by Owen Jennings

Last week Prime Minster Jacinda Ardern claimed action on the Climate Commission’s recommendations was “a matter of life and death”.  There is zero truth in that statement.  It is outrageous and dangerous.  All the evidence shows that climate related deaths — from heat and cold — are continuing to fall. 

The only weather events that the [UN body] Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says show even a minor likelihood of occurring are higher rainfall in limited regions and increased drought in others.  All manageable. Sea level rise can easily be mitigated if it ever becomes an issue.  After 15 years can Al Gore point to even one “climate refugee” from the Pacific?  Four new international airports on the Maldives? Tuvalu bigger today than it was in 2006 when Gore lied to the world to get an Oscar.

According to Ardern and her sidekick Shaw our biggest problem is agriculture.  It is supposed to contribute 48% of our emissions problem – mostly burped methane.  What are the known facts about methane?

All methane is 0.00018% of the atmosphere.  All ruminants contribute just 14% of the methane emissions. That means the world’s bison, giraffes, antelopes, cows, sheep together are responsible for 0.000000252% or .2 of one part per million of the atmosphere.  NZ has 1% of the planet’s ruminants and somehow cutting them back 15% – slaughtering 1 million cows and 4 million sheep – as the Government intends, is going to make a difference. What are those numbers in some recognisable manner?  

Imagine the whole atmosphere was the 12 hour, 10,000 km trip from Auckland to Los Angeles.  All methane is just a fraction of the pushback at the airport – 18 metres.  NZ’s contribution is 180 mm.  Our required reduction is the equivalent 27 mm.  Or an inch for you old buggers like me.  

How can seemingly intelligent people stand up and keep a straight face while telling you 27 mm of a 10,000,000 metre trip makes any difference? 

Ah, but you say “methane is a powerful greenhouse gas”.  Is it?  I can wheel in dozens of highly credible scientists, most of them “warmists” who say NZ’s interpretation of methane’s potency is overstated by 400%.  That overstatement is the difference between us having to slaughter a million cows or not.  It is the difference between decimating the sector that is the standout export earner and that is maintaining the remaining strength of the economy, or not.  It is the difference between us slashing production with the world’s lowest carbon footprint and watching another higher “polluting” country take up the slack making a mockery of our butchering our sheep and cattle.  It is the difference between us acting on only part of the Paris Accord or us responding to Part 2 that says “no measure taken to reduce emissions should limit food production”.

If you want to discuss potency of greenhouse gases I give you water vapour.  Take a breath.  Only 1% of that air is a greenhouse gas.  Of that 1%, 96% is water vapour.  For every molecule of methane in your breath there are 8,000 molecules of H2O.  That’s potency.  

On the Electromagnetic Spectrum where atmospheric radiation (ultra-violet, visible light and infrared) occurs Methane absorbs and re-emits very little radiation (heat) – almost zero. Its role is insignificant because water vapour already dominates over the entire range (over 70%) compared to Methane (less than1%). Methane is a minnow beside water vapour. Utterly unable to impact temperature in any meaningful, measurable way.

Note that agriculture’s share of the emissions reduction is away ahead of those required for fossil fuel “polluters”.  That is the worst of being a small voting bloc hammered and cowered by the dirty rivers campaign, the GHG villains, the evil meat and milk producers.

Spare a thought for farmers today. Just like you are attached to your cat or dog they are attached to their animals.  Sending cows to be butchered is desperately heartbreaking at any time.

Killing them when the logic is flawed, the science is wrong, the reasoning is faulty and the rationale is unjust increases the pain exponentially.

Gaia must be appeased. 

(Owen Jennings is a former National President of Federated Farmers)

(KCDC media release)

The Kāpiti Coast District Council’s recent purchase of a 1.077-hectare section of land at 254 Rangiuru Road in Ōtaki is an opportunity to influence future development of the wider surrounding area in a way that best meets the evolving housing needs of the community.

