Copyright © 1998 Brian Harmer
Twice this weekend, I have had to drive up the coast to Waikanae. On Friday night, it was raining steadily, and I was thoroughly embroiled in the weekend exodus from Wellington ... the brake lights of the car ahead were rarely more than six feet away as we crawled up this crucial corridor for the region. It was the journey back which was more remarkable, however, for a spectacular electrical storm. The meteorologists explained they were caught by surprise by a collision between an advancing Southerly front, and a strong current from the West. Every few seconds the sky would flare and the road ahead would be lit up like day for a second or so, and then the road ahead would be plunged into blackness on which the headlights seemed to have little effect. We drove slowly within the rain-lashed limits of our vision, and eventually passed under the splendid new overbridge at Newlands, to descend the Ngauranga Gorge. All went well until the last bend before the exit lane to the Hutt Valley when the already heavy rain became in impossible torrent. The road surface became invisible in front of me as the gorge turned into a river, and though already slowed to less than 60 km/h for the exit, I found myself aquaplaning towards the side barrier. Fortunately the wheels made contact with the road, and with a waggle of the tail we resumed our journey back to Lower Hutt. Meanwhile, back in Wellington, chaos reigned. For a variety of reasons, the stormwater system was overwhelmed by the volume of water, and within a very short space of time, Lambton Quay, Featherston Street, Oriental Parade, and several other streets were under 20 to 30 cm of water. Shopkeepers were for the most part, way too late to shift stock out of harms way. One bookseller of my acquaintance thought he had saved most of his books, but forgot that the cardboard display stands provided by publishers would disintegrate if left standing in the water, so regrettably, later in the evening the stands did just that and thousands of dollars worth of books were deposited in the water.
The next day, nature smiled innocently upon the devastation, and shopkeepers lifting ruined carpets and sweeping silt out into the streets were not at all receptive to comments about what a beautiful day it was.
My second trip to Waikanae was at the end of that same beautiful Saturday, in the blazing glory of a red gold sunset over the Tasman. Traffic flowed easily so unlike the day before, the trip was quick, and I arrived at this upmarket satellite township just as the sun was disappearing. Driving Westward along one of the main roads, I was struck by the consummate artistry of nature. Against the flaming sky, bare trees were silhouetted, etched in deepest black as if by an artist's pen on a lurid canvas. Norfolk pines held out black supplicant limbs, but most spectacular were the delicate traceries of deciduous trees. The journey homeward was quite tame by comparison, except for the presence of five teenage girls in the car ... like being cooped in a can with a flock of starlings!
On with the news
As dusk falls in the Coromandel Peninsula town of Tairua, police plan to step up the search for armed prison escapees. Police have requested the use of the Army's infra-red heat seeking equipment, and more police have been called in, including an elite anti-terrorism unit. One of the prisoners, Arthur Taylor, gave himself up this morning, and police believe the other three escapees are in an area of bush north of the town. The Strategic Tactics Group is moving into the area in the next few hours, and will operate independently from the police, and determine its own game plan for the night.
(This was the first many of us had heard of the "Strategic Tactics Group" ... a bunch of hard men in army style camouflage uniforms, and matt black kevlar helmets over black balaclavas ... a thoroughly sinister looking bunch ... I had been under the fond belief that situations like this would be handled by ordinary, well trained policemen. I have mixed feelings about a team of this sort - BH)
Not guilty pleas from the man charged with the murder of Lower Hutt taxi driver Paul Ellis. Eighteen-year-old Matthew Luamanu, appeared in the Lower Hutt District Court this morning and pleaded not guilty to murder and aggravated robbery. 66-year-old Paul Ellis was beaten unconscious and robbed ten days ago in Naenae - he died later in hospital. Luamanu has been remanded in custody until July the 6th.
(I was remotely acquainted with Mr Ellis ... a nice family man who did not deserve to die for $30. The youth who was arrested was at first reported as remorseful ... it seems life is cheap after all - BH)
Children have been prevented from entering a South Auckland school this morning as police search for a possible bomb. Yendarra school in Otara has been cordoned off and a police specialist search unit moved in after graffiti left on the school's walls overnight indicated a bomb had been planted. The extensive police search has so failed to find anything. Teachers were posted at the school's gates this morning to prevent children from entering the school grounds. The situation is to be reviewed shortly.
