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GISBORNE ENVIRONMENT NEWSLETTER
"Think globally, act locally"
Thursday, 3 May 2001
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IT IS ALL GO IN GISBORNE !!
Over the last few months I have been at a most successful AGM of the Gisborne/East Coast Branch of the NZ Tree Crops Association, an excellent "Sustaining Ourselves" workshop, a well attended and enthusiastic meeting of Gisborne Green Party members at The Works, a brilliant Field Day at Roger and Rose-Marie Bremner's magical property, Bremdale Gardens at Nuhaka which included an inaugural meeting of the Tairawhiti Organic/Bio Dynamic Growers Group and last Monday a great committee meeting of that group.
This is a complete contrast to the 1995 AGM of the Earth Centre. I had been a member for some years but had never been to an AGM. I wandered along to the 1995 one and found a handful of people who had done excellent work in the past but now needed to hand over to new people. The problem was that there were no new people. I had been at the meeting of the Gisborne branch of the Maruia Society a few years earlier when that went into recess because no one was prepared to go
on the committee. I was still working then and could not take an active part in the Maruia Society. But by 1995 I had retired. I made the mistake of saying at the Earth Centre AGM that someone should take on the job of chair on the understanding that all he or she had to do was call an AGM the next year, present accounts and keep the Earth Centre (Gisborne Environmental Centre Incorporated) alive as an
incorporated society.
I walked out of the meeting as chair with Cliff Cookson as secretary treasurer. My life has never been the same since. : - (
Everything goes in cycles and since 1995 support in Gisborne for the environment has been building up again until in 2001 Gisborne again has lots of enthusiastic energetic people prepared to do things. So if you want to join in you will have to make a decision next Sunday, May 6, between the Gisborne Green Party meeting and a Tree Crops field day. I want to go to both, but as one of the Green Party contact
people for Gisborne I have no choice. You are luckier. Details of both follow.
GISBORNE GREENS MEETING, THE WORKS, SUNDAY, MAY 6 AT 2 PM
The Gisborne Greens meet at The Works at 2 pm on the first Sunday in every month. The May meeting is next Sunday, May 6. Lots of things are happening so it is going to be a busy and interesting meeting. At the last meeting Nandor said that the Gisborne Greens need to find an issue that the public will come in and support. Looking around at the people present then, I managed to restrain myself from commenting that the only organisation in Gisborne that takes up causes that the public get in behind and support is Grey Power!
There could not be a greater contrast between the members of the Gisborne Greens and the members of Gisborne Grey Power (as a member of both, I am the exception that proves the rule). So if you think that you have more in common with the embers of the Gisborne Greens, come along on Sunday!
GISBORNE BRANCH OF NZ TREE CROPS ASSOCIATION, SUNDAY, MAY 6 AT 1 PM
The Field Day of the Gisborne/East Coast Branch of the New Zealand Tree Crops Association starts at 1 pm on Sunday, May 6 at Leaderbrand opposite Albert Thornton's Macadamia orchard at 36 Tucker Road, Makauri, then moves to Albert's orchard. I just about go off the road craning to look at the Leaderbrand premises every time that I drive past and I would love to have the opportunity to see through it. Albert's well established orchard is well worth a visit by itself. North Island NZ Tree Crops Association vice president, Dianna Loader, will be at the field day and she and recently elected Gisborne/East Coast Branch chair, John Dean and others will report on the recent Tree Crops Association annual conference.
All sorts of interesting people are growing all sorts of interesting things in this District. They are doing it with enthusiasm because they want to find out what can be grown, if it can be grown, what are the best cultivars for here, and how they can best be grown here. Tree Crops is the place to meet these people, to find out what they are doing and, at field days, to see what they are doing.
It would be wrong to say that Branch chair, John Dean, has come back from the annual conference enthused because John's enthusiasm is one of his many great qualities. But John has certainly not returned unenthused. One excellent quote that he brought back is that "Trees are the visible outgrowth of micro organisms in the soil".
I know that readers, particularly readers who are members or supporters of the Tairawhiti Organic/Bio Dynamic Growers Group, will appreciate that quote.
MANDERS ROAD LANDFILL HEARING ADJOURNED
On Thursday, May 3 the independent commissioners hearing the Gisborne District Council's applications for Resource Management Act consents to the Manders Road Landfill adjourned the hearing for an independent peer review. The Ministry for the Environment appeared at the hearing and objected to the applications on the ground that the site was unsuitable. The reports in the Gisborne Herald of the hearing suggest that a strong case was being made against the granting of the
consents. If the Council fails in its applications the question may arise as to whether the Council persevered with the application beyond the point at which it should have seen that it had a hopeless case, cut its losses and saved ratepayers further expenses, not the least of which will have been the cost of Auckland legal counsel at a four day hearing.
