Very appropriate at the moment, with the banner “Reading Rocks” to the middle-left, a table of books and a boy interested in the famous tome War and Peace.

Are you taking heed of this, Mayor Gurunathan and existing Councilors? No, you slashed the books budget for the Distict’s libraries, so you don’t care.

Unlike an earlier poll which showed high public hostility towards Jacinda & Co. (see earlier post) and was swiftly removed by the pro-Government Newshub, this one is still here

Not only the failure to detect and prevent the Christchurch mass shooter’s rampage, but its subsequent behaviour, and publicised cases of its losing guns and prisoners have made this a bad year for public perceptions of the Police.

The problem is, however, not with frontline policemen/women, but with the management and leadership of Commissioner Mike Bush and his immediate subordinates.  The unsuitability of Police Minister Stuart Nash for his job doesn’t help.

This photo was taken last week after the strong winds had abated, but had still left the sea in a fairly turbulent state with significant waves.

A 2-car electric unit can be seen trundling its way to Paekakariki a few km north and eventually Waikanae.

A hit with Australian film festival audiences. —Chris Kirk

Providing hope for kids on the brink

By Roger Childs

What you do with adolescents who are not interested in school, get into trouble on the streets and spend time in courts and juvenile detention centres?  Give them a dog. Well that’s part of it. In the outback of New South Wales, Bernie Shakeshaft and friends are trying to change the lives of youngsters who have gone off the rails.

Bernie has set up Backtrack Boys with three key aims —

1. Keep the kids alive.
2. Keep them out of prison.
3. Encourage them to chase their hopes and dreams.

Catherine Scott has produced an excellent documentary about the program and pulls no punches in evaluating what Bernie is doing, highlighting both successes and failures.

Building self-esteem with care, support and dogs

The film looks at Bernie’s mission in general and the lives of three juveniles in particular. The dogs play a key part in settling the boys and girls down and in their red Backtrack Boys tops they train the animals to do tricks and jumps at country fairs. But going back to the old life of drugs, alcohol and petty crime is always a danger. 

12-year-old Russell (Rusty) goes home to Dad, gets picked up by the police on the streets and ends up in court. An 18 year old who is making great progress and helps out Rusty and other younger Backtrackers, goes for a bank job, misses out and goes on a bender. The outcome – 18 months in a juvenile detention centre. However, the third lad who is in prison works hard to make a good impression, writes regularly to his girlfriend and is reunited with her when he is released.

There are plenty of success stories, and the Backtrack program has plenty of community  volunteers helping out and is backed up by support from local authorities and police. In the areas where the program is operating there has been a significant drop in crime and many kids have started turning on to school.

An excellent documentary from the heart

This is a ‘warts and all’ documentary and evokes a range of moods and emotions.  There is joy and sadness, humour and hope, drama and tension, but overall there is a positive message.   It also incorporates plenty of one on one conversations as Bernie and his helpers get the kids to talk about themselves –

• where things have gone wrong 
• what they want to get out of Backtrack 
• how they want to do well in the future. 

Not surprisingly, there is some pretty ripe language at times!

The movie provides some great cinematography of the towns, landscapes and gatherings in the outback and there is a moving section when the Backtrack Boys go to Sydney for the first time with their dogs, in teeming rain. They visit parliament and government house where they mix with the politicians and make a big impression.

This is a first-class documentary, which keep your interest throughout and pays tribute to the brainchild of one man who devotes his life to providing hope for back country kids on the edge. It was well received at the recent film festival and is highly recommended.

Hopefully it will feature at the Waikanae Shoreline cinema.

from Kevin Burrows, Vice President of Kapiti Coast Grey Power

Local Body Elections: Meet the Candidates Public Meetings 

Below is a list of dates for the Local Body Candidates Meetings.  Kapiti Coast Grey Power will be sponsoring the following Public Meetings open to all the residents of Kapiti, in order that people can meet the candidates and ask questions of them.

All the meetings are open to the general public and we would like to see as many people as possible attend,so please pass this on to relatives and friends in the Kapiti District.

The meetings are as follows.

