A programme to install webcams on Kāpiti Island is being expanded in an effort to clamp down on illegal poachers.

The first webcam was installed at the end of 2018 and another last year. The group behind them, Guardians of the Kāpiti Marine Reserve, say they are already having an impact.

In 2019, the Department of Conservation (DOC) recorded 15 instances of things like issuing warnings and prosecutions – more than double the previous year from when there was no webcams watching.

Ben Knight, chair of Guardians of the Kāpiti Marine Reserve, said the reserve – which was established in 1992 – was home to large numbers of crayfish, paua, butter fish, snapper, and blue cod.

“It’s home to quite the bounty of high value marine species… ecologically, but also economically to some people,” he said.

“Even just out here last summer I was diving right in front of the DOC base… we found fishing gear, hook, line and sinkers on the bottom out here.”

Full story

Another great Karl Webber photo.

A media release from the council follows below.  Getting a proper library for Waikanae, and within a reasonably short timeframe, is the unanimous Number One Priority of all the Waikanae Community Board members and Ward Councilor Jocelyn Prvanov, All five met today with council staffers and Boffa Miskell people to go through general and specific issues relating to it, and the town centre which it is a fundamental part of.  The library is seen as the town centre hub, and these days public libraries are about a lot more than just books.

Investigations into future building options for Waikanae Library are underway with the Kāpiti Coast District Council set to begin exploring a range of options which may include potential refurbishment of the original library site, as well as exploration of possible alternative sites.

Waikanae Library building was declared uninhabitable in November 2018 due to toxic mould in the building’s structure. This led to the relocation of library ‘pop-up’ services to its current, smaller location in Mahara Place.

“The Waikanae community has been very supportive of our ‘pop-up’ library and customer services over the past 14 months, but we know they’d like to see progress on a permanent solution for this important and valued facility,” says James Jefferson, Group Manager Place and Space.

“This project will explore in detail all available options, the pros and cons of each, and the associated costs to ensure we are making informed and considered decisions.

“At the same time, our Libraries team is working on a holistic library strategy review to understand the needs of the Kāpiti community so future library services and resources can be shaped to best meet those needs. You’ll be hearing more on this and how you can be involved in the coming months.”

The Waikanae Community Board was briefed this afternoon and a representative Waikanae Library Project Advisory Group which will include the voice and perspective of business, youth, older people and iwi will be set up to support the project going forward.

Preferred options will be consulted on with the community before being presented to the Community Board in the next few months for endorsement. A recommendation will then go to Council for a decision mid-year.

“Our priority is to go in with an open mind and ensure we have a good understanding of the options and how they will meet the needs of the community now and in the future. We look forward to sharing this with the wider community shortly,” says Mr Jefferson.

A story on the NZ Herald website from a week ago.  One hopes that a certain Kapiti case will be among those he looks at.

The new independent body tasked with looking at suspected wrongful convictions will be headed by Colin Carruthers QC.

As chief commissioner of the Criminal Cases Review Commission, Carruthers will be assisted by an establishment advisory group that will include legal heavyweight Nigel Hampton QC and former detective Tim McKinnel, who successfully fought for compensation for the wrongfully imprisoned Teina Pora.

The commission was part of the Labour-New Zealand First coalition deal, and the appointments were announced today by Justice Minister Andrew Little and New Zealand First justice spokesman Darroch Ball.

Original article

by Roger Childs

Houellebecq has once again managed to put his finger on modern France’s (and Western) society’s wounds, and it hurts. —The Economist

A controversial writer

Michel Houellebecq (pronounced ‘Wellbeck’) is regarded by some as the bête noir of French writing and by many as a cultural icon. He is possibly France’s best-selling author and is highly regarded in political circles as his Légion d’honneur award testifies. 

He exploded on to the literary world with Atomized, a story about two dysfunctional brothers, one of whom has sex on the brain and the other who has great difficulty with the female population. He followed this up with Platform, a novel about sex tourism and a bombing in Southeast Asia. (Coincidently, this was shortly before the Bali bombings.) More recently Submission postulated a France of the future where a Muslim party links up with the right wing Front National in an election, and subsequently political life and Gallic culture change dramatically.

Houellebecq has been criticised for his male characters regarding women primarily as sex objects and for his bursts of explicit language. However, all his books have a strong philosophical element, as well as poetry; scientific, social and political observations; interesting detail on French culture and history, and strong plot development. 

He is a very honest, and challenging writer, who unashamedly tells it how it is and once again in Serotonin he confronts the reader with plenty of interesting ideas on the problems of present day France and the future. 

The farmers are revolting

His main characters are always males with personal problems, and this time it is middle aged Florent-Claude Labrouste. He is a sad case as he constantly reflects on his stupidity in betraying the only women he ever really loved. 

As the story opens he has a Japanese girl friend who he despises, and he contemplates ditching her along with his prestigious job with the Ministry of Agriculture. He gets some relief from his misery in a pill called Captorix which is an anti-depressant. It alters the brains releases on serotonin – sometimes called the “happy chemical” – but one of the side effects is a reduced sex drive.

He leaves his girl friend and his job in Paris and catches up with a farmer friend in Normandy, where he is thrust into the midst of a local economic crisis. The small farmers are going to the wall because of European Union agricultural policies and the impact of globalisation. They mount a protest …

In top form

The story teller, Florent-Claude, is flawed and self doubting, but he is an intelligent and perceptive thinker, and his observations challenge the reader to take a position on topics such as:

• medical and drug issues
• agricultural marketing
• grooming teenage girls
• depression
• small communities and globalisation.

