And His Truth goes marching on

Sometimes I have to conclude that New Zealand is a confused little country. According to the 2013 census the number of people who identify as having no religion has reached 1.6 million, an increase of 26 per cent since the last census in 2006. And yet a Massey University survey taken in 2008 found that 72 percent of New Zealander’s believed in God. The survey was of New Zealanders above the age of 18 and was said to have a margin...

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A New Year nightmare in the making

Weston Ten-Green-Bottles settled back on the chair in his office in Martyrdom’s imposing Town Hall and felt somewhat apprehensive. The elections were over, the new lady Laud-Mare, Linley Pattercake, was ensconced in the adjacent office and he ought to have been at peace with the world. But there were potential obstacles on the road ahead. The Regret Theatre owner Brenton Goodloser was back on the town kownsil and was inclined to rattle...

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Tracing the world's money-go-round

According to the oral history of our family, my great-grandfather on my father’s side was a remittance man from England. Remittance men were the ne’er-do-well sons of well-to-do families who were banished to the colonies so not to further disgrace their kin-folk. They were sent a regular remittance to live on and this was maintained as long as they never set foot again in the old country.My great-grandfather’s Achilles’ heel apparently was the demon drink and the final straw came when as a young man he had a night out with...

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A fine petishun for the gullybull

Russell Abnormal was particularly pleased with himself and so too was his co-leader Metaphor Two-rear. Ms Two-rear was grinning like a Cheshire cat; the post-persons had defied attacks by magpies and delivered the bright orange envelopes into the letter boxes of an anxious public no doubt desirous to have their say. The bicycle express had got through.They were going to put it up Don Key’s followers in a big way. How dare he opt to sell...

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Analysing a community in crisis

I’m now going to wade in where angels fear to tread; the ‘letters to the editor’ department may swell as a result. It’s all about this Roast Busters saga. I just can’t get my head around it. For instance what is the meaning of the phrase “Roast Busters?” A play-upon-words from Ghost Busters, but what is the tie-up with the activities of the group? Is there a teenage language out there that I am blissfully unaware of? I...

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Where the emperor has no clothes

A letter to the editor and a number of personal letters and phone calls criticised a column I wrote a couple of weeks ago challenging the efficacy of global warming. I guess my trouble is that over many years I have seen “cry wolf” so many times that I've become a sceptic.Set aside the claim the world was freezing over as postulated in the 1960’s. Next up was the Club of Rome, a group of distinguished academics and scientists who in...

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Not a book for the faint-of-heart

My young friend Paul Henry has written a new book. It’s called Outraged and I suspect many who read it will themselves be outraged. In typical Henry fashion Paul pulls no punches and systematically slaughters all the sacred cows you could possibly think of and some of which you probably haven’t. Labour supporters, and those of the green persuasion are quite likely to organise book burning sessions and even those on the centre-right...

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The left and right of global warming

Two opposing events clouded the global warming issue last week. The Blue Mountain bushfires certainly caused concern in the Lucky Country. Tony Abbott’s new administration is rich in climate change sceptics, and opponents blamed the fires and Sydney’s soaring temperatures on global warming accusing the Liberal/National coalition of having its head in the sand. Abbott has already closed the government’s climate change department and the...

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The local body elections analysed

I first stood for the mayoralty back in 1992. There were three of us vying for the title; Bob Francis and myself and a lady whose name I won’t mention because I have not sought her permission to do so. In the event more than 11,000 votes were cast and in round figures Bob got 6000, I got 4000 and the lady, who was a credible candidate, got 1000. Twenty-one years later, when the town will have grown, though perhaps not as fast as we might...

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In faint praise of the salesperson

After we were married and were creating a stable of young children we were accosted one evening by a door-to-door salesman selling encyclopaedias. The brand was Britannica, but it could just as easily have been Collins. Both products were sold by slick marketers who seldom left a household without extracting a sale. If you think accost is too strong a word to describe someone who is merely plying their trade I checked my trusty Chamber’s...

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The good old days not that good

Those standing for office in the upcoming local body elections, having rushed to media outlets to inform the public of their excellent attributes, will have found that it was not only an expensive exercise, but they will also have been given an infinite variety of choices.There are at least 5 radio stations and three newspapers that will have plausibly endeavoured to convince the incumbents and aspirants to choose their particular vehicle...

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Important questions for our age

From time to time I devote the column inches of my article to searching locally, nationally and internationally for the most important questions that currently need to be contemplated. Here they are: 1. If Oracle’s catamaran was designed and made almost entirely in N.Z., and if their CEO is Sir Russell Coutts, and if Jimmy Spittle owns a multi-million dollar home in Auckland then how come Peter Montgomery didn’t say as he concluded...

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The Balmoral family are hospitable

I had just drifted off to sleep when the phone rang. It was quite late at night. My caller was the secretary/treasurer of the Amateur Newspaper Columnist’s Guild (ANCG). She told me I had been selected, presumably at random, to represent the guild by accompanying John Key and his family on their historic visit to stay with the Queen at Balmoral Castle. I didn’t have an opportunity to even express surprise. It was either yes or...

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The tortured road to Damascus

During that period around BC and AD there was a young man named Saul, born in the Middle Eastern city of Tarsus whose great intellect was recognised at an early age. His father, a wealthy merchant, saw that his son was well educated, getting the most noted teacher the Jews had ever possessed, Gamaliel, to privately tutor him. Saul became steeped in Judaism, the religion of the Jews. About that time an outspoken thirty-three-year-old had...

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Glory Days - before Springsteen

The euphoria in Otago when they lifted the Ranfurly shield from Waikato was short-lived. They say a week is a long time in politics, but it is agonizingly short when you parade your heroes down Dunedin’s main street on Monday only to watch them lose the “Log’o’Wood” the next Sunday. Pity too because the Forsyth Barr Stadium is a great venue to defend the shield in any weather. Hawkes Bay waited 44 years to have the shield...

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