I suppose that it’s since the election that has brought it to the fore plus all this Kiwi stuff,  but thinking back over the years, it seems to me that we are going backwards. Oh, for sure there are many that are sitting pretty but it appears to be at the expense of others and the majority at that. We used to have a democracy but  that’s now long gone.  Years ago there were many who protested against apartheid but now they think that’s okay here now?

Going back many more years, they said that with progress, we would be working four day weeks but now for a household, it’s the norm for two adults to work full-time five days a week, sometimes even more and they are scratching to save. In those older days, it was just one person who earned enough to support a family – nothing like today.  

Father and son.

A forty hour week was the law, except it wasn’t quite in 1962 (when working on an orchard Mapua, Nelson. It was 44hrs there, even though the law said it was 40 hours everywhere else). Maybe they just took a while to catch up with the rest of the country? We were told that computers would cut costs and save a lot of work so why have costs risen and the hours of work? 

Why is it that indigenous races seem to think that they are the only ones to have an attachment to nature and the wild lands?  I can recall, thinking, soon after leaving school, that all of New Zealand should be a National Park! My theory was that instead of us trying to protect wild places from speculators and the like, have them spending time trying to withdraw their properties from the National Park. It is interesting to note that in the UK some of their national parks are indeed similar to this. 

Why do I have an affinity with the natural world? Is it the freedom? The space? Once you get away from the huts of course – and it’s not raining! Just who can ‘own’ a mountain? Or a river? Or a lake? Will these  people soon claim ownership of clouds, sunshine or the raindrops? Perhaps I shouldn’t mention that? But then if they claim to own a river, what if it floods? Are the ‘owners’ liable for any damage done? 

I like meeting people who have a real feeling for the wild places. I was going to write ‘mountains’ but that’s about all that’s left these days. Those mountains are what one could call reality compared with out overly regulated living world. Some might say the concrete jungle is reality but that is an insult to me.  

Every year Parliament makes new laws. Just how many laws are there? One can hardly walk into town without breaking some law on the way. Is that good? 

Will (1939).

Newspapers are mostly foreign owned and who seem to be more centred in closing down local papers, selling any assets and creaming the profits overseas. Proper local NEWS papers they used to be. The same goes for many other businesses like banks, power companies and internet providers. I can’t figure out how so called intelligent people can believe this foreign ownership is beneficial to New Zealanders. The purchasing money flows into New Zealand but it isn’t very long when there is much more that flows out.  And year after year at that. Most seem to strip and sell any asset, and then sell at a much higher price than they bought resulting in a more outflow of cash.  Draining New Zealand for sure. 

The standard of our bureaucrats has fallen dramatically, that is they seem to be so indifferent rather than earlier days when the word service was the standard and local councillors actually made the decisions and the bureaucrats carried these out.  When they sit down at their desk or job, I think each and every public employee should say “I am here today to serve the public of New Zealand”. And to remember that they are public servants in the true sense of that word. Some hope with that ever happening! 

I must be missing something – I thought I was born here in New Zealand but wandering around sometimes I feel I’m somewhere else.  What’s this all ‘Kiwi’ stuff on television and radio anyway? I thought a Kiwi was a bird and nearly extinct but these radio television Kiwis seem to be everywhere.

Kiss from Billy (Will) Rickerby.

 I’m a patriotic New Zealander. I always consider the bird the facing side of our money notes and I can remember the first two lines of the old national anthem. Three if you counted the title, but I guess that doesn’t matter much anymore now.