It is such a pity that most of the Maori élites, politicians and academics, and their fellow travellers, regard themselves as a separate people. All Maori have more settler/colonist blood than Polynesian. They are fundamentally New Zealanders and have the same needs and interests as other Kiwis. I’m sure most New Zealanders with some Maori blood think the same. Governments both central and local, have looked after “Maori” excessively for decades and sadly this had led to separatism, tribalism and division.
It’s time to see ourselves as one nation. Pride in ethnicity is understandable whether it be Samoan, Tongan. Indian, Japanese, Chinese, Maori or whatever, but for all citizens of the country regardless of their origins, their first culture is Kiwi. Shane Reti, the likely next Minister of Health, once said that we should meet people’s needs on the basis of those needs not on their race.
Having a separate constituency on the Wellington Regional Council for “Maori” makes no sense. What will the Maori representative do that would be different from other regional councillors? All elections should be based on the democratic principle that people will be voted in on the basis of merit, not ethnicity. Wellington electors in the last local body elections voted in a part-Maori mayor because they obviously considered her the best person for the job.
There should be no separate Maori seats in parliament or separate places on local bodies. Governments have a responsibility to meet all their constituents needs as they are Kiwis with varying backgrounds, but a common milieu.
Above is a still from Newshub’s video of street marchers in NZ’s major cities in support of Palestinians on Saturday which shows their opinion of both Netanyahu and Biden.
We’ve been calling Biden a warmonger since early April last year when it was made public that he and Blinken told then UK PM Boris Johnston to go to Kiev and persuade Zelensky not to conclude the Peace Treaty with Russia; they would continue to supply Zelensky all the weapons and money to keep the war going.
Whether that also makes Biden a war criminal depends on what specific actions Ukrainian troops have done under American (CIA) supervision with Biden’s knowledge and approval. But by their own declaration in 2022, Biden & Co.’s sending cluster bombs to Zelensky this year is a war crime. Sending him depleted uranium shells to use against Russians is another.
Leftists generally support Biden/Blinken’s proxy war on Russia, but it’s a different matter with their proxy (via Israel) war on Hamas in Gaza: Leftists mostly hate Israel and either don’t care about or support terrorist acts against it. In NZ the Green Party has made made clear its support for the Hamas intention to destroy Israel.
Even in America, a majority of Democrat voters according to a YouGov poll oppose sending Netanyahu weaponry and that presents a problem for the DNC. Despite popular belief the only state which has a sizeable Jewish constituency is New York. The other problem that Biden/Blinken have created for themselves and the country by allowing migrants from Mexico to flood in unobstructed is that they include Hamas and Hezbollah supporters (and other types of organised criminals). All they need to do is fly into Mexico City from wherever and make their way north.
We saw in 2020 that America has a huge simmering domestic terrorist problem in Antifa — that problem has become immeasurably worse since Biden was installed.
The Jacinda government of NZ jumped straight in on Biden’s side with his war on Russia; we can only hope that the new government stays neutral on the Israel/Gaza/Palestine conflict and instead encourages a negotiated diplomatic solution.
See also this condemnation of Biden by one-time U.S. Consumer Rights advocate and one-time Presidential candidate Ralph Nader.
Now that we are halfway through Spring and quickly heading to Summer in December there is a fair bit to do in our gardens, so let’s run a check list in case some things are missed. It will depend on what you have in your gardens as to whether any or all things aspects concern you.
Roses: generally at this time we have new foliage, buds and some flowering taking place.
If there is any sign of black spot or rust, spray the roses and soil underneath with a solution of potassium permanganate mixed at ¼ a teaspoon to a litre of non-chlorinated water and spray. (It may stain walls etc. temporarily).
Food for Roses; ideal is horse manure, blood & bone, sheep manure pellets with the blood & bone. These should be applied to the soil and covered with some purchased compost. Add to this a sprinkling of Wallys Unlocking your Soil and, once a month, a small sprinkling of Fruit & Flower Power.
