Sinking query

Have I missed something? Only this week, I read the book Landfall Nelson by June Neale. Chapter one of that book has the story of Tasman’s 1642 visit in the ships Heemskerck and Zeehan. Then your newspaper quoted Ngati Tumatakokiri kaumata, Doug Huria. According to Huria, his great great grandfather had taken a certain James Mackay to a hill and pointing "told him that was the place Abel Tasman’s men were killed by his ancestors and the ship sunk".

This is not the first time that I have read of the fateful first encounter between Tasman and the Maori, but I have never before heard of one of Tasman’s ships being sunk. According to what I have read, after leaving New Zealand, both ships visited Tonga and Fiji.

Is it possible two events have become confused as it sounds a little like the retaliatory sinking of the Boyd by Maori; but that was in the North of the North Island, and around 200 years later? reports were published last week which we all should be concerned about.

Firstly the Better Media Trust, which is a coalition of organisations, which monitor the standards of all media, has issued a damning report that highlights how the manipulation of facts, the reporting of so called ‘‘fake news’’ and adherence to a news organisation with biased political colours has influenced what we the general public get to see read and hear. Reporting concerning BREXIT and the USA Presidential election are two prime recent examples. The report points out that media must at all times be independent, have high integrity and have ‘‘ the power to report the truth’’. It also comments that a lack of investigative journalism has meant the public are not well served when there is a need to know the story behind the story. We deserve better.

The second report, published by the NZ Institute of Public Administration, identifies that politically appointed Ministerial Advisors are acting as ‘‘gatekeepers’’ for ministers and are preventing well qualified and experienced senior public servants from advising ministers properly. This is totally unacceptable as we rely on ministers receiving apolitical information to make decisions. The Public Service Association is rightly very concerned about this and so should we all be.