Candidates for the position of Mayor
Candidates for Kapiti Coast District Council
Candidates for the Capital & Coast District Hospital Board

PUBLIC MEETINGS – LOCAL BODY ELECTIONS
Wednesday 28 August, St Peters Hall, Paekakariki, 10:00 am to 12:00 pm — Mayoral Candidates 
Tuesday 27 August, St Peters Hall, Paekakariki 10:00 am to 12:00 am — Candidates for Paekakariki/Raumati Ward and District Wide 
Monday 2 September, Paraparaumu Senior Citizens Hall, Ocean Road 10:00 am – 12 pm Mayoral Candidates
Friday, 6 September, Paraparaumu Senior Citizens Hall, Ocean Rd, 10:00 am – 12pm Candidates for Paraparaumu Ward and District Wide
Tuesday 10 September, Baptist Church Hall, Waikanae, Te Moana Road, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm Candidates for Waikanae Ward and District Wide [note that this does not include community board candidates, however, the two in our team will be there anyway]
Wednesday 11 September, Baptist Church Hall, Waikanae, Te Moana Road, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm Mayoral Candidates and Regional Council candidates
Wednesday 18 September, Otaki Memorial Hall, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm — Mayoral and Candidates for Otaki
Sunday 8 September 2.00 pm – 4.00 pm Paraparaumu Senior Citizens Hall, Ocean Road DHB Candidates meeting,

Some questions we suggest people ask of sitting councilors and the Mayor:-

1. Why did you vote for increases in Council Rates in the last 3 years well above inflation?
2. Why did you initially vote for the Council’s Borrow to invest in the Stock Market proposal?
3. The council recently unanimously decided to declare a “Climate Change Emergency” — since then have you been taking public transport to council meetings?
4. What investigations if any have you initiated into the expenditure of public money by senior council staff?
5. Who do you represent?
6. What have YOU PERSONALLY managed to achieve in the last 3 years? —Eds

A different view to the one posted a few weeks ago.  Nice frontages like these also add to the value of properties nearby.

This sort of reporting is what we expect from Stuff, but have always held Radio NZ in higher esteem, so it is disappointing.  Nigel Wilson says, “It is dangerous when journalists put themselves in the story as Ms Hutton has done. It reads more like a crusade than an independent piece of reporting.” They have 2 weeks to respond satisfactorily or we then take it to the Media Council.

Complaint about articles by Catherine Hutton of your organisation.

I refer to the articles on your website entitled “Women complained against former Kāpiti councillor David Scott for years, documents reveal” and “Restraining order sought against former Kāpiti Coast district councillor David Scott”, dated 14 August and 20 August respectively.

It is obvious that most of the content of these takes the form of one or more statements that have been been e-mailed by the instigator of the sexual assault complaint from April 2017 to your organisation (and probably others) as a result of an announcement by David Scott last week that he intends to seek reelection to the Kapiti council seat he held up till June. Your reporter Ms Hutton has clearly accepted them at face value and published them without doing the requisite investigation by discussing with those who have a contrary view, and including those views, as is required of a news organisation like yours.

The second article also names Waikanae Watch specifically in this woman’s allegations, but we have not received any communication from your reporter.

The articles by Ms Hutton lacked balance, and did not give David Scott an equal right of reply to all the accusations which that woman has leveled, and not only at him but at anyone who has said that they believe he is innocent and was set up by senior council members who wanted to get rid of him because he was probing into their believed corrupt practices.

The extent of Dr Scott’s responses in Hutton’s articles is confined to two short lines: “Scott said he wasn’t clear why she was going to court.” and “”I’m not clear what her grudge is or why she is still thinking about me,” he said.”

Because Waikanae Watch has been the only media outlet to provide another side to the case that questions the veracity of the complainant, Ms Hutton’s article tries to implicate us with harassment. Since when has questioning the legal process been considered harassment?  Dr Scott has never written anything for us on the matter, nor directed or advised anyone to do so; what reporting there has been comes from first-hand observations as well as lengthy discussions with several people close to the situation, none of whom Ms Hutton bothered to contact.

