Today probably around 80% of cars on the road are painted either silver or black — appropriate Kiwi colours maybe, but they make for a lack of distinctiveness that contrasts with the way it was in the golden era of the 1950s and 1960s, even the 1970s.

Here’s one we spotted that comes from those classic years — a 1965 Ford Fairlane 2-door hardtop — and in a colour you can’t fail to notice!  🙂

The building is one of the long-time icons of Tutere Street. With Eva.

Professional performing artists from Kāpiti have gifted their time and talents to support the development of the new Kapiti Performing Arts Centre in the inaugural Beat the Blues concert, which will be take place at The Waterfront Bar and Kitchen in Raumati Beach on Saturday 7 September.

Hosted by crowd favourite Fergus Aitken, the gig will showcase the Coast’s best talent in latin, funk, swing and the blues. Headline acts include the legendary Wayne Mason with Andrew & Kirsten London — a playful swing trio with devilishly clever lyrics; Paekākāriki reggae soul masters Tū Tilley and The FeÑa Latino Combo who bring an authentic tour d’force of rock, jazz and traditional Spanish and Brazilian sounds.

Andrew London said the group is delighted to be able to help out with fundraising efforts for the performing arts centre, which is under construction on Raumati Road.

“It’s going to be an incredible asset for the whole region and will not only encourage national and international artists to perform here on the Coast, but more importantly, help to nurture young people into the performing arts generally,” said Mr London.

“Our hats are off to all the good people who have helped with this initiative and we’re really thrilled to be part of the project,” he said.

Concert organiser Fiona Gunter-Firth said she is honoured to have such high calibre artists on board for the fundraiser, which will contribute to the final development phase.

“The fact that these top artists have agreed to support us shows how excited they all are about having a flagship centre for performing arts in Kapiti,” said Ms Gunter-Firth.

“The line-up promises to be a great night’s entertainment – the ideal way to catch up with friends, dust off your dancing shoes and say goodbye to winter while supporting the new centre,” she said.

Limited tickets are available at $30 plus booking fee from Eventfinder. The first performance begins at 7:30 pm, and further support can be shown on the night via a raffle.

To purchase tickets, visit: https://www.eventfinda.co.nz/2019/beat-the-blues/raumati

For information on the centre, visit: https://kapitiartscentre.nz

Ccontact : Bee Stevenson, b@bravebear.co.nz 021-493-564.

“We were literally running out of carbon before we started to pump it back into the atmosphere. CO2 has been declining to where it is getting close to the end of plant life, and in another 1.8 million years, life would begin to die on planet Earth for lack of CO2.

“A new cult religion has been born on the issue of climate. It’s also a political and scientific movement because of the huge taxpayer money going into it! The hypocrisy is rampant!”

More of it than is usually seen at these mini rapids because of the heavy rain of the past week.

“Come skate with us! if you are looking for a new sport come and check out Roller Derby. Its fun, social and a great way to keep fit. We run learn to skate sessions every Monday night at Waikanae Memorial Hall, 7-9 pm. First session is free and we have hire gear. Just bring a helmet and drink bottle. We would love to see you there!”

By Bruce Moon

The Protect Ihumatao organisation — bold claims

The Ihumatao campaign is an interesting example of the complexity of New Zealand. Protect Iumatao:  Save Our Unique Landscape (SOUL) describes itself as “inclusive of residents, ratepayers, community members and interested parties”. It refers to :

• the fraught history of Crown-Maori relations 
• a Pakeha law and Pakeha processes [that] have driven a wedge between affected Maori creating a divided house 
• that the government must intervene and create  meaningful engagement so that all affected Maori can express their concerns and interests 
• that our country’s reputation is at stake 
• that it cannot afford to be seen internationally to override the basic human rights of our indigenous people.

Issues concerning the appropriate use of the land in question, I leave to others.

However, it is timely to consider just who are the people that have allegedly suffered at the hand of Pakeha, the society that Pakeha have driven a wedge through and the “indigenous people” whose basic human rights are being overridden.

Polynesian settlers – a stone age culture with a warrior tradition

A few centuries before the arrival of Europeans, New Zealand became populated by tribal groups of Polynesian people who settled here in several waves of canoe voyaging. They had stone age technology (there was no wheel and no metal) coupled with survival by hunter-gathering, fishing and subsistence farming. While components of the various tribal groups may have provided some social stability, the tribal structure itself did not. 

There was no common sense of Maori identity, welfare and well-being or even a uniform language

Rather, the tribes were variously parties to treacherous warfare, accompanied by cannibalism, slavery and female infanticide. The cultural tradition was a warrior tradition with brutal consequences.  Early European explorers found out as much to their cost. Among the first: one of Tasman’s boat’s crews, Frenchman Marion du Fresne and 26 of his men, a dozen from Cook’s ship Adventure were all the victims of cannibal feasts.

