This is not a runner, this is a god!  —German spectator at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics

Outside the library in the main street of Opunake there is a statue of a runner in full stride. Peter Snell is the Taranaki town’s most famous son, but as a small boy, locals remembered him as just another scrawny little kid. However, Snell went on to become the country’s most successful middle distance athlete and one of its greatest sportsman. Yesterday he passed away in Texas at the age of 81.

He broke many world records and won a number of Commonwealth and Olympic medals. But back in 1960, when he was selected to run the 800 metres in the Rome Olympics, he was unknown and unheralded.

Coming in under the radar

Who’s the big guy in black? —Bing Crosby’s question to journalists

Before Rome, Peter Snell had a best time of 1.49.2 for the 800m, ranking him 26th in the world. For some unknown reason, there were to be three rounds before the Olympic final. In the first round there were four runners in Snell’s race with three to qualify. The opposition was strong: Ernie Cunliffe was ranked third in the world on time, Christian Waegli fifth and the other runner, Istvan Rozsavoelgyi, was one on the world’s best 1500-metre  runners.

One commentator remarked: This is ridiculous! A four man field and you can write down the first three names before the race starts. Not on his list was the unknown Kiwi who won the race easily in 1.48.1.

In the quarter finals he was up against Roger Moens of Belgium who held the world record of 1.45.7.  Snell ran cautiously and qualified for the next round with a second place. Psychologically, coach Arthur Lydiard felt that it was vital for the New Zealander to beat Moens in the semi final, which he did, in another personal best of 1.47.2.

On to the final

Jamaican, George Kerr, had run 1.47.1 in his semi-final so the expectation was that Kerr, Snell and Moens would share the medals. The pundits felt that the Belgian was biding his time for the final and that the Kiwi might run out of steam in this fourth race in three days.

Waegli did his usual front running and led for most of the race. Snell had little experience at this level and found that he couldn’t make the planned race-winning break in the back straight. He was feeling the pace of top competition and when Moens swept past him, all seemed lost. On the final bend he was back in fifth place.

I was so inexperienced I didn’t realise that everyone would be feeling the pace, not just me. Sure enough, as we hit the straight runners were dying out there. They were fading and gaps were opening up. It gave me renewed life. Suddenly I could see a way through.

Snell had sensibly stayed on the inside and moved up to third place. Moens had run wider and therefore further, but was still leading with 20 metres to run. The Kiwi roared through and lunged forward into the tape, but was it good enough for gold?

I had no idea who had won. I ran the last half yard with my eyes shut and Roger was quite a way away. I turned to Roger a few seconds later and asked him who had won and he replied ‘You did’.

An extraordinary athlete and an inspirational coach

The 800-metres win in Rome was the start of a short but record breaking career on the track. Snell won gold in the 880 yards and mile in the 1962 Perth Commonwealth Games and gold in the 800 metres and 1500 metres in Tokyo in 1964. He held world records for the–

• mile
• 800 metres
• 880 yards
• 1000 metres
• 4 x 1 mile relay.

Snell was one of a group of Auckland runners coached by the incomparable Arthur Lydiard. They did much of their long distance training in the Waitakere Ranges which included regular 20 mile runs, under Arthur’s watchful eye.

Peter Snell, Murray Halberg, Barry Magee and Bill Baillie were all world class athletes and they acknowledge that without Lydiard’s expertise, motivation and encouragement they would never have made the big time. Peter Snell summed up the coach’s impact.

I would never have had the vision to do what I did without Arthur. I might have been a good club runner, but I would never have done the distance work that was the foundation of my success. I organised my life to do what Arthur said and it paid off.

Successful academic career

Snell moved to the United States in 1971 to further his education. He gained a B.S. in human performance from the Davis Campus of the University of California and then a Ph.D in exercise physiology from Washington State. 

He was a research fellow at the University of Texas Medical Center from 1981 and later became Associate Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, and director of their Human Performance Center. He was also a member of the American College of Sports Medicine and was widely respected for his knowledge and research in this field.

Appropriately, snell is the Dutch word for fast. —Eds

by Ann David

On Tuesday 10 December Western Australia became the second state in Australia to legalise voluntary assisted dying. With their Lower House ratifying the amendments already agreed by their Upper House, this will give more than a third of Australians access to a humane death. The Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2019 (WA) has been passed but will take a further 18 months to come into effect.

This new law has similarities and a few differences to the one that has just been agreed by the New Zealand parliament – The End of Life Choice Act 2019.  Like us, a doctor in WA can prescribe and administer the medication if this is what the patient wishes.  Under the only previous Australian law in Victoria, self-administration (the person taking the medication themselves) is the default option. 

Comparisons with New Zealand

The main difference between NZ and WA is that in Australia the doctor is permitted to openly discuss the end of life option with a dying person in addition to any other possible medical procedures.  In NZ, the patient must initiate the conversation with the doctor.  

However, there is one fundamental similarity between these three laws – medically assisted dying is only for the dying.

To counteract the fear-mongering that we will continue to hear until the Referendum is successful, please pass on this vital message: that the End of Life Choice Act safeguards the vulnerable, protects medics and gives the terminally-ill a defence against the terrors of an agonising death.