The section is one of a number of neighbouring undeveloped sites presenting opportunities for future development and was purchased through Council’s Strategic Property Purchase Fund, a rolling annual fund for the purchase of land and property that has a strategic value to the community.

“Like many areas in New Zealand, the Kāpiti Coast is experiencing increasing demand for housing and pressure on our limited public housing services,” says Kāpiti Coast District Councillor and Housing portfolio holder Rob McCann.

“The average house price in Kāpiti is now $711,465, up from $541,000 in 2017 and there is growing need for different housing models across the district including social housing, affordable rentals for those ineligible to apply for social housing, Māori-led housing solutions and student accommodation.

“We see an opportunity to work with neighbouring landowners on how this land could be developed in the future, potentially utilising a mixture of different housing types that would best serve our district.”

In April 2020, councillors agreed to establish a dedicated housing programme to proactively support the supply and quality of housing across the district, including encouraging the development of affordable housing solutions.

“One of our core long-term goals as a Council is a resilient community that has support for basic needs and feels safe and connected. Housing plays a key role in trying to achieve this. More and more I’m hearing of locals that have the leave the district because they can’t afford to live here anymore,” says Mr McCann.

“New Government requirements for how we build are likely to increase intensification and help provide more and different kinds of homes for our diverse population in the medium and longer term, but there is also a more pressing need in the shorter term.

“Through this purchase we are well placed to explore this need in detail and how we might be able to work together with other developers and partners to deliver solutions.”

“The housing pressures in Ōtaki are well-known with buyers chasing value for money further and further up the coast and in recent years it’s traditionally affordable areas like ours that have seen the greatest jumps in prices as a result,” says Ōtaki Ward Councillor James Cootes.

“The current market-led approach to housing simply isn’t working for our people and this purchase is an opportunity for Council, working with iwi, to influence how we utilise this land in new and different ways that will serve our community.”

No decisions or commitments have been made on how this land could be developed or Council’s role in development. The land is currently zoned as a mixture of Focused Infill Residential and Rural Dunes. Before any significant housing development could take place, a change to the Kāpiti Coast District Plan would be required.

More on housing in Kāpiti at www.kapiticoast.govt.nz/your-council/projects/housing/

---

We tend not to investigate council spending outside of Waikanae and Paraparaumu unless it is a big ticket item, and buying residential land should be a safe investment.  We’re told there were 2 Councilors opposed, but we’ve not heard why and it was decided in a secret session. —Eds

Speaking on The London Telegraph podcast ‘Planet Normal’, Stanford University professor of medicine Jay Bhattacharya noted that government scientific advisors “remain attached” to the policy of lockdown in spite of the total “failure of this strategy”.

“I do think that future historians will look back on this and say this was the single biggest public health mistake, possibly of all history, in terms of the scope of the harm that it’s caused,” said Bhattacharya.

The epidemiologist added “Every single poor person on the face of the earth has faced some harm, sometimes catastrophic harm, from this lockdown policy.”

“Almost from the very beginning, lockdown was going to have enormous collateral consequences, things that are sometimes hard to see but are nevertheless real,” Bhattacharya added.

He further noted that serious mental and physical illnesses have been basically ignored and “we closed our eyes to them because we were so scared about the virus and so enamoured with this idea that the lockdown could stop the virus.”

Read the rest plus audio-video files

A fascinating photo taken in April 1961 by Leslie Adkin. It shows the site of the first church Octavius Hadfield had built, probably early 1840. Because of the shifting Maori population it quickly fell into disuse and was taken over by sand. It was near the Kenakena Pa and there is a memorial gable marking the site of that at 14 Mazengarb Rd.

This shows the excavated site after bulldozers moving the sand to continue Mazengarb Road westwards had come upon it. There was then a combined denomination thanksgiving service on the site, photo below, before Mazengarb Road then went straight over the top of it. Although described at the time as being in Waikanae, it is now in Paraparaumu.