The Musket (Inter-tribal) Wars

When Hongi Hika went overseas and returned with hundreds of muskets, the consequences were dire. One third of the entire Maori population were slaughtered in a few decades of inter-tribal warfare and it was this which so tragically accounts almost entirely for the decline of the Maori population in the first few decades of the colonial era.   [Wikipedia article]

These tribal battles resulted, among other things, in so many young females of breeding age being, quite simply, slaughtered. 

And, of course, the tribal massacres carried out by Hone Heke, Te Waharoa, Te Rauparaha and others cannot be overlooked in terms of both history and human vicissitude.

The benefits of colonisation

In sharp contrast to this increasingly destructive tribal regime, colonisation provided stability, structure and revitalisation. It brought new technology and opportunity and also a democratic tradition incorporating freedom of speech. 

The people of New Zealand reinvented themselves. As with any society, development has not on occasions been even across the board or ‘fair’.  And the challenge of any society is to protect all its members. 

However, to claim that colonisation per se has overridden the basic human rights of indigenous people is simply to misconstrue history.

Indeed, colonisation protected the Maori people from themselves and inter-racial marriages became widespread, contributing to the richness of New Zealand.  With so many Ihumatao protesters having some colonists’ blood in their veins, this is the human reality today.

Another critical analysis of the revisionist narrative being fed to us by the Jacinda government via its sycophantic Mainstream Media is to be found on TheBFD website here

Taken from the footbridge some years ago — a little sombre you might think.  For comparison, here’s one of our pics in the same place from a couple of weeks back.

This display on the centre’s front window shows the activities that have been organised by Beverly and now just await people to drop in there and enjoy them!  In Mahara Lane almost opposite Sunday Cantina.

by Salima Padamsy

In June 2019, Council received a report commissioned from Morrison Low, an Australian Management consulting firm, regarding the need to close the Waikanae Library in late 2018.  

The report found:

• Systemic and organisational flaws in reporting, and record keeping. 
• A dysfunctional culture within Council, which made decisions without first seeking the necessary information on which to base those decisions. 
• The Council had all the information required to act earlier, but chose not to. 

The report’s methodology fails to hold anyone to account. Instead of identifying individuals with direct line management, even by job description, the report refers to the Senior Leadership Team — a general group of managers. Senior local government management is a very tight-knit shop.  Those who fail in one local authority normally move on to another, simply because they are never held accountable – never.

Can ratepayers have confidence in Council management and its operations given such a debacle was allowed to occur, resulting in a rebuild cost of approximately $2 million.  It only begs the question, what will the planned organisational review reveal? We only now have a revealing glimpse into why KCDC is the second most indebted Council per capita in NZ.

The report also explains that library staff, exposed daily to the toxins, gained an impression that “there was no money…” and that, staff did not analyse, collate or report it to create a “full picture of the true cost” to remedy the leaky building environment. This seems an unjust attempt to sheet blame onto the affected staff, as opposed to the Council’s corporate manager(s) of the property portfolio.

For starters, councils always have money – lots of it.  It is simply a matter of choosing where to spend it, in other words, prioritising.  The Council’s management clearly did not prioritise the health and safety of its Waikanae library staff – that is a plain and simple fact, given what has now come to light.   

How many make-overs has Mahara Place itself had in the decade since these building issues were first reported?  How many land acquisitions has the council made in this past decade? How did the council find the extra money to complete the Aquatic Centre when Mainzeal went bust?  The list of expenditures on ‘other nice-to-have things’ over the past decade is truly vast. 

A final and important point the report makes is that Council has a significant loss of institutional knowledge due to high staff turn-over, and very poor record keeping. KCDC was aware that the Office of the Ombudsman had concerns regarding their ability to maintain records in line with the Public Records Act — 4 years later, it still remains an issue.  

As constituents of the District that pays $28 million a year in KCDC staff salaries, we deserve better.

The tragedy will be if Councillors accept this report without demanding answers and accountability of the Senior Leadership Team.  It is election year, we should keep our eyes peeled to see who is working for us to ensure that the costs that have been incurred from this fiasco will not happen again.

Unfortunately, meetings of the Chief Executive Performance and Pay committee are always held behind closed doors (it’s time for that to change.)  We know, however, from the fact that former council boss Dougherty was given a five figure pay rise in the first half of 2017 — the only councilor who opposed it was David Scott — that neither the Mayor nor any of the present councilors have shown any real interest in holding the senior management accountable.  The good news is there is the opportunity for voters to express their opinion of that over the next two months! —Eds