Jock Anderson's jibe at Australians pre-Anzac Day.

Jock Anderson's controversial comments on Radio-NZ "afternoon panel" labelling Australian WW1 soldiers as "lazy bludgers" are hard to fathom.  Did the comments come from other historians re-inventing history or were they a tongue in cheek jibe at the Australians, a trifle overdone?  I listened to the playback and Jock delivered them with an authentic tone. I'd say he now regrets them or he ought to.


The comments defy logic. Anyone who visits the Australian outback is struck by how harsh the environment is, especially without air-conditioning and modern vehicles.  Even today Australians from the bush are tougher and more capable in the outdoors than most nationalities.

Cpl William James 44936

My grandfather, Bill James, fought in the Somme briefly, before catching measles.. He survived the remainder of the WW1 by joining the regimental band.  I have his personal diary and the hardship he suffered is well documented, cushioned by his special humour.  I've heard old-timers say the British fed their horses better than the colonial troops. I can't imagine it was any easier at Gallipoli.  Bill James mentioned having to steal eggs off Belgium farmhouses, but was also grateful for the food generously provided by local families.  He was often half starved on army rations.

As a child I was particularly interested in WW2 and I read many of the books written by Churchill and NZ soldiers in the late 1940's and 50's. My father was medically unfit for war and served in the home guard but my Uncle Jack Richards of Whangarei served in Egypt and Crete.  He was captured in Crete and survived the sinking of the Nino Bixio in 1942 by swimming in the sea for several hours before being rescued (by the wrong side). In my opinion, there is no way he or the fellow Australians in that war could have been described as bludgers.

Lcpl John Richards 36028

I've heard ex officers in the 1950's saying that Britain would never have won the war without the troops from her ex-colonies and the USA.  The crucial difference in the quality of the colonial troops related to the skills they learned from being mainly farm boys.  They were used to fixing machinery and travelling long distances.  If the tank or truck broke down they could fix it immediately.  In contrast, the British or German troops would wait for the engineers.

As for the character of modern Australians, the great grandsons/daughters of the diggers, this I can attest personally from clients we had in our kayak business at Okarito.  When conditions got tough, that is paddling in the cold and wind and against the tide, young Australians performed as well as any NZlders, and better than other nationalities.

The whole affair seems like many others these days, reinvent history or make shock horror statements simply to gain notoriety.
 

Wild Foods Festival - Okarito style

By Debbie

Blackberries and Yogurt  Mmmm!

Step outside our house after dinner these evenings and you will feast on a treat remembered from childhood....we are in the midst of one of the best blackberry seasons I can remember.  The first crop was light, as always, but the berries were plump and sweet.  Now we're into the main crop and bushes are laden.

Blackberry season co-insides with excursions to favourite and sometimes secret sites!!!  Its a family tradition, and as the only remaining family members still permanently "on the Coast" its up to us to fill the freezer with berries for the homecoming visits, and the resulting mouth-watering pies.

More intensive farming these days has greatly reduced the areas of wild lands. Blackberries are largely confined to roadsides and riverbeds.  The best berries are found amoungst the scattered clumps of totara trees at the extremities of the river-flats.  Several spots are known to host the so-called "Italian" variety, big juicy berries with bursting flavour.  Roaming with your billy,  often brings to mind the early pioneers who introduced these plants, what a welcome relief they must have been to fruit staved gold miners.

As they must have been to our mothers and grandmothers, who made jellies and pies, in an era where frozen supermarket treats were non-existent.  Today our grandchildren ask when visiting from the city "do you have any of those black berries in the freezer" and gobble them up frozen - the healthiest fast food ever.

But back to Okarito - is that a mushroom over there - better stop the black-berrying and take off your hat, there's a feast on the ground, popped up overnight, a legacy from the days of sheep roaming freely.

And hurry, nearly low tide, time to gather mussels ;  time and tide wait for no man!!!

Fix the Building Act.

After Bernard Hickeys lamentation, Govt eyes blind to housing crisis, Not PC published a brilliant blog Unaffordable housing? No wonder!

"IN A NUTSHELL, THE big problem is that government has gone beyond right: it has passed laws giving the Reserve Bank the power to print money, bureaucrats the power to prescribe the methods and materials by which houses are built, and  planners the power to control and restrict people’s land."

"Meanwhile, the Department of Building and Housing were given the power to tell builders how to build houses. Rather than deregulation, which never happened here, builders have endured a flood of new regulation: producing pages and pages of gold-plated building regulations and a rise in the cost to build a house that has out-paced even the rate of house price rises"

Everyone has their own horror story of mindless regulation or engineering opinions needed to get compliance for a standard 3 bedroom kiwi house.  Pity the building inspectors, who driven by desire to eliminate liability for their Council, have to meticulously enforce every detail.  In our district even an 80 year-old hut in the bush cannot be altered unless it conforms with the Act.