A dress code for Social Welfare workers has been described as fashion fascism by Green Party co leader Jeanette Fitzimmons... The code, leaked to the Greens, bans skintight trousers, cardies, skivvies made of T shirt fabric and jackets designed for outdoors wear. There are 22 clothing items on the banned list... Ms Fitzimmons says the department is playing power games with their staff...
(This totally bizarre memo was stoutly defended by the people who wrote it. A number of fashion consultants including a magazine editor were appalled and suggested the author had suffered from a distorted childhood ... BH)
Residents in Auckland's eastern suburbs can breathe a sigh of relief. The Ministry of Forestry says the white spotted tussock moth has finally been eradicated. The Ministry has been working for two years to get rid of the pest....including spraying the controversial pesticide BTK. Residents claimed they became sick because of the spraying. Chief Forestry Officer Dr Gordon Hosking says the odd moth did spread outside the area .. and all that is left now is to make sure it hasn't established itself in another suburb.
Rainbow's End is still adding up the bill from yesterday's fire...but the South Auckland fun-park says it will run into hundreds of thousands of dollars. It is believed the fire was started by teenagers flicking lighted matches onto walls inside the tunnel on the log-flume ride. While the park is open for business as usual today, Rainbow's end General Manager Evan Wheeler says the log flume and adjacent Gold Rush, rides are out of action. He says the Gold Rush will be fixed within weeks - but the log flume won't be working again until Christmas.
(Two teenagers have owned up to flicking matches into the scenery. I am not sure whether to feel more exasperated at them or the rocket scientist who decided to build such a facility largely from polystyrene foam. - BH)
Five of the eight Paparua Prison inmates charged with kidnapping six prison officers have pleaded guilty at the beginning of their Christchurch High Court trial. The Crown has dropped the charges against the other three. Rex Haig, Michael Wayne October, Dean Haweturi Parata, Nathan Earl Schriek and Richard Lyall Genge have all been remanded to July the third for sentencing. Crown prosecutor Brent Stanaway elected not to proceed with the indictments against Justin Mana Taylor, Graham John Tahuri and Craig Welsh, The kidnapping charges arose out of last year's hostage drama at Paparua Prison.
The Institute of Economic Research is predicting a light at the end of the economic tunnel. In forecasts released today the NZIER is picking economic growth to slow to 1.9 per cent in the year to March next year.... but recover to 3.4 per cent in the year to March 2000. Director Alex Sundakov says the fall in the dollar should lead to an improvement in our current account deficit. However he says it will take time to rebuild the confidence of overseas investors. Mr Sundakov says that means there will be little scope for interest rates to ease within the next two years.
(As they say, lights in tunnels often turn out to be trains - BH)
A young woman who disappeared from Auckland, has been found in a rock pool in New Plymouth .. but she has no idea how she got there. New Plymouth Detective Constable Blair Burnett says the 19 year old was at work at Wendy's restaurant in Te Atatu South on Friday when at about ten thirty she decided to go home. He says that is the last thing she remembers. She was discovered unconscious by a member of the public yesterday at Back Beach. She is recovering in Taranaki Base Hospital.
A 20 year old Te Puke man has been arrested in relation to a weekend incident, where a car doing wheelies went out of control and hit a 15 year old bystander. The man has been charged with reckless driving causing injury. The teenage girl is in hospital with head and pelvic injuries. The incident occurred on Saturday morning at the intersection of Pongakawa station road and Old Coach road where diesel had been poured on the road. Police want to hear from any witnesses.
A last ditch attempt by lawyers for HIV infected prisoner Peter Mwai to keep him in the country. A High Court judge has this afternoon ruled Mwai doesn't have a case to appeal his removal order. Mwai was jailed in 1994 for having unprotected sex with women, despite knowing he had the AIDS virus. He will be put on a flight to Kenya at around half past eight tomorrow morning after his release from prison. Defence lawyer Barry Hart says today's ruling is hugely disappointing but they aren't giving up yet. He says they are now considering whether Mwai's case can be taken to the Court of Appeal. Barry Hart says in the meantime they hope to apply for a stay.
