Trying to make sense of dress

I was at the Palmerston North Plaza shopping centre a couple of weeks ago looking at the directory sign that describes the shops and their location. The premises are colour coded and I counted the womenswear outlets and there were nineteen. There were just three menswear shops. So nineteen to three is apparently the ratio of importance the genders place on their outward appearance.I noticed however that department stores were separately...

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A majestic house with memories

The grand old two-storey brick and reinforced concrete Prior homestead and one-time doctors’ surgery in Perry Street is no more. In its place, almost as a complete about-face to the days of old, is a modern single-storey office block purpose-built for a computer software company. The Prior family have produced generations of doctor’s for our town, but the imposing dwelling hadn’t been in the Prior family hands for some time. I...

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Facing up to the inevitable

Having passed my allotted three score years and ten I self-consciously realise I am now a continual liability on the long-suffering taxpayer and may potentially become a burden on the health system. Retirees tend to believe that having paid taxes all their lives they deserve to live off the fat of the land - or at least the lean pickings that the state allows. The pension is no doubt an encumbrance on the treasury coffers, but is hardly...

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Thoughts on earning a living

Last week a New Zealand Herald front page article revealed that after dipping briefly following the global financial crisis the average pay of New Zealand’s top executives is rising once again. The bosses of the country’s largest firms received an average total remuneration - including base salary and incentive payments - of $1.4 million in the 2013 financial year, a 4 percent increase on 2012. Our highest paid chief executive last...

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An analysis of what went right

It seems implausible that due to our questionable electoral system a party that was only able to capture 48 per cent of the popular vote gets a win that is described as a “landslide.” You could express it differently of course. 76 per cent of the electorate did not favour Labour, 90 percent wouldn’t have a bar of the Greens, and 91 per cent didn’t want New Zealand First despite Winston being the darling of the aged and infirm.In the process...

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