.

Over the course of her first year in Hawke’s Bay she has established a network of contacts in the Hawke’s Bay art world – her intention being to work collaboratively with other arts leaders in the Bay - Maree Mills, Roger King of Creative Hawke’s Bay, Malcolm Cordall of Creative Hastings and Douglas Lloyd Jenkins of the Hawke’s Bay Museum and Art Gallery.

They all bring fresh ideas and by working together rather than in isolation, Dr Major believes their collective energy will invigorate our ‘creative economy’ and attract fresh creative blood into the region.

Bee in the know ~

artworks not available in public galleries.

“We need each other in the same way that the public needs us.”

Maree Mills believes the internet has challenged the dealer system in recent years. “I don’t think the dealers will survive if they don’t get with the Facebook and Twitter phenomenon. Many have resisted it as they see themselves as high brow and social networking as unnecessary. How wrong they are!”

“Likewise, if an artist does not have a profile on the web they are invisible to curators.” Mills points to the vital role the internet played in the selection process for the recent exhibition Game On, which was curated by Jacob Scott and John Walsh. “I don’t think an artist can survive without a digital profile these days.”

The Hastings City Art Gallery – our public gallery – has a very different role to play from that of a dealer gallery. HCAG is predominantly funded by the Hastings District Council and is answerable to ratepayers. For this reason an advisory group assists with programming to ensure the Gallery is meeting the needs of the district’s wide demographic.

Part of the HCAG role is to support professional artists in Hawke’s Bay. Now, as a member of TENZ (Touring Exhibitions of NZ), HCAG is able to put Hawke’s Bay artists up for tour. Mills believes that local artists like photographer Richard Brimer and painter Wellesley Binding deserve to be seen by the rest of New Zealand.

HCAG also brings touring exhibitions to Hawke’s Bay to make fine art accessible locally. Rita Angus: selected works, which opened here in October, is touring from Te Papa, and is supported by local holdings at the Hawke’s Bay Museum’s Trust. “We are excited to be able to bring Rita ‘home’ as she was a Hastings girl!” says Mills.

Future touring shows will feature Pat Hanly and Graham Percy.

47

Beautiful THE good, the bad, and the

by ~ Roy Dunningham

I should be grateful. There is more good art being made in Hawke’s Bay now than ever before. Sadly, though, there is also more bad art and just about anyone who puts a brush to canvas can call themselves an artist.

Mercifully, we seem to be over the worst of the lifestyle, wine country clichés, but the easy-way abstracts and quasi-surrealists are still with us, as are the artists who, though old enough to know better, are still reprising their level 1 NCEA Art folios. A tui here, a koru there, with a fern frond or two and voila! Real New Zealand art.

All this of course begs the question, what is good art?

In one sense, I suppose, art is a bit like wine, if you like it then for you it is good and if you don’t then it isn’t. However, with art (and wine) the more thoughtfully you approach it, the more the good stuff will reward you and the rest will seem boring and forgettable.

Don’t expect good art to reveal all its qualities immediately though. Sometimes, as with some of our most interesting friends, it takes time to discover their depth and best qualities.

Mirror-Anteroom, mixed media,

by Michael Hawksworth

Chiappin’s art is really about surfaces.

He is fascinated by the degradation of the surfaces around us as they peel, wear and reveal layers which record the passing of time and usage. This shows in his complex abstracts, which, like the surface of an old wall, are comprised of many layers. For paintings based on such humble subjects the results are remarkably beautiful as he manipulates a range of media from acrylics and enamel to road-marking spray and tagging inks. His techniques are full of risk, though, and, while some paintings come off in days, others may gestate for over a year.

The colours and textures of suburbia are there, but I think that the real landscape of Chiappin’s work is in the inner world of instinct and challenge for both artist and viewers.

Some artists take a wide-reaching view of the world at large, but Michael Hawksworth seems to see existence through microcosms. His images come from personal secretive things, fragments of long unopened books, the weirdness of bits of body surface seen through a microscope.

Just to contradict myself, I have to say that one artist who greatly impressed me when I first saw his work this year and who continues to impress me is Anthony Chiappin.