ORGANIC FOOD IN GISBORNE
Have a mug of Milo, set your alarm and go to bed early on Friday night. Then you can get up well before dawn, go down to the Flea Market and buy the organic produce that you need for the week. For myself, having in the past arrived there bleary eyed while it was still dark, I have been completely put off by finding that to get to the stalls I had to struggle against a tide of people leaving the market!
But if you can make it, you will find Geoff Hair from Hexton selling his organic avocados, Linda and Neil Kerr from Woody Hollow, Nuhaka selling their Biodynamic vegetables and Theo and Joselyn Marama from Manutuke selling their organic vegetables. Theo and Joselyn mainly grow lavender and now have a shop at 222 Gladstone Road where their lavender products make up about two thirds of their stock and local craft the other third. Local craft includes kete and Joselyn's own
hand dyed clothing as well as Ngaru Toa surfing products. The Oceanic Surfing Teams trophy that the New Zealand Maori Auahi Kore team brought back from Tonga is on display in their shop. Organic vegetables in excess of what they sell at the Flea Market are also sold in the shop.
Beez Worx at 318 Lytton Road had organic Hass avocados, kiwifruit, passionfruit and free range farm eggs. They also have duck eggs when available. The shop now incorporates Serl's Naturally Produced Herbal Products and is open from 9 am to 4.30 pm Monday to Friday and from 9 am to midday on Saturday.
On the way back I went along Solander Street and noticed Denize and Cary Walker's "Just Herbs" and First Light Olive Oil Co. Ltd. shop. I was assured that they used only organically grown produce in their herb products but that they used copper for peacock spot on their olives.
DID YOU GO TO THE COMMUNITY WORKSHOP ON FUNDING APPLICATIONS?
There was a Community Workshop on Funding Applications on Monday, April 30 If you went and you support the Tairawhiti Organic/Bio Dynamic Growers Group and would be prepared to help with a funding application by that group, please ring Paul Gordon 868 9589.
RIO+10 COMMUNITY SURVEY OF THE STATE OF NEW ZEALAND'S ENVIRONMENT
My starter pack and response form from the Minister for the Environment has arrived. She says in her covering letter "One of the most powerful forces for change in society is public attitude. If most of us regard polluting our air and water as unacceptable behaviour. few will try to get away with it".
This is going to be the easiest submission I have ever made. The response form is two sides of an A4 sheet with boxes to tick (including a "Don't know" box for each question) and space for a paragraph of comment.
To get your copy e-mail rio@mfe.govt.nz or visit www.mfe.govt.nz/new/rio.htm
Submissions to a Freepost address must be in the post by 9 July.
TIMETABLE
MAY
Sunday, May 6 Green Party meeting at 2 pm at The Works.
Sunday, May 6 Gisborne/East Coast Branch of the New Zealand Tree Crops Association Field Day at 1 pm at Leaderbrand opposite Albert Thornton's Macadamia orchard at 36 Tucker Road, Makauri, then to Albert's orchard. Albert is an experienced Macadamia grower and has a well established orchard. This is your chance to ask all the questions about Macadamias that you always wanted to know but did not know who to ask. Come along if you are interested in joining Tree Crops.
Sunday, May 6 Tairawhiti Polytechnic - Gisborne District Council Great Puriris and B20 Bush Walk. "Peter Jex-Blake will guide you to view the giant Puriris on Stevens Road, Whangara. After a short bus trip and lunch, you will walk through the B20 Bush. a reasonable level of fitness is required." Meeting at the Army Hall at 9 am and taking until 4 pm, you will need to bring lunch, a drink, rain and wind proof gear, and the charge is $10. Booking is essential so ring Trudy Benson or Judy Livingston at 867-2049 between 8 am and 5 pm weekdays.
Monday, May 7. Nominations for four vacancies on the East Coast Hawkes Bay Conservation Board close. Nomination forms are available from the Department of Conservation, 63 Canarvon Street, Gisborne. Ask for Brett Butland if you have any questions.
Monday, May 14 Forest & Bird's monthly meeting at 7.30 pm at the Hearing Association, 179 Palmerston Road. Peter Fantham will speak on "Poplars in China".