By Roger Childs

Basically a no contest

Wallabies coach Dave Rennie thinks the quality of Australian rugby has improved this Super Rugby season and feels success for the winless Waratahs isn’t far away. –Rugby Pass, 14 June 2021

We sometimes accuse the Australian media and sports teams of being arrogant and over-confident. Prior to the Tasman Super-Rugby competition they were accusing us of the same attitudes when many in New Zealand suggested that the teams across the ditch were not in the same class as our Super teams and would struggle when they met them on the field.

The Kiwi pundits were right. In 25 matches in the series the Australians won only two and both of those were close. 

In the last round over the weekend it was a clean sweep for the New Zealand teams and in the final table the lowest placed Kiwi team = the Chiefs were 14 points ahead of the top Aussie team: the Brumbies. So the main interest over the weekend was which two local sides would contest the final next Saturday.

Decided on points scored for and against

In theory any of the five New Zealand franchises could have made it to the last two. But in practice the Chiefs and Hurricanes could only get there if there were some highly improbable upsets which were just not going to happen. The Blues only had to win against the Western Force to qualify top of the table and this they did so: 31-21 at Eden Park. 

Their likely opponents were the Crusaders who just needed a bonus point win over the Rebels, which was a certainty, and see how the Highlanders got on in Canberra against the Brumbies the previous night. The latter had beaten the Hurricanes at home the previous week, so the southerners seemed unlikely to win and get the bonus point – scoring three tries more than the opposition — to end up level with Crusaders on the table.

However, the Highlanders, led by their inspirational hooker Ash Dixon and effervescent half back Aaron Smith, won 33-12 with five tries to two. Smith scored two of these. This left the Crusaders with the mission of hammering the Rebels by 33 points or more, to head off the Highlanders on the difference between points score for and against, to take the second finals spot. 

It was an anxious second half in the match played in Sydney. The Crusaders steadily built their lead and seemed to have the 33 margin well within their sights, but two converted tries to the Melbourne team in the second half saw the New Zealand visitors needing a converted try in the last 10 minutes. With eight minutes to go one of the Crusader forwards crossed the line close to the posts, but the referee correctly ruled a double movement and the Rebels won a penalty. So the score finished 52-26 and the Highlanders had unexpectedly made the final which will be played at Eden Park on Saturday.

Comparisons 

The trans–Tasman series showed up the significant gap in the quality of rugby played by the two countries franchises. However, the Australians clearly benefited from playing the New Zealand teams and some teams improved as the rounds progressed. For example the Western Force had two close losses at home before coming to New Zealand, but were slaughtered by the Hurricanes in their first game over here because virtually every time they got the ball they kicked it away using the “high kick and hope” approach which rarely succeeds.  An interviewer after the game talking to the Force captain helpfully pointed this out and the following week against the Crusaders the team retained possession far more and did plenty of passing and hard running. They ran the home team close and last Saturday against the Blues they also trusted their backs to run the ball and scored three tries.

August will see the acid test of the quality of rugby between the two countries as the annual Bledisloe Cup matches get underway. The Wallabies coach is the wily Kiwi Dave Rennie and he has just announced his squad which includes one of the world’s top loose forwards — Michael Hooper — who didn’t play in the trans–Tasman series.

On paper the All Blacks have much more player depth and should retain the trophy comfortably, but we must not get arrogant and over-confident!

Above is a portrait attributed to William Beetham, circa 1860, now in Te Papa.

Text originally created for Tūrangawaewae: Art and New Zealand exhibition at Te Papa, March 2018:

---

A dapper Ngāti Toa man, styled as a country gentleman.

Tāmihana Te Rauparaha was the only surviving son of the great rangatira [chief] Te Rauparaha. Raised in tikanga Māori [customs], he became a wealthy Ōtaki sheep farmer, and adopted the lifestyle of an English gentleman.