Chiappin is a design lecturer at EIT and is of Italian-Australian parentage.

The pungent imagery of Catholic Church interiors made a deep impression on him when he was young, as did the suburbs he grew up in. “I love the suburbs,” he says. What? How unfashionable. Chiappin sees them as heroic in their own way with people battling to do their best amidst tensions, ironies and weird individualism.

You won’t see any actual images of this in his work, but there are fragments for the viewer to latch on to – a hint of a street grid here, a possible tree or hill there, but nothing literal.

Bee in the know ~ nov/dec 2011

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Episode No.10., 2009. Ink, Enamel, Acrylic Paint, Oil Paint, Krink Inks on canvas. 96cm x 122cm. © Anthony Chiappin

Spanish Red Orange by Paula Taaffe

Culture Art is a bit like wine, if you like it then for you it is good.

The severe nature of these sources is belied by the refinement of his techniques. The drawings are exquisitely sensitive with consummate control of line, texture and spaces.

Currently Hawksworth is combining collage with traditional drawing. Selecting collage images for their ambiguity and sometimes painterly qualities, he then redraws or, as he puts it, re-complicates them on his computer along with his own drawn additions. The resulting forms stretch, contract, dance and convulse their way across the picture with a life of their own, while offering tantalizing hints of their origin.

There is no particular agenda in Hawksworth’s art. Rather, he offers us

clues and entry points to engage with and create our own world of interpretation.

Often the good things in life are under our noses and we just don’t see them.

Paula Taaffe has been around for a while, but it is the consistency of her most recent work that is really doing justice to her talent.

Interestingly, the excitement and edge in these paintings comes from deliberately created contradictions. For example, the painted shapes come from sweeping, impulsive brushstrokes, which are then suddenly cut short by precisely delineated edges. The technique involves cut stencils and the biggest artist’s brush I have ever seen. “I love edges, the tension of an outline,” she says. Even as a child

she loved cutting out shapes. There is also a moment of suspense when the stencils are removed (did it work or not?) which is more akin to printmaking than to painting.

She flirts dangerously with colour. “I am a colourholic,” she says. But somehow it all stays under control. The resulting shapes swarm joyously around the picture.

Taaffe wonders if people won’t take her seriously for this reason. Should good art be concerned only with the dark side of existence? Heaven forbid.

So what do these three artists have in common? In a word, intelligence. It is work that will continue to offer delights and insights over a long period of time.

This is some of the good stuff.

QUAY GALLERY CHRISTMAS EXHIBITION December 1st – 12th January

Open 7 days 10 am – 5 pm 14 West Quay Ahuriri info@quaygallery.co.nz p. 06 835 4637 m. 021 2480 668 www.quaygallery.co.nz

Bee in the know ~ nov/dec 2011

Selection of 60 original paintings priced between $100 – $800 Every purchaser of $200 will enter a draw to WIN a NICOLA FORSTER painting valued at $2500 Layby & Gift Vouchers Available

49

Original prints from local and NZ artists

SUE SCHAARE Visit the studio/gallery.

Paintings for sale. Stock specials.

OPEN MOST DAYS 10am – 4.30pm 33 Ferguson St. South | Bayview | Napier p. (06) 836 7685 | e. sueschaare@ihug.co.nz m. 021 249 7753 | w. www.sueschaareart.co.nz

Untitled #146 Oil Francois Aires

Stylish Professional Innovative Framing

Humour

BY BRENDAN WEBB ~ Rumours of Napierion’s rotting reticulation were true afterall.

Underground Movements

Bee in the know ~

nov/ dec 2011

50

Lawrencus Yulus, consul of Heretuscany, awoke with a start. He lay in the darkness, his heart thumping and his brow damp with perspiration.

It was that cursed dream again. The one in which he imagined he’d stormed the walls of Napierion, scattering the troops of the Status Quotus movement and forcing the town’s legendary warrior queen Barbarus Arnottus to surrender her prized red high-heeled boots to him.

The recurring dream seemed so real that twice he’d searched his quarters in vain for those beautiful boots. Was amalgamation only a nightmarish dream?

