Opinion
22 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – January 24, 2022
NZ Post fails to address problem Alternative View
Alan Emerson
IF YOU want to work for an organisation that doesn’t seem to care about communications and isolates itself in an insulated cocoon, then NZ Post is the place for you. What happened initially is that we were in Cairns flying back to New Zealand. We had to fill in an online immigration form, which was fine, but when it came to the address it wouldn’t accept any we offered. Our address is RD12 Masterton 5872. Put that in the system and it tells you there is no such address. Further we have a fire number as rural addresses do. We put in our fire number, the road and the RD number to be told again there was no such address. We then inserted the general area for the same result. At this stage, the plane is about to depart and we’re sweating. Finally it came to us. It was our name, the fire number and the road with the suburb required as the beach five kilometres distant.
That took an hour of stressful playing around and anything containing our RD number wouldn’t work, meaning our immigration application couldn’t be completed. Obviously, some clown at NZ Post HQ doesn’t have the faintest clue there’s a rural mail service they’re supposed to be serving. It also creates a larger problem when you order a parcel to be delivered. You tell the enterprise you are RD12 and they tell you there is no such address. My thought was to go to NZ Post and ask what is going on or words to that effect. That’s when the stupidity really advanced at pace. I wanted to talk to someone and that is nigh on impossible with that hide-bound bureaucracy. On the website they have an 0800 number. I rang it and received a variety of options all dealing with letter or parcel deliveries. There was no instruction to hang onto the phone if you had an enquiry that didn’t cover mail or parcels. Google NZ Post corporate and you get the same 0800 number. You can go onto the website and find out all kinds of ‘exciting and riveting’ information. You are told that NZ Post is now carbon neutral and that you can write a letter to Santa in Te Reo. I found the information less than riveting. You can find out the names of
all their executive team, with more about their qualifications than what they actually do. There are some grandiose titles, I tell you. Amazingly, there are no contact phone numbers or even emails reinforcing my belief that NZ Post HQ is in an ivory tower with the drawbridge up. They also send out media releases without contact phone numbers attached. I don’t know any other organisation that does. I finally came across a division headed ‘Datam’, which isn’t in my dictionary. The word progression there is from data-to-date and doesn’t include Datam. Maybe it is an internal NZ Post word to describe Data Missing? At Datam HQ there were several names and phone numbers. Finally, the excitement was getting to me. I carefully phoned the said number and a voice answered, a human voice. I was half expecting a robot. I was duly greeted and asked what I wanted. I explained at length that all I wanted to know was why NZ Post had taken an arbitrary decision to change my address to an official one of their choosing without telling me what it was. I was told that it wasn’t their department. “Can you please look up your computer and tell me who I can phone,” I asked politely.
EXPERIENCE: Alan Emerson recounts dealing with NZ Post after discovering that his address had miraculously changed.
She paused for a while to let the excitement build and then told me she couldn’t help as her computer was turned off. “Can’t you turn it on and let me know who I can talk to?” I asked, once again as politely as was possible. I was told no at 4.25 on a Tuesday afternoon. That told me that NZ Post has a customer focus second to none. Out here in the sticks Sharyn our mail lady does an exceptional job. If RD12 is on the envelope she’ll deliver it. NZ Post corporate is different as it usually takes a week for a package or letter to get from Masterton to Timaru. A horse would be quicker.
But fellow farmers there is a light at the end of the tunnel. If you have an employee who is useless you could write them a glowing reference and suggest they get a job at the executive team of NZ Post. The termination won’t cost you a cent and the mail system could only improve. Finally, if an ex-farm worker did get a job at NZ Post HQ, it would mean at least one person in the organisation would know what rural delivery meant.
Your View Alan Emerson is a semi-retired Wairarapa farmer and businessman: dath.emerson@gmail.com
Country halls taking on new life From the Ridge
Steve Wyn-Harris
SMALL country halls have been on my mind this week. I’m told that there are at least 52 here in Hawke’s Bay. A simple, although dodgy, extrapolation means there could be somewhere between 500 and 1000 of these halls scattered throughout rural New Zealand. Before the advent of the modern motorcar, these halls were an important facet and hub of rural communities. Our local hall was in the Hatuma settlement about 10km from here. It was built in 1932 on a reserve controlled by the Hatuma Domain Board and cost the district £626. It was used for a variety of functions in those early years including dances, social functions, children’s fancy dress balls, meetings and an annual social where newcomers were welcomed and departers farewelled.
I well remember the annual Christmas party and the anticipated and exciting appearance of Father Christmas. Thirty years later I inherited the mantel of Father Christmas from Roger Bronte and for my first year had what seemed like an excellent idea of appearing upon a horse with antlers strapped to its head. What is even more surprising was that noted horseman Tim also thought this a good idea and supplied the horse. What was not surprising in hindsight was that the horse didn’t think it a promising idea at all to have antlers on its head and a padded bloke wearing a large white beard and a bright red billowing costume on its back. We had to take the antlers off the horse and as a non-horse rider I pleaded with Tim not to let go of the reins as he led this distraught beast, whose eyes managed to swivel backwards to look at me whilst snorting and trying to rear up and bolt. That year Father Christmas walked back to the North Pole and reverted to arriving in old cars and fire engines in following years. We used to have weekly badminton nights which were good fun.
FANTASTIC: Singer-songwriter Reb Fountain put on a wonderful performance at the Mangakuri Chapel a couple of weeks ago, Steve WynHarris says. The hall also served as a war memorial with the names of the five men who lost their lives in WW1 and the four who died in WW2. But the Hatuma district is near to Waipukurau, with those of us further out only taking 15 minutes
in modern cars to get to town. The two schools in the district closed in 1963, ending the school’s use of the hall. Our hall’s usage fell away but the neighbouring district of Flemington lacked a school hall, so it was relocated there where it is now also used as their district hall. There has been a great initiative over the last couple of years to give some of Hawke’s Bay’s halls a new use. It’s called The Small Hall Sessions and the man behind this idea is Jamie Macphail, who amongst other things has been a music promoter. I first met Jamie when he turned up at Central Hawke’s Bay College in my history class and told us he was a Baha’i and then brought Barry Crump into the classroom to have a chat with us. So, he was an interesting rooster even back then. Jamie has been bringing some of the country’s biggest acts to these small intimate venues over the past year or two. A couple of weeks ago, Jane and I travelled out to the Mangakuri Chapel and with just 50 others were privileged to watch and listen to Reb Fountain in this very cool space.
She is a fantastic singersongwriter and despite a sixmonth break from performing after the Auckland lockdown put on a terrific show. And then last week we didn’t have to travel so far to see Tami Neilson and her opener Hera as they came to the Takapau Hall and again we were treated to a wonderful show with two exceptionally talented performers giving their all. Tami’s set was her songs interwoven with anecdotes and stories of her life as a musician. We are all aware of how tough this pandemic has been for hospitality and tourism, but we forget how difficult it’s been for the performing sector and musicians such as these. Performers of this calibre usually play to crowds in the many hundreds and thousands, so we are truly fortunate to have them on our own doorsteps. So, if you are in this part of the world and see these gigs coming to a hall near you, don’t miss the opportunity.
Your View Steve Wyn-Harris is a Central Hawke’s Bay sheep and beef farmer. swyn@xtra.co.nz