Today's decision to press ahead with the electricity reforms is being seen by the Prime Minister as a vital step on the road back to economic recovery... Jenny Shipley says if this country is to remain competitive internationally, then the Government must be able to show it can deliver on its Budget policy. She says today's decision is an example of that... The reforms should be in place by April next year and they will see electricity companies being split into line and power supply businesses... The Government says the competition will ensure lower prices to the consumer...
Three men arrested after an armed offenders alert in Northland have been charged with an aggravated robbery at Reporoa near Rotorua. Armed police were called to the settlement of Otaua near Kaikohe after sightings of the van wanted in connection with the weekend robbery. Two 18 year old men have been charged with aggravated robbery, unlawful confinement, and attempted arson. A 27 year old man has also been charged with attempted arson. A burnt-out van recovered last night is undergoing forensic tests. Police are looking for two other people.
An uncertain future for staff at the government's Health Funding Authority. 80 percent of staff have been told their jobs are being disestablished... and they will need to reapply for a smaller number of jobs. The reshuffle is part of changes designed to eliminate 150 positions within the authority. HFA chief executive Phil Pryke admits the change will be unsettling for staff. However he says most positions within the HFA are being significantly changed... and it is important to allow for a selection process to fill those new jobs. Mr Pryke says the reorganisation will make the HFA into a fundamentally different type of organisation.
(This all too common process of declaring an organisation to be something other than what it is and then simply wiping out the employment contracts of the staff is a disgrace. It seems to me not far removed from the tactics attempted on the Australian waterfront. It seems a very one sided process ... a tug-of-war using a shotgun as the rope and the employer always gets to hold the trigger - BH)
The founder of a new political party is distancing himself from a controversial Australian party with a similar name. Wellingtonian Paul Dobson is setting up the United Nation Party, which advocates doing away with all discrimination on the basis of race, and bringing back the death sentence. But Mr Dobson says that doesn't mean he is against the Treaty of Waitangi, and says murderers would be put to death only if there are two eye-witnesses or a confession. Paul Dobson says his party is not aligned to, and is very different from, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party, particularly because he is in favour of migration.
Labour leader Helen Clark has this afternoon been putting her case for a no confidence motion in the Government. Treasurer Winston Peters had begun the debate to free up money for Government policies, when Ms Clark moved the no confidence motion. She says the country can't have confidence in a Government which has no idea what it is doing over economic issues, and constantly sends conflicting messages to both individuals and businesses. But the Finance Minister has responded saying he is disappointed that after eight years in Opposition, Helen Clark is using the same no confidence motions she moved eight years ago.
One of the biggest fines ever has been handed down to an Auckland man guilty of falsely invoicing people for advertising they didn't ask for. Ashley Rhodes was fined more than one hundred and thirty thousand dollars for 24 counts of breaching the Fair Trading Act after the Commerce Commission brought charges against him. Rhodes was the director of four companies which were responsible for publishing a variety of magazines. The court found he cut out advertisements for small businesses from other publications, such as the Yellow Pages, and sent out invoices, saying the ads appeared in one of their own magazines. In sentencing the judge told Rhodes he had ripped off a large number of innocent victims with his carefully contrived deception.
(Now if we can get a similar sentence against some spammers - BH)
Tauranga fisheries officers have issued a reminder on shellfish bag limits -- following claims that Aucklanders are raiding Bay of Plenty shellfish beds. A local recreational fishers group says 27 carloads descended on part of Tauranga harbour in one weekend recently. Fisheries officer Shane Hartley says the limit for cockles, tuatuas or pipis -- is 150 per person.
African aids victim Peter Mwai is now on his way home... He was ordered to leave the country after his Court of Appeal bid to stay here failed...the judges took just five minutes to turn it down... Mwai was released from prison earlier today...he was convicted of having sex with five women knowing he had aids and infecting two of them... Dr Smith says the only compassion he has is for Mwai's young daughter who remains in the country with her mother... however, he says that compassion is outweighed by the feelings he has for the women who now have the deadly disease because of Mwai's actions.