Tāmihana became a key figure in founding the Māori King movement, inspired by his meeting with Queen Victoria in England in 1852. In the 1860s, however, he withdrew his support. But he remained influential enough to later prevent the Taranaki conflicts of the New Zealand Wars from reaching Wellington.

He tāne taiea nō Ngāti Toa he rite ōna kākau ki ērā o te tāne whairawa o Ingarangi.

Ko Tāmihana Te Rauparaha anake te tama mōrehu a te rangatira, a Te Rauparaha. I whakatipuria ia ki ngā tikanga Māori, ā i whai rawa ia i āna mahi ahuwhenua ki Ōtaki. He rite tōna noho ki tērā o te tāne whairawa o Ingarangi.

Ko Tāmihana tētahi pou whakaara o te Kingitanga. I whakaawetia ia e tana hui tahi me Kuīni Wikitōria ki Ingarangi i te tau 1852. Ka huri tuarā ia i te kaupapa i te tau 1860 kia kore ai te riri whenua o Taranaki e tae atu ki Pōneke.

---

Tamihana Te Rauparaha, son of the celebrated Ngati Toa chief Te Rauparaha (d.1849), was born about the year 1821 at the Ngati Tama stronghold, Turangarua pa, in northern Taranaki, during the turbulent period following the Ngati Toa tribe forced migration from its ancestral home land of Kawhia harbour to the Kapiti district near present day Wellington. His mother Te Akau was a woman of high rank from the Tuhourangi tribe (Rotorua).

At the time of his birth he was named Ka-tu-te-rangi-ka-tukua (Katu) during the naming ceremony. Tamihana’s formative years were spent growing up with his father among the Ngati Toa where he witnessed first hand the realities of tribal relocation and large scale inter-tribal warfare. He was present during Ngati Toa’s devastating campaigns against Ngai Tahu in the South Land.

When Christianity arrived in the greater Wellington region in the late-1830’s Tamihana was eager to receive its message with its promise of ‘Peace on Earth and goodwill to all men’. On the 21 March 1841 Tamihana was christened at Waikanae by the Reverend Octavius Hadfield of Church Missionary Society, taking the baptismal name Tamihana, or Thompson.  

In 1843 Tamihana, together with his near relative Matene Te Whiwhi, embarked on a mission to the South Island to preach the ‘Rongo-pai’, the ‘Good Word’ of the Christian doctrine, and introducing Christianity among their former enemies the Ngai Tahu. That same year Tamihana also married Ruta Te Kapu, daughter of the Ngati Raukawa chief Tawhiri.

Tamihana was mission educated at Waikanae and Otaki from 1839 following the reverend Octavius Hadfields’ arrival. In 1845 Tamihana wrote a 120 page biographic manuscript detailing the life and exploits of his father, Te Rauparaha. He later attended St. Johns College in Auckland.  

Tamihana aspired to fully emulate his English peers and assimilate into European society. He dressed in the attire of an English gentleman, built a European house, and even employed non-Maori housekeepers to maintain it. He lived the life of a country squire, becoming a successful sheep farmer with a flock of more than 700 sheep.

In 1851 Tamihana visited England where he was presented to Queen Victoria. On his return to New Zealand he advocated for the establishment of a parallel Maori monarchy, the Kingitanga movement, to represent the independent and autonomous rights of all Maori. The first Maori King, Potatau Te Wherowhero, was appointed in 1858. Tamihana died at Otaki on 22 October 1876.

When rubber became scarce after WWII began, particularly after Japan entered the war, this was a solution to the shortage. As the information label states, it was made in Timaru.

Tops of train cars can be seen in the centre background; the road, although close, is out of sight.

“The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) database contains information on unverified reports of adverse events (illnesses, health problems and/or symptoms) following immunization with US-licensed vaccines. Reports are accepted from anyone and can be submitted electronically at www.vaers.hhs.gov.”

Breakdowns of the data are here. More detailed data on the CDC website here

Satire from The Babylon Bee