Thursday, 24 May to Sunday, 27 May The Olive School at Tairawhiti Polytechnic.
Saturday, May 26 and Sunday May 27 From 10 am to 3:30 pm. Feldenkrais body awareness workshop by Alan Blacktopp. Improve your posture, relieve your back pain and release your neck & shoulders. For registration and more information contact Simin Williams, PO Box 997, Gisborne, phone 868-8002, fax: 868- 8042, email
velvet@xtra.co.nz
Monday, May 28 Free Community Workshop on "Mental Awareness" from 9 am to 12 noon at the Royal Foundation for the Blind Rooms at 39 Grey Street. "One in five New Zealanders will experience mental illness in their lifetime. No one really wants to know about mental illness until it affects us. We encourage you to attend our Workshop/Wananga, to a frank and open discussion. We will present 'what it is like
living with schizophrenia and Bi-Polar (manic depression) and the effects of stigma and discrimination." Facilitator: Margaret Price. Telephone Trudy Benson 867-2049 to register.
JUNE
Saturday, June 2 to Monday, June 4 Green Party Conference at Tahuna Holiday Park, Nelson.
Sunday, June 3 Green Party meeting at 2 pm at The Works.
Sunday, June 3 Tairawhiti Polytechnic - Gisborne District Council City Historical Walk lead by Gisborne historian Sheila Robinson. "Come and take a leisurely walk with Sheila Robinson and hear about Gisborne's Central City architectural heritage and background to our city buildings." Leaving from the Army Hall at 1 pm and taking until 4 pm, you will need rain and wind proof gear. There is no charge but
booking is essential so ring Trudy Benson or Judy Livingston at 867-2049 between 8 am and 5 pm weekdays.
Monday, June 25 Free Community Workshop on "The Bicultural Voluntary Organisation" from 9 am to 12 noon at the Royal Foundation for the Blind Rooms at 39 Grey Street. "Every voluntary or social organisation in Gisborne will have a bicultural client group - do your policies and practices reflect this? Learn how to introduce a bicultural approach to your organisation, and the positive effect this
will have on your client group" Facilitator: Te Atawhai Mataira. Telephone Trudy Benson 867-2049 to register.
Monday, June 25 Forest & Bird's monthly meeting at the Hearing Association, 179 Palmerston Road. Note that this is an afternoon meeting at 1.30 pm. Anne McGuire of Tairawhiti Polytechnic will speak on "A Maori Perspective on the Winter Solstice".
Tuesday, June 26 to Sunday, July 1 (Tuesday to Friday 7 pm- 9:30 pm, Saturday and Sunday 9 am - 5 pm) Healing Breath Workshop. Increase your energy, vitality and health. Restore harmony to your body, eliminate toxins. For registration and more information contact Simin Williams, PO Box 997, Gisborne, phone 868-8002, fax: 868-8042, email velvet@xtra.co.nz
REST OF YEAR
The Gisborne Greens meet on the first Sunday in each month at 2 pm at The Works.
Submissions to the Minister for the Environment on the state of New Zealand's environment as part of the Rio+10 community programme must be in the post by 9 July.
Besides the Forest & Bird meetings on May 14 and June 25 there will be a meeting on August 13 at 7.30 pm when Andy Bassett from the Department of Conservation will speak on "A Cultural Experience on Easter Island from 1895 [sic] -2001".
Details of the Tairawhiti Polytechnic and Gisborne District Council City Historical Walk lead by Gisborne historian Sheila Robinson on Sunday, June 3 are above. The walks calendar for the rest of the year is : Sunday, July 1 Tolaga Bay to Loisels with Victor Walker. Sunday, July 22 John Dwight's Brain Teaser Mystery Walk. Sunday, August 5 Historic Ormond with local resident Allan Friar. Saturday, September
1 Colin Trail of the Department of Conservation's Opotiki office will lead a walk in the Waioeka Gorge that will include the restored historic Tauranga Bridge. Saturday, October 6 Steve Sawyer and Jamie Quirk (DoC, Gisborne) take a walk in Whinerays Scenic Reserve which will include the Motu Falls. Sunday, November 4 Te Hoe Whaling Station, Mahia with DoC archaeologist Pam Bain. Sunday, December 2
Anne McGuire of Tairawhiti Polytechnic will guide this walk to Areoma, a defensive pa site in the Mangatu Forest.
