Wally's tales

I was listening to the radio this morning and was amused to hear a family bitterly complaining that a river near where they were camping had flooded, as a result they found it necessary to move camp in the night. They were upset that there was no notice advising that this river could and did flood. The Mayor responsible who I think was elected for the Wairarapa district where the river was located, was also given ‘Air Time’ by our Morning Radio to explain the Council’s position. It must have been a slow new Day for this to be front line ‘News’. The Mayoress was busy apologising for their lack of ‘signing’. She would look into the matter as soon as she retuned to her office and further questioned their Chief Executive to find out why the posting of notices hadn’t been carried out earlier.

When I stopped laughing I wondered, does no one today take responsibility for their own actions? All rivers flood, in fact, look back to our not too distant past when bridges were few and far between, rivers crossings and as well fords were then rightly called ‘Widow Makers’. People today in all walks of life are always looking for someone else to blame for any and every action. The Police, should they chase an offender are now to blame should the ‘nincompoop’ being chased, loose control of his vehicle, run off the road. Possibly kill or injure himself. Immediately the family of the perpetrator, and as well as the Media, if given a voice in the incident, they invariably blame the Police. Pardon me, that’s not the way I see it. Does no one take any responsibility today for anything? Carried out to the nth degree these people would have every loose stone on a mountain labelled. Any large body of water, any cliff or mountain height would also have notices posted that at times these areas can be dangerous, or cut up rough with big unmanageable waves.

Of course the Government had to get into the act. In fact they have created a whole department to keep us safe and warned about what is happening around us. Go into any toilet or supermarket today and you will be busy avoiding the yellow sandwich boards scattered everywhere. These are all advising ‘Wet Floors’. This is ‘OSH’(Occupational Safe Health) a Government initiative in action. In fact in our Air Ports sometimes the yellow boards seem to be a permanent fixture regardless if the floors are wet or dry, in my mind the notices are a bigger hazard than any wet floor. I think also that OSH are responsible for the fencing of all building sites here in the city as well. Same for all Harbour Facilities not forgetting Rubbish Tips. They today are all locked up tighter than a drum. This move I suppose would be OSH again possibly protecting the Public from injuring themselves. How did we manage to get by over the past two hundred years with out excluding us from anything and everything?

Another recent innovation is ‘Cones’. If you don’t know what I’m talking about? Plastic cones which are about 50 mm in height, painted a bright red or orange. Local Boroughs and the Roads Board must have millions. Everywhere you go today you are required to navigate your vehicle and thread it through lanes of these red markers. How we managed in the past I don’t know, but recently for months the whole of Papanui Road was lined from end to end, (several kilometres in fact) with several million of these orange markers. These you had to navigate and make your way through narrow lanes on the road. Apart from those markers every perceived obstacle in town is well and truly ringed with red Cones, as well, they are seemingly planted months prior to any work being carried out, and months after completion as well.

There is another area that concerns me and that’s when there has been an accident or an incident on the road, and the Police come into the picture. Immediately they close off the highway to all traffic which is fair enough, but not for a whole day as they do. It matters not a jot to them that they are causing a great inconvenience to many people while they ponder over the accident scene. A few hours should be long enough as they have many aids at their finger tips to record and preserve any evidence should it be required. I don’t what it is but for me spending a day just looking at a scene doesn’t equate to the production of a flawless report.

There is a lot of news these today on how we deal and dispense our Justice. Some of the criticism being aimed at the system is fully justified, especially when it comes to the suppression of names and evidence. Have the authorities never heard of the old saying ‘Name and Shame’. More especially of who can decide of what can, and what can’t be suppressed. All this power seems to be vested in one small group, namely Judges, and of course anyone else who is in charge. All of today’s systems have evolved to a point where we are now following a quaint set of rules and protocols. This over time has given us a system that seems to favour and is heavily weighted in favour of the accused. They have their rights you know. The authorities who are in charge, all seem to be recruited from a very small pool of what is called eligible people, or to put it more bluntly ‘lawyers’. As well, these folk have decided that they are the only people in our country with the specialist knowledge who are capable of making any of today’s legal decisions, which to my mind is absolutely plain nonsense. Most times the decisions they make have nothing to do with legal matters, all that is required is just a dollop of good old ‘Common Sense’. Lawyers over the years have played a big part in introducing our to our complicated system requiring you to know all of the complicated rules and procedures that have evolved to dispense ‘Justice’. This has now evolved to a point should you must wish to work within the system, you like it or like it not you now require the services of a lawyer. Most of these rules are just nonsense when you take a hard look at them. In my opinion which has been formed over time, too many of these people have also entered into a relationship that’s a little too close to the criminal element. This in any other field would have them disqualified them for having a vested interest. To expand the subject, too many have spent years working in close contact with the criminal element doing their best to assist them, and if possible help them to wriggle out of what ever they have been charged with. At the same time using every tenuous ploy they can dream up. This is also a relationship where they have been very well paid to distort facts, and in turn free their clients.

