FINALLY, THERE IS A REAL ALTERNATIVE TO GLYPHOSATE

A local company, based in Ponsonby, Safe Weed Control is providing a new chemical free, organic and non toxic weed control service to local residents.

Foamstream works on a wide variety of common weeds as well as moss, algae and lichen. Its dual purpose, low pressure heat application also means it works well as a stone and timber cleaner.

The foam is made from natural plant oils and sugars making it safe for use around people, animals and delicate environments. It is biodegradable and good for the planet.

The active ingredient in Foamstream is the heat from the hot water. The foam insulates the hot water, ensuring the heat is not lost to the atmosphere. This ensures the heat covers the plant for long enough for it to kill or severely damage the plant.

The company, uses technology by WeedingTech, who produce Foamstream. They are working with councils and contractors around the country to provide an alternative to chemical herbicide use in our public spaces, with machines now working in both Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

Safe Weed Control is designed to offer a service to the residential market. This means the technology is no longer restricted to larger contractors using the tech for commercial purposes.

Owner Matt Kirby is knowledgeable and approachable. As a resident told us, “I contracted Matt to try the process out on some of my most recalcitrant weeds at home. Spraying brick and paved paths proved very effective. Weeds were killed dead in a couple of days.” www.weedingtech.com/nz www.safeweedcontrol.co.nz now $149.50

Ponsonby News will keep pestering the council until glyphosate is finally banned. Good luck Matt Kirby with your much needed alternative.

Wall Clock was $59.00 now $29.50

*Sale prices valid from 09/02/23 to 26/02/23. Stock varies between stores, only while stocks last. www.frenchcountry.co.nz

GAEL BALDOCK: TE REO - USE OF MACRONS

Above a water cooler were the words “Wai māori”. I had to ask the meaning: Māori-to-English internet translator said “natural water”; and a te reo speaking friend said “fresh water”.

He explained that the word “māori” meant “ordinary, average, natural, normal” people as everyone’s pepeha told the real story of that person’s iwi, mountain and river. In law, until 1948 ‘Native Peoples’ was used and this changed to “Māori”.

Te Reo literally translates as “the language”. There was originally no native writing system for Māori. Early explorers and missionaries attempted to define the sounds of the language in written form using the Latin alphabet with varying degrees of success. In 1817, Professor Samuel Lee of Cambridge University worked with Ngāpuhi chief Tītore and his relative Tui, then Ngāpuhi chief Hongi Hika and his relative, Waikato.

By 1830 the Church Missionary Society missionaries had revised the orthography for writing to modern spelling and added the ‘wh’ “to distinguish the voiceless bilabial fricative phoneme from the labio-velar phoneme /w/; and the consistent marking of long vowels.”

“The modern Māori alphabet has 15 letters, two of which are digraphs (character pairs). The five vowels have both short and long forms, with the long forms denoted by macrons marked above them. The order of the alphabet is as follows:

How many times do we write Maori rather than Māori was my next question - when to use macrons?

Dame Naida Glavish pointed out that the first version of the Bible in Te Reo didn’t have a single macron. Of course typewriters didn’t have macrons, nor do all computers, but typefaces could be made with them.

“Dialect in reo is a tribal identity and macrons are used to help non reo speakers to know where to place emphasis for grammatical purposes.” South Island reo tends to use double vowels instead of macrons so write “Maaori” and an underlined k instead of ‘ng’. Letter ‘L’ and ‘G’ are also used in

Southern dialect, though not in standard Māori. Macrons only became in common usage once Te Reo was taught at University in 1960. The New Zealand Geographic Board (Ngā Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa) began using macrons on official place names in the 1990s. Macrons were typically not used on maps because they could be misinterpreted as cartographic symbols.

Without macrons the meaning changes considerably: ata = morning / āta = carefully; keke = cake / kēkē = armpit; mana = prestige / māna = for him/her; manu = bird / mānu = to float; tatari = to wait for / tātari = to filter or analyse; tui = to sew / tūī = parson bird; wahine = woman / wāhine = women. [Wikipedia]

The English language takes on new words and assimilates words from other languages. We used to talk about ‘tidal waves’ and then adopted the Japanese word “tsunami’. Shakespeare invented 100s of words, including my favourite, “bubble”, one of the most used words in lockdown. Growing up ‘gay’ only meant “happy”. Issac Asimov coined the word “robot” from the Slav word that meant ‘slave’. Instead Maori uses transliteration where for example the word ‘cake’ becomes “keke” and ‘monkey’ becomes “makimaki” and ‘Christian’ becomes “Karaitiana”.

So English being a sponge taking on other language has Te Reo words that are recognised in other countries: haka; tiki; Maui; Kiwi, pohutakawa (and some of our other birds and plants). What we forget when we use these words are often the macron and that they can’t have plurals, so the plural of tūī is still tūī. Words can also have several meanings, so whilst “hapu” means ‘sub-tribe’ is also means ‘pregnant’.

Confused? Whilst Te Reo Māori wasn’t a written language, it is complex. As I’m not a speaker of Te Reo Māori, I use macron when I know about them and don’t mean any offence by not using them. (GAEL BALDOCK, communit y advocate)