Further Gisborne District Council and Tairawhiti Polytechnic Free Community Workshops : July 30 Ann Craig "Supervision", August 27 Rick Mansell "Team Dynamics and Leadership", September 24 Sonia Nepe "The Community Law Centre".
Tuesday, July 31 The Trustees of the Estate of the late Rosemary Middleton are seeking proposals for the establishment of a wetland and the Gisborne Environmental Centre Incorporated has been invited to submit one. Proposals close on July 31.
FIRST ZAP LINE
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GDC PLANS
David Mountfort <davidm@gdc.govt.nz> is trying to get the Cone of Vision Working Party working again.
The Council's remaining decisions on the Gisborne District Combined Regional Land and District Plan have not yet been issued.
The Gisborne District Council's decisions on submissions on the Coastal Plan have been issued and Port Gisborne Ltd has lodged a reference to the Environment Court.
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ACT APPLICATIONS TO THE GISBORNE DISTRICT COUNCIL
The Council expects consent applications for its proposed solid waste transfer station off Dunstan Road to be filed about beginning of April with a hearing in early June before independent Commissioners.
Applications by the Council for Resource Management Act consents to upgrading or relocating the refuse transfer stations at Matawai, Tolaga Bay, Tikitiki, Te Karaka, Te Puia and Tokomaru Bay will be filed shortly.
The hearing, before independent commissioners, of the Gisborne District Council's applications for Resource Management Act consents to the Manders Road Landfill started at 9 am on Monday, April 30 and on Thursday, May 3 adjourned, for what could be up to four months, for an independent peer review.
GISBORNE APPEALS BEFORE THE ENVIRONMENT COURT
JUKEN NISSHO LIMITED APPLICATION FOR CONSENT TO INCINERATE WOODWASTE CONTAINING BIOCIDES
Mediation started on Monday, February 19 and everyone is optimistic.
SEWAGE DISCHARGE EXTENSION
The Gisborne District Council applied for consents to continue the existing discharge for a further seven years. The Commissioners gave them four years. Te Runanga O Turanganui A Kiwa and the Paokahu, Kopututea and Awapuni Trusts have appealed. They seek to have the applications declined or in the alternative, the term reduced to three years. They are understood to be near a settlement.
APPEALS AGAINST THE COUNCIL'S DECISIONS ON THE DISCHARGES PLAN AND
PARTS OF THE DISTRICT PLAN
Lots of references to the Environment Court have been lodged against the Council's decisions on the Gisborne District Regional Plan for Discharges to Land & Water, Waste Management and Hazardous Substances and against the Council's decisions on parts of the Gisborne District Combined Regional Land and District Plan.
SECOND ZAP LINE
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LETTER TO THE EDITOR
In response to the last Newsletter, a reader wrote :-
Thanks for your newsletter. Will read it property in the morning but your letter did prompt me into sending you this URL. Can you send this out far and wide please. Tis a petition to the USA over their reneging on the Kyoto Protocol. The petition is made up from a group of people from Over the Garden Gate site in the UK. All caring folk who love nature, animals, environment etc. A site I visit very often!
Please take a look.
Thanks,
Gill
http://www.overthegardengate.co.uk/cottage/USApetition.asp
WHAT I AM READING
Sharon Beder "Toxic Fish and Sewer Surfing" My copy, which I bought second hand from The Green Door in Auckland years ago for $6, is published by Allen & Unwin, Sydney in 1989 ISBN 0 04 442112 5. The H. B.Williams Memorial Library has a copy and the reference is 363.738 BED
Dr Sharon Beder is associate professor in the Science, Technology and Society programme of the University of Wollongong. She worked as a professional engineer for several years before becoming a university lecturer. She traces the history of Sydney's human waste from European settlement to 1989 when a number of ocean outfalls were (and probably still are) grossly polluting the city's world famous beaches.
She deals with both the effects of pollution and the politics that prevent the pollution being stopped. The book puts a different perspective on what is happening with Gisborne's sewer outfall in Poverty Bay and I wish that I had read it years ago. It is naive to think that discharging raw sewage into the sea is just a scientific and engineering question of what are the adverse effects and what is
the best solution. These are just incidental to the politics involved.
At page 15 she says "The denials of pollution and health threats by government authorities were supported by local councils, businessmen and property owners who were concerned that adverse publicity would drive away potential visitors and residents from an area and depress business activity, regional development and property values".