Is there is the way out of this mess?    Here's my suggestion:  


Preserve the Building Act but widen the range of quality standards.   What I mean is broaden the Act from a singe "gold-plated" standard by creating 4 classes of dwellings as follows:

1.  Class A - fully compliant with the Building Act and guaranteed by Council.  

2.  Class B - more than 80% compliant. Any new work must meet Building Act standards.  Non compliance issues clearly identified on the LIM.  

3.  Class C - less than 80% compliant.  Includes most pre-1990 housing. Must have sewage, electrical and fire safety compliance.  Owner can make alterations themselves so long as they comply with Council planning standards, height, shade size etc.  Bought/sold on caveat emptor basis.

4.  Class D - Non compliant. Includes the typical kiwi bach, huts, temporary accommodation, etc. Can be built by anyone but must have basic sewage, electrical and fire safety.  Bought/sold on caveat emptor basis.

To solve NZ housing needs we must provide more flexibility for people to meet their housing needs according to what they can afford.

Climate Change: "NZ should drop ETS and adopt a simple carbon tax"

To continue from my earlier blog why NZ should have adopted a carbon tax rather than an ETS scheme.


Whaleoil has blogged the following excerpt article from the Financial Times (requires registration, then search ETS).

Europe’s largest employers’ group has warned against meddling in the carbon market to prop up sagging prices, just a day after one of the continent’s top energy executives declared the market “dead” and demanded urgent intervention to save it.

In a letter to parliament released on Wednesday, Philippe de Buck, president of BusinessEurope, warned that moves to withdraw carbon permits from the market to bolster prices “would, if implemented, create further uncertainty and price volatility, and establish a risky precedent of rapid political interference in the market”.

Mr De Buck, whose constituents have struggled to forge a common position on the issue, said he wanted “an open discussion … about the general climate policy framework and the longer term future” of the carbon market.

In December, the European parliament’s environment committee approved a resolution calling for the removal of more than 1bn surplus carbon permits from the market in an effort to shore up prices. The industry committee will vote on a similar measure at the end of this month.

Other elements of corporate Europe, particularly heavy industry, argue that such meddling would make a mockery of the market.

Johannes Teyssen, chief executive of Germany’s EON, urged policy makers to make fixes. “Let’s talk real: the ETS is bust, it’s dead,” Mr Teyssen said in Brussels this week, adding: “I don’t know a single person in the world that would invest a dime based on ETS signals.”

Our scheme is now in serious trouble (or will be shortly).  Message to John Key and Nick Smith, "Follow Australia with a carbon tax before the ETS gets even more embarrassing"

Get your kids into agriculture.

Professor Jacqueline Rowarth from Massey University highlights the lack of New Zealand students interested in a science career in agriculture  She councils against filling the gap with overseas graduates, "some positions could not be filled by migrants as they require a hands on knowledge of NZ's agriculture and it would be smarter for the government to look after its own people".  I couldn't agree more.

All the signs point to agriculture being a smart career choice for young people.  With the world's population fast approaching 9 billion, and an even greater growth rate of middle-class,  food price rises seem inevitable. Great news for NZ because farm profitability has at long last started to improve.  The industry is adopting IT rapidly and this will lead to leaps in productivity and innovation.  Agriculture is the exiting place to be.

Unfortunately, it is an uphill battle to get our kids inspired in NZ's primary industries.  It just doesn't compete with  the warm fuzzies they see on TV such as conservation, psychology, small animal vets, cooking etc. I often ask students how they rate a forester on a scale from 1 - 10 where doctors and nurses were number 10 and used-car salesmen were say 1.  Students from New Zealand, Australia, USA and Canada universally put foresters a 2 - 3, (not respected).  A sad reality given that the world desperately needs better forest management and many more trees.  Interestingly, students from Europe often rate a forester at 8-9 just below the medics.  Agriculturalists have not had such bad press as foresters but I doubt they rate much above 5 on the popularity stakes.

Poor public perceptions of agriculture is by no means new. Even Massey University, years ago, dropped the good old Ag. Sci degree much to my chagrin at the time.  I went to Massey University straight from high school, a decision I have never regretted.  The B. Ag. Sci.degree was just what I needed.  It produced graduates who were true generalists, understanding a wide range of subjects such as;  biochemistry, animal/plant physiology, economics, statistics, management, ecology, mechanics, construction, microbiology, genetics, hydrology, dairy, meat, wool industries.  Best of  all, Massey taught us to think independently.