If you want good roses avoid soil damaging fertilisers such as rose fertiliser and nitrophoska. Bio Boost is also a good natural slow release one and very well priced (available from PGG Wrightson or Fruit Fed.)
If you have roses that need recovery from past chemical sprays such as Shield (now banned) the chemicals will have broken down the natural immunity of your roses. You may like to start a recovery spray program which I wrote about originally almost 10 years ago.
On the first of the month mix the following at their label rates per litre of water: PerKfection for Roses, Magic Botanic Liquid, Mycorrcin & Wallys Neem Tree Oil.
Spray late in the day just before sunset. Then on the 15th of the month repeat-spray all the above except for PerKfection. Only water with non chlorinated water so you don’t harm the beneficial soil life including the gardeners best friend, earthworms.
In some cases the health improvement of your roses will be quickly noticed; although some may have the additional problem of inherently poor breeding and always be a sickly specimen (even if they have brilliant flowers).
Lawns; I have had a number of enquiries about lawn problems starting with moss in lawns. Don’t waste your money on sulphate of iron as it only burns the top of the moss which then it quickly comes back.
Instead, jet spray the moss with Wallys Moss & Liverwort Control. It kills the moss completely without damaging the grasses.
If there is a spongy feeling when walking on the lawn that indicates a thatch problem. Simply spray the lawn with Thatch Busta to clean up the thatch. (Do the moss killing first, wait about 2 weeks then the Thatch Busta.)
Bare patches in the lawn indicate the root damage caused by grass grubs in the autumn/winter period and these same grubs are now down deep, pupating to emerge shortly as beetles. They are too deep to do anything about them at this time so don’t waste your money on treating. The horse has gone so no need to close the gate.
Another bare patch problem with holes in the lawn indicate that porina caterpillars are at work eating at the base of the grass in the evening (when they are safe from birds) to return to their tunnels before dawn. A simple spray over the lawn with Wallys Neem Tree Oil will stop the damage and cause them to starve to death.
In areas where porina are a problem treat the lawn this way every 3 months == it’s best do this late in the day on a recently mowed lawn: When the grass grub beetles emerge they are going to eat the foliage of several plants so after you have noticed holes in the leaves go out after dark with a torch and have a look.
If you have beetles then spray them directly with a mix of Wallys Super Pyrethrum and Wallys Neem Tree Oil. Repeat nightly. Also a bright light in a window facing the lawn with a trough two thirds full of water with a film of kerosene floating on the top, placed directly under the window pane, will trap lots of beetles — maybe a few Codlinh Moths too; they fly at the bright light hit the pane and fall into the water where the kerosene stops them from escaping.
Feed the beetles to the chickens next morning or flush down the toilet. By the way if you do not have two or three chickens and you have room for a small hen house, run it is a great investment. They will convert kitchen scraps and weeds into the best manure around and as a bonus supply you with a few eggs that you will find really tasty and magic for baking. Not only that, you are a bit more self-sufficient.
Check all grafted fruit tree and ornamentals for any sign of foliage appearing on the root stock below the graft union. Any found should be rubbed or cut off otherwise they will grow and the preferred plant will die.
Rust on garlic and curly leaf on stone fruit — this season particularly because of a lot of rain and too many cloudy skies meaning not much direct sunlight has placed plants into stress which makes them more prone to catching diseases. To help rescue the crop, mix a tablespoon of molasses to a litre of hot water to dissolve and then when cool spray over the foliage.
Repeat regularly till harvest. Also you can water the same into the root zone occasionally.
Weeds; they certainly grow at this time of the year and as long as you deal to them before they set seed, they are not too much of a problem. In fact weeds are a excellent asset to your garden soils as they have taken up goodness which can be returned to great advantage. You could pull the weeds out, shake the soil off them and lay them back down on the soil.