Of band-aid measures, she says at page 157 that these "...will merely extend our problems into the future. They may be politically attractive because they offer a cosmetic solution that takes the issue from the front pages of the newspapers and relieves the pressure on politicians to do something. And such solutions may be promoted by engineers because they are economical. Consultants in the sewage
engineering field get business because they come up with economic solutions that the public can be persuaded to accept. That is their job. But what is cheap and economical in engineering terms is not always cheap in the long term".
Sharon Beder has also written "Global Spin The Corporate Assault on Environmentalism" published by Scribe Publications, Melbourne in 1997 ISBN 0 908011 32 6 (H. B.Williams Memorial Library reference 363.7 BED) and "Selling the Work Ethic From Puritan Pulpit to Corporate PR" published by Scribe Publications Pty Ltd in 2000. ISBN 0 908011 48 2 pb which I am still trying to persuade the H. B.Williams Memorial Library to buy.
"Toxic Fish and Sewer Surfing" suggests the solution to Gisborne's sewage problems. Property owners (the ratepayers who oppose spending any money at all) businessmen, councillors, council staff and their consultants deny that there is a problem because they do not want the adverse publicity. The political answer is to give them the maximum amount of adverse publicity. A website that would come up in a search by any potential visitor or resident who was seeking information on
"Gisborne" and would give them the real picture of Gisborne in contrast to the rosy picture in the tourist brochures would put real pressure on the Council. An added bonus would be that the existence of such a website would generate lots of adverse publicity in the media.
NZERS NOT 100 PERCENT SOLD ON PURE IMAGE
Wellington, April 19 - New Zealand may be marketing itself overseas as 100 percent pure, but few at home are buying the image, according to a new Massey University study. The New Zealanders and the Environment survey by the university's marketing department found that a significant number of New Zealanders believed the country's clean, green image was a myth. Most agreed that New Zealand was cleaner than other countries, but believed that was only because of its smaller
population, said department head Phil Gendall in releasing the findings today.
Ninety percent of New Zealanders valued unpolluted air and waterways the most, though about two-thirds believed pollution was a serious threat to the environment. The survey, part of an annual international survey of social and economic issues in 35 countries, closely mirrored one done on the environment in 1993.
Professor Gendall said it was surprising that, even though most New Zealanders believed the environment was under threat, fewer were willing to do something to protect it now than eight years ago. More New Zealanders recycled now, but they were less involved in other environmental protection activities and less willing to pay higher prices or more tax to protect the environment. Regarding genetic
modification (GM), Prof Gendall said most people thought it should be allowed in medicine and agriculture, and to benefit the environment, provided human health and safety was protected.
Women were more opposed to GM than men, reflecting their greater concern for the environment in general. Most New Zealanders supported government intervention to protect the environment, through legislation and action to reduce waste.
JEANETTE FITZSIMONS IN THE NEW ZEALAND HERALD
There have been a series of articles in the NZ Herald on common core values. Did you see Green Party Co-Leader Jeanette Fitzsimons' contribution on 19 April? It started :-
"Our traditional values can still form the heart of a modern nation founded on sustainability, justice and participation", says Green Party Co-Leader Jeanette Fitzsimons "Bare feet on the beach. Surfing. Bush and mountains. Fishing, picking mushrooms or blackberries. The hospital takes you without checking your insurance papers. Civil servants don't take bribes and you don't spend long in prison without a trial. No fancy formalities and you don't have to dress for dinner.
Innovation - we can still do anything with No 8 wire - and, as the world's social laboratory, we led with votes for women and social security. Perhaps that's because we believe in a fair go for the underdog. We push our limits, going beyond the ordinary in sport, the arts, exploring and research. These are unmistakably New Zealand common core values. To those who have rejected them for a world
dominated by purely commercial considerations, they now sound quaint and unsophisticated. But they are still widely accepted and can form the core of a modern nation founded on sustainability, justice and participation."
I think that the full article is at :-
<http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?reportID=57031>
LIVING FREE OF POLLUTION CALLED BASIC HUMAN RIGHT
NEW YORK, New York, April 30, 2001 (ENS) - In a historic move, the United Nations (UN) Commission on Human Rights has concluded that everyone has the right to live in a world free from toxic pollution and environmental degradation.
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The purpose of this Newsletter is to keep people informed about environmental matters in Gisborne. It is free and getting it does not impose any obligation. But if something comes up that you are particularly concerned about then knowing what is happening may give you the opportunity to do something about it.
Requests to be added to, or taken off the List should be sent to:-
rossr@gisborne.net.nz
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