In anticipation of deliberate misinformation, the Government has put out neutral, accurate, easy-read information of its own:  www.referendum.org.nz

Yesterday evening a group of about 30 art enthusiasts gathered to hear Janet Bayly, director of the Mahara Gallery and the founding Chairman of the Trust, Chris Turver (both in the picture above), recount the early stages of how the gallery developed, from discussions among local artists in 1994.

The first stage was convincing the KCDC that a District Art Gallery was needed as distinct from private galleries, and provide a building for it by moving the library into what was built as the Post Office across the north entrance to Mahara Place.  The library had been opened by the then Horowhenua County Council in September 1977.  Having the support of Lady Hardie-Boys, wife of the then Governor General and an artist, was a big help in achieving this.

Some of the documents from the early years are displayed.

The event also marked the opening of a new exhibition 3-D artworks by Michelle Walton (Backhouse), a couple of them visible in the photo above.

–‘Bygone Era’ by Bob Gibbs, a 3-D celebration of the ambiance of Reikorangi Potteries and café owned and operated by Wilf and Janet Wright.

Near the end of the era of the BP service station, since then just a vehicle repair shop.   The intersection is disliked by motorists moving east across it in the position of the white car at left, but a solution being considered of a roundabout is unpopular. (Wallace Trickett photo).

from the BFD

Their reporting that coastal-Alaskan Nome hadn’t seen sea-ice as of Monday the 9th came as news, I suppose, to the good folks of Nome who had announced the arrival of the annual sea-ice the previous week. Shucks, that sucks.

Then they fret over Greenland ice-loss without mentioning Greenland ice-gains, you can’t have one without the other, it was easy to peek at the Greenland ice-portal to see there is nothing, whatsoever, to fear: gains far exceeding losses, so much so Greenland has 50 giga-tonnes more ice now than a year ago and, in fact, only losing total mass on one single day the entire current season.

Full article

From Jim Cable of the Taxpayers Union

The average public sector CEO is paid $443,950. With poverty on the rise, and so many families struggling with the cost of living, this is eye watering.

Many of these CEOs make major decisions about services that impact millions of taxpayers’ lives. Shining a light on their salaries helps to promote accountability and transparency at the highest level.

While some of these salaries can be justified, others are totally out of whack. For example, many mid-ranking Rich Listers lead obscure agencies that most New Zealanders wouldn’t have heard of and which generate little value for taxpayers.

Who has heard of New Zealand Food Innovation? Its boss, Alexandra Allan, is paid a salary of $327,000.

Then there’s Victoria Crone of Callaghan Innovation: she takes home a cool half a million for running the corporate welfare agency. That’s even more than the Director-General of Health and is totally unjustified.

Our Executive Director, Jordan, joined Heather du-Plessis Allan to go over the list. The project was also discussed by The Panel on RNZ.

But what about local government?

The Rich List covers CEOs funded by the central government.

Until now, pay rates were only ever revealed as broad salary ‘bands’. We’ve been able to get the precise amounts to rank these individuals thanks to assistance from the Ombudsman and the State Services Commission.

We’re proud of our Rich List, but taxpayers deserve more. What about the small army of second tier staff earning more than $250,000? And what about local government?

Local councils have not been co-operative in releasing salary figures. Despite this, we are making progress, and with the Ombudsman’s help we plan to release a Local Government Rich List next year.

Full article and list

Boris Johnson in centre-stage flanked by Elmo and Lord Buckethead at the announcement of the result for his seat of Uxbridge & Ruislip South .

Nationalism as opposed to Globalism was backed by voters in yesterday’s UK general election with the English giving support to PM Boris Johnson’s intention to be out of the European Union a.s.a.p. by turfing a substantial number of Labour MPs out of office, while the the Scottish increased support for the SNP which wants independence from the union with England, but not from the European Union (you can be excused for failing to see the logic there).

In Northern Ireland the nationalist Sinn Fein added to its seats at the expense of the Unionists.

Skeptics might say that by 2050 not many of the existing Conservative MPs are going to be accountable for a failure to deliver on the carbon-neutral goal simply because they won’t be there.  The oldest British MP, 87-year-old Dennis Skinner, who had held the Bolsover seat for Labour since 1970, was another victim of the swing to the Conservatives.

The charisma of Boris Johnson in contrast to the dour, humorless, anti-Semitic and Hard Left attitudes of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was clearly of fundamental importance to the result — the Labour Party’s 203 seats in the House of Commons is the lowest since WWII.

As former British PM John Major said on a TV show in 2005, “you can be as Left Wing or Right Wing as you like, but you’re not going to win elections if you don’t capture the middle ground.”  The rejection of Hard Left politics at least has to be a warning for Jacinda and her Cabinet cohort in NZ.

Boris Johnson intends to spend the U.K.’s major net contribution to the EU on the National Health Service instead (as well as on more teachers and police).

Will the long-awaited Brexit make a difference to NZ?  It will for some things, but it’s unlikely to matter economically, it just means separate trade deals need to be made and there’s no reason for them to be less favorable than the existing.