(Several commentators in soc.culture.new-zealand, people with whom I normally agree, have lamented our lack of humanitarian values in this case. Normally the most soft-hearted of people, I find myself strangely unmoved in this instance. The anguish I feel is for the women who were brow-beaten by this man into dispensing with condoms despite his knowledge of his condition - BH)
Several students at Nelson Girls College will be offered preventive antibiotics, after the death of a 15 year old schoolgirl, from Meningococcal disease. The fifth former died late yesterday, after being admitted to intensive care on Monday night. Other students are being interviewed to see whether they may be at risk of infection. But Nelson's Medical Officer of Health, Dr Ed Kiddle, is reassuring parents and students, that the disease can only be spread by close contact. He says that includes kissing, and sharing spit through drink bottles and food.
Legal action against the Police Commissioner looks likely as the Police Association hits out over the consultation in the police review. More than four hundred police staff may lose their jobs in the review. Police Association spokesman Greg O'Connor says police have been unable to give any constructuve input to the review as there was little detail contained in the draft report. And he says the association hasn't received any of the background papers it requested. Greg O'Connor says he is disappointed the Association has been forced to turn to legal action.
A weather warning has been issued for parts of the South Island, and the lower North Island... with severe winds and heavy rain on the way. A deepening depression over the Tasman Sea is expected to see winds gusting well over a hundred kilometres per hour in Canterbury, Marlborough and Wellington. The Metservice says the front will also dump up to 140 millimetres of rain in Westland, Buller and Nelson.
(The promised wind and rain did occur, and I thought had passed on when the downpour on Friday night caught us all out ... very odd - BH)
The number of Russian seamen staying on five fishing boats in Lyttelton is diminishing almost by the day. At least half a dozen sailors are understood to have accepted plane tickets home, along with cash settlements from the boats' owner. Two more are leaving today. About 40 sailors are left to pursue their million dollar wage claim in the High Court next month. The seamen have been unpaid for ten months.
Moves are afoot to create the country's largest energy retailer... with a major merger. Southpower, United Electricity and gas company Enerco have agreed in principle to form a national energy retailing company. It would have more than 400,000 customers.
The Prime Minister is repeating her message that mothers should get back into the workforce. In a speech in Manukau this afternoon Jenny Shipley said women should seek wider opportunities once their children reach school age. Ms Shipley says if those mothers move into the workforce... at least part-time - their whole families will benefit. She reemphasised that the government expects women to seek work outside the home once their children are past the pre-school age.
(Another heated debate on soc.culture.new-zealand ... the question is asked why solo mothers should be funded by the state to remain at home for their school-age children when the mother in a two partner relationship often has no alternative but to go to work to supplement an inadequate family income - BH)
Former radio talkback host and now Alliance MP Pam Corkery freely admits she received a thirteen-hundred-and-fifty dollar speakers fee at a Nelson charity event... Ms Corkery says she was appearing with Gary McCormick and Ginette McDonald ... however, she says her cheque was made out to the Waitakere branch of the Alliance Party... Ms Corkery has been attacked for charging by Nelson MP Nick Smith who says the Alliance should return the money forthwith...
(And the week ended abruptly here in news gathering terms ... first I got a heavy cold, and then I got my new computer, a 400 MHz Pentium II with Windows 98 which according to some is a worse affliction than the first :-) I have now got the beast up and running, though not without some hassle I like many of the minor features of Win98, but if it didn't come installed on my new machine, I sure wouldn't pay NZ$195 for it - BH)
Date: 25 June 1998 Brian Dooley Wellington New Zealand CURRENCIES The currency codes given below conform to ISO 4217, which can be found at http://www.xe.net/currency/iso_4217.htm. The rates given are for telegraphic transfer and are as given in the Wellington Evening Post today. To Buy NZD 1.00 USD 0.5196 AUD 0.8551 GBP 0.3115 JPY 73.55 CAD 0.7640 FRF 3.1496 DEM 0.9394 HKD 4.0341 SGD 0.8662 ZAR 2.8360 CHF 0.7857 INTEREST RATES (%) Call : 8.5 90 Day: 9.04
Here's to a new week ... may it live up to all your hopes. Brian Harmer "Our luck is even better than I expected Don Quixote exclaimed ... I'm going to attack those mighty giants and slay them in their tracks" - Cervantes
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