The pitfalls of penmanship

Back in 2006 David Hedley from Hedley’s renowned Masterton bookshop approached me and suggested that perhaps I might like to put a selection of my newspaper columns together in a book. He thought it would sell well and once produced he would arrange a book launch evening to start the ball rolling.  Naturally I was keen. After all, didn’t people become millionaires overnight writing best sellers and surely my book would be a best seller....

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Contradictions in a modern world

It is somewhat surprising that in an increasingly secular world the celebration of Christmas seems to be gathering more and more momentum. The commercial world undoubtedly initiates the fervour and there are more and more houses lit up with yuletide greetings, a multitude of channels beaming Christmas shows on television, and aisles and aisles of decorative ornaments, the majority of them ironically made in atheist China, packing the shelves...

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Food Banks needed because of unchecked inflation

I attended a committee meeting of the Masterton Food Bank this week and there was good news and bad news. The good news was that there are many generous individuals and businesses that add value to the Food Bank coffers on a regular basis allowing the good people that voluntarily operate the facility to buy-in and access lots of food and other household items of necessity to fill their constantly depleted shelves. The bad news is that...

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Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside...

I wrote a letter to the Dominion-Post last week, but was disappointed to see that it was not published. I have since found out however that Patrick Crewdson, Editor in chief (I kid you not, that is his title) of Stuff will not publish anything from climate-change denialists. Another blow it seems for free speech. Anyway here is the letter: Dear Editor, In a front page article in the Dominion-Post on Wednesday the 28th of November...

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When will they ever learn?

The nutty Greens are craftily convincing the gullible New Zealand public into allowing them to legislate to decriminalise cannabis for recreational use. “Decriminalise” and “recreational” are buzz words for open slather for anyone who wants to partake of the psychotic substance known as THC, but surveys show the Greens may well succeed while the sleeping giant of the so-called silent majority slumbers. Green MP Chloe Swarbrick wants to...

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A sermon for Saint Luke

I was a tad surprised when I got a call from Reverend Dashfield  asking me to do the sermon tonight. His reasoning being that this was a time to celebrate the feast Saint Luke and as he was a physician and as I was on the District Health Board it seemed entirely appropriate.On the health board yes, but I am not a doctor, though in a previous vocation I did call myself a heart, liver and kidney specialist. When customers came into...

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The towns biggest enterprise

My very earliest recollection of life is visiting my father in the Masterton Hospital when I was two-and-a-half years old. I vividly remember this for two reasons. First we weren’t allowed to go into the hospital proper because he had diphtheria and was therefore isolated. I clearly recall my mother holding me up to the window where I could talk to my father from the wide concrete window ledge above the solid brick wall. The main...

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