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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At least I'm consistent

This was my first weekly column written for the Wairarapa Time-Age in January 1998. Below that is a copy of a letter I wrote to the same paper this week. In the intervening twenty years my opinions haven't changed much!1984 came and went with a whimper. George Orwell’s dire predictions for that year never did materialise. 1998 isn’t shaping up quite so well. Big Brother’s first action was to deny tobacconists the right to have a sign above...

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Another friend passes on

My very close and dear friend Brian Davey died suddenly in Australia a couple of weeks ago; my wife and I went over to the funeral. Here is my tribute: My name is Rick Long, I’m from New Zealand and live in a town called Masterton where Brian and his young wife Joyce came to settle from New Plymouth in 1963. Brian had bought a physiotherapy practice in the town. Masterton is 90 ks north of Wellington and about the same size as Ballina...

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Aids not necessarily a death sentence

I’ve just received a letter from Joel George. Mr. George you will recall is the genial gentleman who runs our public hospital. Been there a while too; which says something about his tenacity and fortitude. It must be frustrating managing an organisation where the funder underfunds you to ensure your frugality. But I digress. Attached to his letter was a survey form which he asks me to fill in as I was, according to his records, latterly...

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Lest we forget

The phone rang frighteningly in the middle off the night. I picked it up with trepidation, as you do. Calls at this hour seldom bring good tidings. I needn’t have worried. It was around midday in England and a gentleman with a polished British accent announced that he was a spokesman for the R.A.F. It seems the good people in the village of Dennekamp in North Eastern Holland are unveiling a memorial to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary...

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The camera never lies

My late father had a wonderful sense of humour. I remember when the young Queen Elizabeth came to Masterton in 1953 she had lunch at the Empire Hotel. Rival butcher Mr. C. L. Neate, who had only recently settled in the town from Britain, served the Empire with their meat requirements and immediately after the lunch, while the Queen and the Duke were still driving out of town to their next destination, he wrote on his shop window in white...

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Man's inhumanity to man

The fiscal outlook for the world’s eighth largest economy Brazil looks gloomy with The Financial Times suggesting it has gone from zombie to walking dead.I spent six weeks in the Amazon region of Brazil in 1986, leading a Rotary Group Study Exchange team. I never really felt safe the whole time I was there. I was physically assaulted on three occasions during the six weeks. I was unscathed - only my pride was hurt - thanks to people around...

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Forty years in the wilderness

When I was a youngster we had a wind-up gramophone. My father had received it for winning an event at harriers. The turntable used to revolve at 78 rpm, and you had to put in a new needle every time you played a record. Needles came in little tins of 100 and you bought them at local gift shop Arts and Crafts. I remember my cousin Bill Geary moved the technology forward by building a turntable powered by electricity. He made the pick-up...

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Endeavoring to hold the peace

There was a good deal of comment that the presiding priest at Prince Harry and Meghan’s wedding asked if anyone saw just cause for the couple could not be joined in holy matrimony. It was a regular feature of weddings in “my day”; I haven’t been to a wedding for some time and it seems the custom may have been discontinued. So I thought it may be appropriate to re-run this column which I wrote back on February the 24th 1999. You may find...

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Everybody wants to go to heaven

What’s with this word Karma? It seems to be getting frequent usage. Hekia Parata once used it, apparently suggesting that the Novapay debacle was “karma” for the teachers daring to challenge her and her ministry whenever they tried to institute change. According to my trusty Chambers dictionary karma is a Buddhist and/or Hindu based word used to describe a transcendental retribution for something done that perhaps ought not to have been...

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A tribute to an old friend

Wayne Snowsill died on the 21st of April 2018, aged 79. This was my eulogy to him at his funeral service. Wayne Snowsill was an extremely handsome young man. He was a couple of years older than me, but my peer group, whenever we were at places where teenagers congregated, were always envious of the fact that the girls we wanted to attract, were inevitably gathering around Wayne. And I so it came as a complete surprise to me when I...

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