At 309 pages this is a very manageable novel and Houellebecq shows his usual fluency in keeping the story moving along with interesting detail on the geography and culture of France and the complexities of Florent-Claude’s history of personal relations.

As Europe is currently seeing rural communities suffering from the growth of large scale agribusiness and regional decline, along with rising levels of depression and mental illness, Serotonin touches plenty of raw nerves.

It is the most racist, derogatory, dishonest, divisive and ignorant thing I’ve ever seen in a gallery. –Waikanae resident in an e-mail to us

By Roger Childs

Robyn Kahukiwa is an Australian born, part-Maori artist who was incensed about government funding for the 250th celebrations of the 1769 arrival of Captain Cook in New Zealand waters. Her exhibition “Let’s NOT celebrate Cook” is a visual expression of her views on the matter and is featuring at the Mahara Gallery until 12 April.

Artistic licence is to be expected of painters and cartoonists, but they should not falsify history and make up stories to suit their art. Unfortunately, Kahukiwa gets the history and consequences of Captain Cook’s visits to New Zealand deliberately wrong to suit her prejudiced views.

Telling lies

THEN COOK SHOT 9 MAORI

THEY FELL DEAD IN THE SAND

JUST ‘COS THE CROWN DID WANT

SOME NEW LANDS.

This is part of a longer poem in a painting and is utterly dishonest on a number of counts:

• Cook personally shot nobody.
• Only one native died on the sand at Poverty Bay.
• All the deaths there resulted after attempts by the natives to steal things or because of their aggressive behaviour which led to fighting with sailors.
• Britain didn’t want new colonies – there was no attempt to invade or take over New Zealand during the following 60 years.

Another painting states that there should be no celebration because Cook was a “British Invader, Thief, Murderer, Kidnapper, Rapist.” There is no evidence that he was any of these things and in fact, as he was instructed to do, he was at pains to try and establish good relations with the native peoples of the Pacific. There were some misunderstandings over property and ownership leading to violence, but using weapons against natives was only ever in self-defence.

Free expression

Robyn Kahukiwa is, or should be, entitled to her views, but one wonders about the Mahara Gallery featuring her artwork about Captain Cook.  Furthermore, having Mayor Guru actually open this and another exhibition gives it a measure of official council endorsement. But does the Mayor actually accept Kahukiwa’s twisted view of history?

If you haven’t done so, go see it for yourself and draw your own conclusions. Comments are welcome.

Media release from the office of the Mayor:

Candidates standing in the Otaki and Mana electorates in the coming General Elections should expect to see a strong push from Kāpiti residents for a commitment to a Community Hospital in Kāpiti.

I see this campaign as the next stage to the 22,500 strong petition that was presented to the Parliamentary Health Committee last year. I’m happy that the Health Committee, in responding to the petition, has noted the positive work being done by the CCDHB and the Ministry of Health working with the Kāpiti Health Advisory Group to improve Kāpiti’s access to health services.

The Ministry and the CCDHB would, however, be mistaken in their view that Kāpiti residents now and in the future will be satisfied with just “improved services”.

The political message should be quite clear. The 22,500 strong petition is the largest petition in Kāpiti’s history and was achieved in a record time of just eight weeks! People came in droves to sign it.

The 22,500 petition is a strong public mandate for a hospital and will be a legitimate part of a campaign for a Community Hospital during this election period. This campaign will highlight the lack of planning to future proof the growth projected for Kāpiti. This has not been covered by the Health Committee Report.

Kāpiti’s population is currently at 53,000 and its projected to increase to 64,000 by 2043. This is a conservative estimate that has not fully grasped the potential impact of the $2 billion investment in roading infrastructure from Transmission Gully, M2PP, PP2O and north to Levin. There is expectation our population could exceed well over 64,000 by 2043.

What the report does not consider is the intention of the Government to leverage such infrastructure investment to solve our housing crisis by fast tracking intensive urban development. The Kainga Ora Homes and Communities Act 2019, and its enabling tool the NPS on Urban Development, will create Urban Development Authorities with centralised powers to create large and medium housing projects. The 2019 Act requires not just the building of houses but the creation of communities. The campaign for a Community Hospital is an integral part of building such resilient communities.

A Community Hospital will also mean a level of decentralisation of the medical services for trauma medicine currently centralised in Wellington. This is critical to local resilience during civil emergencies like a major earthquake. A GNS report had warned that a major regional earthquake of a 7.5 magnitude or greater could see the Wellington Region broken up into seven isolated ‘islands’. Kāpiti would be cut off for weeks.

Candidates wanting our votes should be actively championing the case for a future Community Hospital in Kāpiti.

(Mayor Guru)

Our comments:

It was always highly unlikely that the Capital and Coast DHB was going to support building a hospital in Kapiti when it is severely cash strapped by running Wellington and Kenepuru Hospitals. Guru probably knew this, too.

Guru omits in his figures that north of Peka Peka is outside of the CCDHB territory.

We have learned from a chat with a Selwyn District Councilor at a housing symposium held in Wellington on Tuesday that the Selwyn Council intends to build a hospital itself and lease it to the DHB there.  The ink on the contract for that is not far off being made.  For various reasons, that is not something Kapiti could seriously consider in the short term, but the progress of the Selwyn project will be of interest. —Eds