I mentioned in an earlier letter that one feral before the court was given a two weeks of suppression of his name, to advise his grandmother of his predicament. We the public have a right to know what is going on, so long as the justice system is going to fudge the facts by suppression, then it is no longer open Justice. Everything in court matters should be open. No one should have the power to suppress anything, whether it be ‘names’ or ‘evidence’. I’m not alone in these beliefs. Should judges have the feeling that this or that should be covered up, he should have extremely good reasons for doing so, not the rather lame excuse of a two week suspension for someone before the court to advise his ‘Granny’ is to open him/herself to criticism. It would seem that there are many people out there who are of the opinion that Justice today has strayed too far, and now are prepared to object by blatantly challenging the system, daring them to do their damnedest.

Another area of concern and that’s how penalties are arrived at. There doesn’t seen to be any degree of fairness at all. Steal a bar of chocolate and a can of peaches you can expect to receive the full force of the law. Steal a million or so and the situation changes completely. The law doesn’t seem to ratchet up the sentence on a pro rata basis, or even in some cases even go after the stolen funds with any serious intent.

The Traffic Authorities are busy crowing this Christmas that the recently released figures for road Deaths and Accidents which are the lowest for several years. This pleasing fact they say, is because of their increased policing activity, Speed traps, and of course the intensive campaign against ‘Driving while under the influence’ and not forgetting for a minute the recently introduced penalties for using mobile phones while driving. My own opinion regarding drunks, which has been formed after living close to several of these, with of course close observation of their behaviour over many years. I couldn’t help but notice their regular pattern of returning home after a night out, often so drunk that on arrival home, they just fell out of their vehicle. There they lay on the ground, until one of their family took pity on them, assisted them inside or just covered them where they lay. This wasn’t just a ‘One off’ observation in Queenstown. There, three of our immediate neighbours were all hard drinkers and chronic alcoholics. On a regular basis they drove home drunk, always arriving home without incident. The only difference that when drunk, they drove very slowly, and very carefully. We only employed a couple of police in our town back in those days. Their policy then was, they only seemed to react to any situation was when complaints were actually laid.

However we had another immature group of young folk who were also paid up members of the boozing fraternity. These were mainly the young and stupid, and recent recipients of driving licences. They unfortunately hadn’t matured enough to exercise any judgment or restraint on their behaviour. As well, they thought that they were bullet proof. Unfortunately they were a danger to themselves, and all other road users. I remember John Guthrie another Queenstown resident once telling me, that he was brought up in the Balclutha. This was an area at the time that was enjoying the fruits of very high wool prices. All sheep farmers in the area were ‘Loaded’ with large sums of discretionary spending money. They tended to indulge their children and family with expensive gifts, namely high performance Motor Vehicles. He said he was shocked when he looked at his high School Class photo, half of his fellow students had been killed or injured in motor accidents.

In my opinion the main reason of today’s lower Road Deaths is that cars of today are now better engineered, all fitted with Air Bags. The Road’s Board too is slowly but surely improving our highways, as well making more passing lanes which makes it safer for those who just have to be in the front, and will pass any and every vehicle on the road. I also feel that the authorities could reduce the death by motor car accidents by a factor of 5o% if they paid more attention to the wearing of seat belts. Hardly a day goes past when you read of young folk being killed on the road by he not donning their seat belts. I can only assume this, as the ones being killed are always the ones who have been tossed out of their car.

A factor that reinforced this theory was when Marilyn Maxwell recently drove into the path of the Excursion Rail Train at Hyde which completely chewed up her vehicle, to surprised observers she was able to step out of the wreckage unharmed. The she said was due to a safely engineered vehicle and air bags.