Neither does Radio NZ state that David Scott has endured over two years of abuse from his being front page / headline news since 25 April 2017. Your reporting at this stage is an interference in the electoral process, which raises not only the vindictive motives of the complainant, but challenges your organisation’s integrity.

There are many points that can be made about that women’s statements as repeated by Ms Hutton, but here a just a few:

There was never at any time any “mob” of supporters of David Scott at the courtrooms or the council chamber. At the most there would have been half a dozen pensioners who said and did nothing other than speak quietly to each other.  At the first trial day hearing she claimed to the court there was a “mob” outside and she demanded to come in through the rear entrance. When two of our readers arrived there, the only people outside the court on the footpath were an elderly Maori man with a guitar and two youths. No “mob”. She claims she was “glared at”. When, by whom and in what circumstances?

The complainant on the other hand had a “mob” of her own at a hearing in the Porirua District Court for Kerry Bolton at which I was in the public gallery, the one at which the complainant falsely claimed Kerry Bolton’s friends threatened her.

She further alleges there was a telephone smear campaign, but according to an Official Information request response from the KCDC, there was only one call from one elderly woman who said she knows her and her family. The “phone smear campaign” is simply one of that woman’s many fabrications which your reporter has repeated.

As we reported in one of our very recent posts, David Scott was not involved in any way with the mannequins exhibit of late April 2017.  In fact it was David Scott who persuaded the person responsible for them, Dale Evans, to take the mannequins away and helped him do so. This fact has been stated publicly many times before, but the contrary claim has become a fixed idea among certain journalists.

The woman’s claim in an affidavit in support of her restraining order application that she and her husband were threatened by David Scott and another pensioner to the extent that they required police protection is certainly another falsehood, and the matter is presently before the Independent Police Conduct Authority to determine whether there was any police involvement as she claims, or whether it is yet another of her lies. Ms Hutton cared not to establish that from anyone.

There is an insinuation that Scott continues to try to make contact with family members of the woman, but no evidence has been presented, again your reporter merely takes the word of the complainant.

Your reporter’s presenting of the woman’s statement that “elected officials aren’t held to the same standards as council employees” is absurd.  In fact, they are obviously put far more in the media spotlight for the most trivial transgressions than council employees ever are. However, that is an opinion which your reporter is entitled to; the seriously unbalanced aspects of your reporter’s articles are those stated above.

We expect the remedy of a presentation of what is stated above, and more, to balance the vexatious litigant’s side of the story.

You can’t underestimate a team like Georgia. —Ritchie McCaw

by Roger Childs

Uneven performance but plenty of good play

Back in the 2007 the All Blacks beat Italy 76-14 in the first game and then Portugal 108-13. After that Scotland was subdued 40-0. It was a fantastic pool round for New Zealand who were favoured to win the World Cup. They were the top ranked side and against Italy, a six nation team, much of their play was polished and nearly flawless as backs and forwards combined brilliantly, passed superbly and scored 11 tries.  

In 2015 it was not going to be like that. Argentina was always going to be tough, however cricket scores were expected against Namibia and Georgia. It hasn’t happened and Georgia worked hard to keep the All Backs to 43-10. However, seven very good tries were scored by the New Zealanders and the tackling was impressive.  Although there were too many knock-on’s and missed passes, it was a good workout. 

There are plenty of things to work on and that is probably preferable to winning the early matches with huge scores. Remember that in 2007 we went into the quarter final expecting to  roll the French, who had lost to Argentina in their first game. We all know what happened next.

Great first quarter against Georgia

The All Blacks really fired in the first 22 minutes. There were four classy tries:

• Waisake Naholo had been jumping out of his skin at training impatient to take the field in his first match. After one minute he showed his class. Coming in as the extra man, Carter gave him a great pass allowing him to make a speedy run from 55metres out and score by the posts.
• Not to be outdone, Julian Savea showed his strength on the left wing minutes later and bumped off a couple of players to score in the corner.
• Then after 16 minutes, Savea was in again after a wonderful off-load from Sonny Bill Williams.
• The score went to 22-10 when another excellent movement with classy handling was finished off by Keiran Read giving a superb long pass to Dane Coles for a clear run in.

