From Murray’s Desk Welcome to this edition of Eye on Communities magazine, which no thanks to Covid, is the only one for this year. This is my first edition since taking over the role of manager of Canterbury Neighbourhood Support (CNS) at the start of this year. It has been quite a year with the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic across the globe.
in colour, only a couple of the advertisements had cell phone contact numbers, and none had an email address. There are many people to thank who have contributed articles to this magazine. This includes Nadine Hall, editor of “New Zealand Lifestyle Block” magazine, and her publishers for permission to use an article written by Sheryn Dean (“The Good Life – How to be a good country neighbour”).
The effects of the virus along with the control measures imposed certainly influenced how events progressed this year.
While this article is aimed at people living rurally, the idea of being a good neighbour applies everywhere.
I look back and note that my predecessor, Dave Wilkinson, took over the reins at Canterbury Neighbourhood Support only months before the September earthquakes in 2010.
Other contributors include Superintendent John Price, the District Commander of Canterbury Police with his message of Police and Community working together to make a better and safer place to live and work in.
Within months of me starting, the country was in lockdown… food for thought. Looking back even further, the first edition of this magazine was published in April 1994 as “Eye on Crime”. At that time Neighbourhood Support came under the umbrella of the Police and Sergeant Pat Creasey was the Crime Prevention Officer in Christchurch, responsible for running CNS. Only the front cover of the magazine was
Superintendent Price was very recently invested as an Officer of the Most Venerable Order of St John (OStJ) in recognition of his commitment to relationship-building between St John and Police. Senior Sergeant Vaughn Lapslie of Highway Patrol has a very simple message for us on “Patience” – and it does not just apply to the highways. Darlene Heard has written about her early memories of Neighbourhood Page 9
