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The Sun
Wednesday May 8, 2013
Rock, mineral club to celebrate The Marlborough Rock and Mineral Club Inc. will be celebrating its 40th anniversary next weekend. The club, which has over 50 members, holds regular field trips, and will be going to Totara flat on Sunday, where the club held its first ever trip. As well as the field trip, celebrations will begin on Friday, with a wine and cheese night, and Saturday with a dinner, and a time for members to share their stories of their time with the club.
“There’s been a lot of hard work by the members over the years, and the rock collection is museum quality. The members are very generous with their time and knowledge too,” said long time club member, Kath McIntyre. “Members now are benefiting from the hard work of older members, who put together a great clubroom, and the workshop,” she said. The club collects rocks and minerals from around all of New Zealand, as
well as internationally, and they also hold regular workshops in their work room, which houses grinders, drills and microscopes. Anyone interested in joining the club could go to the clubrooms, at 28 Arthur Baker Place, Blenheim, on a Sunday to enquire. The anniversary celebrations are open to anybody who wants to come along, however they are asked to contact Kath first, on 03 577 5218, by May 16.
Kath McIntyre and Wendy Marshall, of the Marlborough Rock and Mineral Club Inc.
Environmental Awards field days The Marlborough Environment Awards field days are underway, showcasing projects and innovation from locals dedicated to going the extra mile to protect the environment. Marlborough Environment Awards coordinator, Bev Doole, said the field days add value to the Environment Awards. “It’s a chance for the winners to show what they do and share their experience, and it’s a chance for the public to have a look behind the scenes and see the good things being done in Marlborough for the environment,” she said. The field days have been running since late April, with the next one being held today, beginning at 12.30pm, at the Onamalutu Reserve, featuring Marlborough Harvesting Ltd., who won the forestry award for overcoming many challenges to log a difficult site, while still protecting waterways and
native bush. Two field days would be hosted on the final day, next Wednesday, May 15, both showcasing innovation from local wineries to preserve the environment. From 9am until 12pm, Business Innovation Award Winners, Yealands Estate Wine would be showcasing their sustainability innovations in the vineyard and winery, as well as their extensive landscaping and plantings to enhance water-collection ponds. In the afternoon, from 1.30pm next Wednesday, Fromm Winery will be demonstrating how they grow quality grapes in a dry climate, with minimal irrigation, using techniques which won the winery the Winegrowing/Horticulture Award for 2013. All of the field days are free, but bookings are required. Contact Nicky Eade at the Richard Marden, of Marlborough Harvesting Marlborough District Council, 520 7400 or Ltd., who won the forestry award, at the nicky.eade@marlborough.govt.nz Marlborough Environment Awards for 2013.
Small Novopay overpayments wiped
Steven Joyce
Minister Responsible for Novopay Steven Joyce yesterday announced the Ministry of Education will not be seeking to recover small overpayments to school staff that are uneconomic to recover. “In order to assist the recovery of the system and clearance of the overpayment backlog, I have taken
the pragmatic decision that the ministry should not seek to recover a number of smaller overpayments that would take up a lot of time for little benefit to any party,” Mr Joyce said. “Since Novopay went live in August last year there have been thousands of school staff around
the country that have received overpayments as a result of errors with the payroll system. “Recovering the smaller overpayments would’ve cost the Education Ministry more money than the amounts that have been overpaid and slow down the clearance of the backlog.”
King Salmon named runner-up New Zealand King Salmon has taken second place in a contest for The Worst Transnational Corporation operating in New Zealand. The ‘Roger Award’ contest named after politician Roger Douglas, architect of controversial economic policy Rogernomics in the 1980s, was organised by Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa (CAFCA) and GATT Watchdog, both Christchurch-based groups. At a function in Wellington last Wednesday, the Roger Award organisers named Taejin Fisheries as the 2012 winner because of its “cheap, unorganised slave labour”. King Salmon was named equal runner-up with Rio Tinto Alcan NZ Ltd, owner of the Tiwai Point Aluminium Smelter at Bluff. The judges said marine farms were problematic in an area like the Marlborough Sounds, as they were an industrial activity, generating noise, odour, traffic, lighting, damaging habitat, affecting water quality, and constituted a privatising of public water space”. Locals objected to its major expansion plans, which were prohibited by the Marlborough District Council; the Government sent the case to the newly created Environmental Protection Agency as a matter of “national significance”, and it gave the go ahead for half the requested new salmon farms. “This move to sabotage local democratic processes is a particularly insidious one,” said the judges.