The great advantage of this degree was to open our eyes to possibilities we'd never heard of before. Graduates of my year dispersed into all sorts of careers in the primary industries, in my case, forestry science.  Massey taught me so much and shaped my thinking throughout my career.  I am always grateful for that.

Flying adventures.

A recent article (How far behind me is that 737) brought back similar memories from my flying career.

My experience was at the end of a flight from South Westland to Christchurch International Airport.  After an awe-inspiring but otherwise uneventful flight over the mountains, I reached  Dunsandel checkpoint and was cleared by the Tower to join "long final" for the main runway, 02.  Great I thought, feeling chuffed that my dusty old Cessna 172, CKN, was equal with the big boys.  The whole city should see I'd arrived.

Dunsandel is quite some distance from Christchurch so I kept up my speed gradually loosing height and scanning the airspace for other traffic. Over the radio came a call from a 747.  He was given permission to join "final", number 2 to the Cessna.  Mm mm! that's me!  I glanced behind and sure enough I could just make out the outline of  the 747 miles away.   Apart from a little tension that I didn't have the sky and airport to myself, things went smoothly.

For a bush pilot landing at an international airport is not all beer and skittles.  You need to sharpen up mentally to deal with radio traffic, several other aircraft in the sky, and funnily enough, decide where to land on the enormous expanse of tarmac ahead.  I had learnt that if you land too early you end up taxing for miles.

After a few more minutes the Tower cleared the 747 to land again behind the Cessna.  By this stage I was comfortable at 70 knots on "short final", setting up for a landing well down the runway.  The next radio call was the Tower clearing me to land and please clear the runway immediately to the left.   I glanced behind again - YIKES - the 747 was bloody enormous and was approaching fast.


Woowee! I immediately selected full flap, cut the power, and pushed down the nose for a short landing.  Once stable on the ground, I applied  full brakes and charged off to the left across the grass as instructed. Then followed 300 tons of high speed aluminium thundering down the strip, the crew no doubt laughing at my reaction.

Well so much for my hoped for dignified and notable arrival.  I taxied humbly along the access way well back from the 747 and slunk over to the private apron.  Back to the bush ASAP.

The Humble Pipi

Its Xmas holidays and outdoor blokes find an irrepressible urge to escape and provide food for the extended family.  Despite the fact there is enough food around here to feed Africa more food must be gathered.

An easy way where the whole family can be involved is collecting pipis.  Mudflats are a great place for city kids to engage with nature - muddy water that hides crabs to bite small toes, plenty of sharp shells and small wriggly fish.  All adds up to lots of squeals, oohs and yuks.

The humble pipi is one of those strange life forms that some of us find a delicacy.  But unless exposed to shellfish as a child, most people are turned off by their weird shape and plainly visible intestines. "DISGUSTING" is the classic uninitiated teenager response to watching seafood lovers gorging on a pipi feast.  All the more for those who love them, I say.

Pipis and cockles were standard holiday fare at my grandfather Bill James's bach at Tameterau on the Whangarei harbour. My grandmother, Mary, would boil a great pot full and empty them into a large bowl on the table.  Bill would hold a stick and no one dared move until he said "GO" and the feast would begin.  We ate them plain with a little vinegar but bread was a compulsory accompaniment to stop us kids eating too many.

From that childhood grounding, whenever I moved to a new place in later life one of my first tasks was to locate kaimoana.  And it was Maori who often led me, either by direct invitation or my surreptitious observation.  The West Coast is not notable for extensive shellfish beds, nor do many locals seek them.  The pipis in the Okarito lagoon are hard to find because they are surprisingly mobile.  They prefer moderately loose fine sand with not too much glacial silt.  This habitat moves with every flood and the spring tides, as do the pipis.

I'm always a bit cautious about gathering after a flood or fresh in the river because of the risk of food poisoning even here at remote Okarito. While we have relatively few farms or septic tanks in the catchment (95% native forest), there are wild animals in the bush so it pays to be cautious.

Debbie's recipe for pipi patties.

Ingredients:   Throw into the blender;  two eggs,  one chopped onion, cup of herbs to taste e.g. parsley, basil, chives and some coriander (whatever you've got), salt and black pepper to taste, three tablespoons sweet chili sauce, teaspoon of crushed ginger, teaspoon of crushed garlic, two cups of pre-cooked pipis.

Mix and fold in approximately half a cup of flour until the mixture is firm.  If there is not enough flour the patties will not hold together.  Fry in olive oil in moderately hot pan being careful not to blacken.  Pipis burn easily.

Enjoy.