At this stage the All Backs points tally was ahead of the clock and a big score looked on. But there had been mistakes. Naholo, who had a mixed game, spilled the ball forward in the fifth minute, Georgia snapped it up and from a kick through fullback Beka Tsiklauri re-gathered to to score by the posts. 

For the 69,000 Cardiff crowd this was this most popular try!

There was no further scoring in the first half as a consequence of 

• fierce tackling by the Georgians: not surprising!
• handling errors by the All Blacks which probably cost a couple of tries
• deliberate slowing down tactics by the Georgian forwards who were probably lucky not to lose a man to the bin.

A mixed bag in the second half

Three more tries were scored: two involving Fekitoa. The Highlander centre threw a beautiful long pass to Savea to give him a hat-trick for the match.  Then in the 75th minute he showed pace and deception to run in a try from 30 metres out.

There were some great mid field runs from McCaw, Ben Smith and Mealamu, but the Georgian defence was very well organised and snuffed out these attacks. The All Blacks kicked more in this half and generally it wasn’t effective.

Looking on the bright side

Fan expectations were for a big score but Georgia were always going to be tougher than Namibia. The Namibians are mainly part time players whereas the Georgians are mainly professionals many of whom play club rugby in France. 

Their forward pack is well regarded and they scrummaged well and contested in the loose. But overall the All Blacks had the better of the scrums, lineouts and breakdowns. Whitelock, Retallick, Read, Coles and McCaw all played well and generally handled and tackled effectively.

There were wayward passes and knock-on’s in the backs but set against this there were plenty of excellent flowing movements which resulted in six tries being scored and some near misses. 

Plenty to work on

After 66 minutes there had been 16 handling errors and some of these meant tries were missed. Although there were many superb passes, this basic skill needs more work. Often the passing led to cross-field creep with players on the end being taken into touch. It’s important for back-line movements to be straightened up and Nonu’s skills in this area were missed.

The All Blacks need to eliminate the unforced errors especially the sloppy handling and lack of  kicking accuracy. Aaron Smith made a superb run on the left flank in the first half and then kicked it out on the full. Then late in the second half Carter was guilty of putting ball into touch in goal from a penalty.

The way ahead

The Tongan match is likely to see some key players rested like McCaw, Savea and all the Smiths. The likely reserves for the quarter final will all get a run.

It’s going to be France or Ireland in that match and The All Blacks will need to play a tighter more accurate game and have options up their sleeve to vary the play if necessary. Kicking options need to be practised and Dan Carter must work on his goal kicking from wide out.

In 2007 Graham Henry rested key players in the quarter final to his cost; Steve Hansen won’t make the same mistake.

A short section decorates each side at this corner at the Parata Street north end where it does a 90° turn to form a paved border for the north face of the Ryman complex.  It’s not apparent as to why, although possibly it reflects Wi Parata’s gift of land for the Wellington and Manawatu Railway in the mid-1880s.

The airline flew its first commercial service from Paraparaumu to Auckland on 20 August 2018 and reports that it has since had more than 40,000 passengers on some 1472 flights over the route.

Mayor Gurunathan says that Air Chathams is “building a strong and loyal customer base that is benefiting from the comfort and convenience of this regional connection.”

“Keeping Kapiti connected and accessible through this service strengthens business and family networks and bolsters our visitor economy. Our District’s share of regional and national tourism has been increasing by 10-15% year-on-year over the past three years and this service enables us to continue that momentum.”

Duane Emeny, the airline’s General Manager, says it has received a warm Kapiti welcome and has enjoyed meeting its new customers over the last year. “We’d like to extend a great big thank-you to all our passengers as they’ve journeyed along with us as we’ve found our place on the Kāpiti Coast,” he says.

In 2018, the KCDC offered to support Air Chathams through the ‘Fly Kāpiti’ campaign to aid in promoting the service. The Council’s $50,000 donation a year for three years (plus $66,000 spent on consultants about whether to make that donation — see this post) was supplemented by initial support from Air New Zealand and Kapiti Coast Airport, which offered Air Chathams a free terminal lease for the first year, along with other ongoing discounts on operating charges.