Even better — with a sharp knife slice through the weeds just below soil surface. This leaves the roots in the soil to rot and provide food for the soil life and it does not disrupt the beneficial fungi in the soil. The foliage can be laid on the soil surface where it will be quickly devoured by the soil life and worms. Your soil will build up humus quickly if you spray the dying weeds with Mycorrcin.
Doing these things (sure, it takes a bit of time, but it is so therapeutic and anti-stressful) will over time make for dream gardens and plants.
Citrus; its a good time to sprinkle Wallys Neem tree Granules underneath the citrus trees from the trunk to the drip line. This will help prevent insect damage. If you have chook manure give a good sprinkling of that otherwise any animal manure or sheep manure pellets along with blood & bone. Cover with compost.
Sprinkle Fruit and Flower Power once a month. A spray of Wallys Liquid Copper with Raingard added in the spring and autumn will help with any citrus diseases.
If the trees are looking a bit sad add Perkfection to the copper spray. In cases where wet feet have rotted roots, treat the area with Terracin to suppress the pathogens and help save the tree.
Three weeks later spray the soil with Mycorrcin.
Note: always use non-chlorinated water which is easily achieved with a special carbon bonded filter on your outside tap. (This is available from our mail order website.)
Pear Slugs; In warmer areas and later in cooler areas the pear slugs will attack pear and plum trees, they eat small holes in the foliage and look like a black slug. Simply spray the tree with Wallys Liquid Copper to control them.
Remember to be nice to your gardens by being natural.
Although local Climatists constantly bleat about emissions, the fact is that in terms of air quality, New Zealand in 2022 ranked 121 out of 131 countries for air pollution. Australia was even better at number 123 rank.
This website iqair provides real time information about not only NZ cities (including Waikanae), but many others around the World.
The Western media saturation coverage of terrible events in Gaza over the past three weeks is driven in large part by the onerous need to divert attention from the scandal and debacle of NATO’s proxy war in Ukraine.
The horrendous violence and suffering in Gaza have dominated the global news cycle. That is not untoward given the dreadful scale of disaster where over 7,000 people, mainly civilians and nearly half of them children, have been killed over the past three weeks by Israeli bombardment and siege.
Death toll numbers are obsolete within a day, such is the wanton murderous destruction by the Israeli regime. And yet Joe Biden and other Western politicians minimize this criminality by trying to cast doubt on the casualty numbers. How utterly despicable of Biden and his Western accomplices to this genocide.
But what is also notable is the abrupt cancellation of Ukraine as a story by Western media. The wholesale relegation of interest in Ukraine is truly astounding. The precipitous fall-off in Western media coverage reflects how the proxy war in Ukraine was always a contrived geopolitical agenda devoid of any purported principle of Western democracy.
For nearly 19 months the hostilities in Ukraine have been plastered all over Western news media. The conflict was described as the biggest in Europe since the end of the Second World War. Western governments and media outlets roundly condemned Russia for alleged aggression towards Ukraine and it was hysterically proclaimed that the whole of Europe was under threat from a would-be Russian invasion if Ukraine was not defended.
The Ukraine and Gaza Strip wars have revealed that U.S. military planners who insist that the U.S. can maintain “full spectrum dominance” and fight two major wars at the same time are full of shit.
Israel has demanded military aid from the US for its war with the Hamas movement. Former US Marine Corps intelligence officer and UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter pointed out that the Pentagon’s cupboard was bare and it was failing to meet recruiting targets.
The US cannot give Israel the arms it needs for a war with Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran — or even maintain its own forces — says a military veteran.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared war on the Hamas movement that rules in the besieged Gaza Strip in the wake of the surprise attack by several allied militant groups on October 7.
The incursion and subsequent skirmishes — including with Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas on Israel’s northern border — has left almost 300 Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) troops dead with 200 more held captive in Gaza. around 1,000 Israeli civilians were also killed. That represents Israel’s worst losses since its 1982 invasion of southern Lebanon.
