Signs need to be made more explicit
Coverage of champs
Anything that involves New Zealand versus Australia evokes a fervour of national pride on both sides of the Tasman so Saturday August 18, in the ANZ Stadium, Sydney, was an important event on the rugby calendar, including as it did, our two world champion teams. The Southland Times ,andI assume the other Stuff papers, paid tribute to the event thus:
Saturday, August 18 on page 24, articles about All Blacks players 32cm wide x 37cm high; on page 26 comments about the Black Ferns’ culture and training, 37cm x 30cm; page 24, the back page, comments about the All Blacks, full page width and 36cm high.
As readers know, both NZ teams won, so The Southland Times celebrated thus: On Monday, August 20 on pages 30-31 an All Blacks’ photo 24 x 22cm, with the total article being 37.5 x 28cm. The Black Ferns had a photo of 7.5 x 6.5cm, with their total article being 47 x 7.5cm , then page 32 had an another All Blacks feature of full page width by 19cm high.
On Tuesday, August 21 there were three follow up articles about the All Blacks plus a small article, 10cm x 14cm about the Australian team. About the Black Ferns? Nothing.
Wednesday, August 22 wrote up the Australians and the All Blacks but of the Black Ferns nothing.
Thursday, August 23 carried two articles about the All Blacks; of the Black Ferns, nothing.
Over the five days All Black articles covered 7103cm2 with: 146.25cm2 for the Black Ferns.
NZ Rugby bosses have recognised the efforts of our rugby women by granting them professional status; maybe it is time for the media to get behind the same ball.
Margaret G Cook
Cambridge Place
In Pat Veltkamp Smith’s column (August 23), ‘‘What Now For Cambridge?’’, she draws attention to the iconic arcade between Esk and Tay streets and comments that this was used as the principal setting for my 2015 novel, The Hollywood School of Dressmaking, which is set in 1929 Invercargill.
Pat expresses concern that the attractive Esk Street Art Deco facade of our Cambridge Place Arcade might be demolished for the new development.
In checking out the aerial plan published in The Southland Times on January 15, I see that this building does indeed have an ominous red cross drawn across it.
Like many, I applaud the positivity which has resulted in the plans for rejuvenation of the central city, but do hope that this attractive Esk Street facade – perhaps the Arcade itself – might be preserved?
Lynley Dear Gutter politics rears its ugly head every so often and every time it’s shocking. Who would expect such tactics from a democratic country?
When the new US President took control in early 2017 he named the new team. Included was a prominent 44 year old African American lady as one of his aides.
In a was a very short time before she was out of favour and last week she was sacked by one of Donald’s henchmen.
Not quite enough for Mr Trump who endorsed her sacking, saying she was a low-life and a dog.
It is shocking for a leader of the free world to take part in such gutter politics in his own country.
No wonder so many Americans are settling in New Zealand.
Jim Fish
The celebrations of our sporting heroes has triggered off a lot of requests from the media regarding the success of Invercargill and Southland.
Reporters want to know how we achieved such dominance in three major sporting codes.
The answer is incredibly complex but I’ll try and reduce my views to three key factors.
The first is finance.
We don’t have much corporate wealth. Few large businesses have located their head office in Invercargill.
We did, however, have substantial community wealth by combining the assets and cash reserves of the Invercargill Licensing Trust, Community Trust of Southland, ICC and SIT which gave us a huge war chest.
Combining our regional wealth enabled us to build the infrastructure that our sporting heroes needed to achieve success.
Splash Palace, ILT Stadium Southland and the SIT Velodrome were just a few examples of the world class sporting facilities we could build for our athletes.
As well as community wealth and sporting infrastructure the third factor was that our community leaders launched high profile events to celebrate our success and increase our confidence.
The Burt Munro Challenge and the World’s Fastest Indian movie were one example of these innovative initiatives.
The celebrations for Sting/Steel and the winning of the Ranfurly Shield.
The recent success of the Sharks and Southland cricketers.
The Surf to City, Kidzone, hosting Joseph Parker, the Bluff Oyster Festival and the success of our cyclists all combined to give us confidence in the future of Southland.
That historical success has been enhanced by the Bill Richardson Transport World, the Motorcycle Mecca, the plans for a super CBD upgrade and numerous other projects such as Kmart and SIT’s plans for an Art Centre are all symbolic of the sense of excitement that is sweeping through our city.
It doesn’t of course mean we won’t face less inspirational challenges.
The recycling of plastic, the treating of stormwater and the reduction of carbon emissions, all have to be dealt with neither can we ignore our moral obligations.
The WW1 commemorations, our predator free zones, the P epidemic, the tertiary sector review that is threatening our Southern Institute of Technology, the future of immigration, the shortage of skilled workers and the lack of affordable housing are all issues that have to be dealt with.
I’m not suggesting we have a bleak future of little more than blood, sweat and tears.
New Zealand is a beautiful country.
We don’t have to deal with the raging fires that are devastating Australia and California.
We don’t have terrorist bombings, collapsing Italian bridges, civil war, savage floods or genocide.
Relatively speaking we have little to worry about.
The tyranny of distance, once our greatest adversary, is now our protector.
However, that doesn’t mean we should feel smug or complacent.
New Zealand is certainly lucky but our job is to protect that good luck for future generations.
❚ Tim Shadbolt is the Mayor of Invercargill.