Was the thought of wearing those boots just some feverish nocturnal fantasy?

Lawrencus strode out on to his balcony.

He stared at the flickering fires on the walls of Napierion in the distance. So near yet so far. Suddenly the doors of his quarters burst open and two burly centurions appeared holding a dishevelled prisoner between them. The man wore a battered straw boater and ragged striped blazer. A damn Napierion, thought Lawrencus.

“Sir, this man says if we spare his life he’ll lead us into the bowels of the Napierions,” said one centurion.

“Are you sure he hasn’t spent too much time in Turkish bathhouses?” murmured Lawrencus.

“No sire. He is a former council engineer and knows Napierion’s underground maze of tunnels and pipes like the back of his hand,” the centurion explained.

Lawrencus stared at the man thoughtfully, then slowly nodded. Could this be the breakthrough he needed?

Hours later, Lawrencus and a handful of soldiers stood beneath Napierion’s civic headquarters building. They had been led through a confusing maze of crumbling pipes and tunnels, many of them blocked or partly collapsed.

“So the rumours of Napierion’s rotting reticulation were true afterall,” thought Lawrencus.

The nervous prisoner had finally brought them into an underground room. A stone staircase led up to the

floor of the building above. Yellowing scrolls filled much of the chamber. They appeared to be old engineering and drainage consultants’ reports. Some had not even been opened.

Three large closets stood at one end of the chamber. Lawrencus strode across and wrenched open one of the doors. He jumped back as a pile of bones and skulls cascaded onto the floor.

“So that’s where they keep their skeletons,” he thought.

The second closet was piled high with dried pieces of leathery human flesh.

“Great Caesar, what are these?” he asked the prisoner.

“Tongues,” the man stammered.

“They remove them from councillors after they get elected.”

The third closet was barricaded behind heavy iron bars and could not be opened.

“What’s in here?” asked Lawrencus.

“The deeds of the town’s debt,” said the prisoner. “But nobody’s ever been allowed to see them.”

Lawrencus nodded. The crumbling reticulation system, skeletons in the closet, voiceless councillors and hidden debt all made sense now.

“I’ve seen enough,” he said.

“Let’s get out of here before it collapses on our heads.”

It was clear that the constant procession of heavy chariots heading to the Port of Napierion was destroying the very foundations of the town. It would take only one extreme high tide to turn Napierion into the Venice of the South Seas. In a decade it could meet the same watery fate as Plato’s legendary metropolis of Atlantis.

With the flames of their torches now burning low, finding their way back through the underground maze was a nightmare. They stumbled into a long, stinking tunnel, its walls dripping with effluent and slime.

“What in the name of Juno is this?” hissed Lawrencus.

“It’s the excrementus extremus,” said the prisoner. “It discharges the town’s waste into the sea every hour.”

As he spoke, a rumbling, sloshing

sound came from the depths of the tunnel behind them.

“Run!” screamed the prisoner.

They pounded through the darkness, knee-high in swirling excrement until Lawrencus saw a ladder leading up to the surface. He had no sooner scrambled up when a wall of sewage engulfed his companions, sweeping them out into Hawkus Bay. Lawrencus trudged slowly home along the coast, his feet squelching in his sandals, pinching his nose to keep out the putrid smell. As he reached the gates of Hustings, a guard ran towards him, stopping several metres away as the wall of stench from his leader’s clothing reached him.

“Hail Lawrencus,” he called. “I have good news.”

“What is it?” snapped Lawrencus.

“The wealthy merchants and traders of the region are uniting behind your call for amalgamation,” said the guard. “They have put their names to a public notice of support which is being displayed in the town. I have a copy here.”

Lawrencus snatched the document and scanned the names. Some were familiar, others he recognised as coming from Napierion itself. He smiled to himself.

Could the tide finally be changing in his favour?

“Don’t you see sir?” The guard said excitedly. “This could be the upswelling of an underground movement.”

Lawrencus looked down at his effluentcovered legs and sandals. Not for the first time he wished he really did have those coveted high-heeled red boots.

“I think I’ve experienced enough underground movements for one day,” he replied.

TANK 7405

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