Give the local bodies a pot of paint and you never know just where they will stop. I drive down Papanui Road every day, it has now been reduced to a narrow lane each way. A lane on each side a metre of so wide has been painted red, this is very seldom used and set aside for cyclists. Then another green lane on each side of the road painted green has been set aside as a dedicated Bus Lane. This now only leaves a narrow strip for the motorist who is paying for the road in the first place. As well they have placed additional hazards of islands all guarded with metal hoops at regular intervals along the route. They are hard to see in times of poor visibility and many motorists are finding this so as many mornings I note that they have been struck by motorists overnight and broken off. Their existence must delight panel beaters.

We have been lucky for most of our married life in that we have been able to access cheap meat. For much of our early life we lived in towns where an exporting Freezing Works was located. Then, we were able to buy meat directly from the Company, however sometimes you were required to be a Supplier of lambs to obtain this privilege, but that directive was easily overcome. Many times, carcasses were being rejected as ‘unsuitable for export’ material. This criteria could be because they were too fat, or because the carcass had a bruise somewhere, probably caused while being rounded up and transported. At two dollars for a whole side of lamb it was excellent buying. As well, when we lived in Milton, a side of ‘Mutton’ was only One Dollar Fifty. The down side of this was, you had to do the butchering yourself. These dollar fifty sides of mutton were what was known as ‘culls’ from the local farms, and only one step above ‘Dog Tucker’. So long as you knew how to cook these ‘Mutton’s’, (Long and Slow), they were also cheap eating. I soon kitted myself with all the necessary tools for butchering, such as a Butcher’s saw, cleaver and boning knives. With these I could cope with large sides of meat with ease, all cut up on the kitchen table. I could handle a side of pork or mutton, but had to admit defeat when it came to a Cattle Beast. A local Farmer and I used to slaughter a large Cattle Beast every Winter. We managed this task with the aid of a front end loader, plus our two families pitching in with the cutting up, bagging, and labelling for the Deep Freeze. Not a good idea, for this task you really required the skills of a butcher which we didn’t have as you tended to lose many of our the prime cuts. We also found without skills you tended to end up with too much mince and stewing steak. We quickly realised our limitations and called in the services of a butcher who only charged a few cents a pound.

As a very young man eight or nine years of age, I had been used to hunting, and the taking of wild game. Very soon I was able to dress game out for the table, rabbits, ducks and any other water fowl or game that fell to my gun. All this was a very welcome addition to the family’s larder. Deer and goats came later, you needed a vehicle to get to where they were. So what I was doing in later life with domestic animals, was only an extension of what I had been doing since I was old enough to carry a rifle. I was lucky with my Aunts and Uncles who depended on me and they passed on their skills of how to catch fish, and harvest the sea to provide for the family as a hunter gatherer. One thing I wonder about now, is why we ignored seaweed. This, we only dragged back home for the garden. Our forbearers back in Scotland were possibly crofters, they as well as their animals exploited various kinds of seaweed as they lived close to the sea. As well there doesn’t seem to be any variety that’s toxic and needed to be avoided. Then again when it came to mushrooms that was a different story, you always had to be on your guard. We actually passed over some varieties as we didn’t then have sufficient knowledge.

As a family we quickly learned too that in the country that there is a lot of food that had been forgotten or overlooked. In Queenstown there were many huge walnut trees actually located in the town itself. These we never bothered with, until we had a storm, then the nuts would be shaken from the trees. That was the time to move in. We gathered Asparagus growing wild, and quickly found that it only seemed to grow near water such as a creek. Jim O’kane taught me how to find it by looking up gullies for last years dried fronds. ‘Horse Radish’, not a native, and probably planted by settlers long ago also grew near water, so that’s where I went to look for it. More so, I propagated it as well where there were no animals to eat it. You soon got to know other gourmets as we all knew our favourites spots and often met while out garnering. In Central Otago especially in the ‘back blocks’ there were many abandoned orchards or even individual trees of stone or pip fruit. Small ‘wild’ stands of Raspberries, Black Berries were everywhere. and their existence was noted when out and about for when harvest time rolled around. Unattended, the fruit was not of export quality. but Hey! it’s free.

I never bothered with clams or Cockles in the Otago Harbour. Hundreds of tons were there for the taking. Being filter feeders, and during my youth I knew all the City’s Sewerage was piped untreated, straight into the Harbour, Even then I knew enough not to risk eating them. Strangely, they are only now being exploited, as I see them for sale in the local stores.

Some parts of Central Otago have proved to be perfect growing conditions for some food sources. Rose hips the bane of Run Holders, have taken off and spread since the rabbit and goat population came under control. The popular herb Thyme also likes Central, hundreds of acres of the ‘Central’ Hills are covered by it, many today would drive past not knowing what it was.