The Hobson - April 15

april 2015

remuera’s anzac tribute to local boys lost local news, views & informed opinions

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The April Issue 8

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the village A push for zoning change around the Cathedral, the port expansion, local artists scramble to help Starship, and more

the reps Views from Epsom MP David Seymour and list MP Paul Goldsmith

the plan Planning consultant Hamish Firth shares his workday

the investment Warren Couillault forecasts the impact of the driverless car

the suburbanist Tommy Honey on the youthification of our cities

the pretty Melissa Williams-King finds Easter treats that won’t add a single kilo

the garden Danvers Devereux takes us on a tour of his botanical business haven at Matakana

the psyche Dr Amrit Kaur on how to really listen

the second act A surprise encounter at Britomart has Sandy Burgham rethinking some long-held views

the bookmark Reviewer Gail Woodward’s April selection

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the district diary Local happenings this April

the anzacs A special tribute to six Remuera soldiers who lost their lives at Gallipoli, researched and written by Remuera Heritage. Plus, a look at what’s new in the College Rifles memorabilia collection

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the teacher Introducing Judi Paape, teacher, junior school principal and keen observer of childhood

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the wellbeing Wellness consultant Lee Parore on health for longevity

the cinema What to see this month, as selected by Caitlin McKenna

the arts Anzac artwork in the auction room, and the surprise of hidden treasures, by Leigh Melville

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the sound Andrew Dickens on a new Bob Dylan release, and the loaded question of “what is good?”

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the heritage Carolyn Cameron writes the towering tale of Parnell Rd’s proud Norfolk Pine

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issue 17, april 2015 Editor & Publisher Kirsty Cameron editor@thehobson.co.nz Art Direction & Production Stephen Penny design@thehobson.co.nz Advertising Inquiries business@thehobson.co.nz Writers Kirsty Cameron, Zac Fleming, Melissa Williams-King Proofreader Fiona Wilson Columnists & Contributors This Issue Sandy Burgham (The Journey), Carolyn Cameron (The Heritage), Shale Chambers, Sue Cooper & Jenny Haggitt (The Anzacs), Warren Couillault (The Investment), Andrew Dickens (The Sound), Hamish Firth (The Plan), Paul Goldsmith (The Reps), Amrit Kaur (The Psyche), Caitlin McKenna (The Cinema), Leigh Melville (The Arts), Judi Paape (The Teacher), Lee Parore (The Wellbeing), David Seymour (The Reps), Desley Simpson, Melissa Williams-King (The Pretty), Gail Woodward (The Bookmark)

ike a living thing, THE HOBSON evolves — top marks to those who noticed the stylistic changes we made to the headline typefaces in March (we decided it was time to retire that pretty script font. Once everyone’s doing it, it’s time to move on). Some of the editorial changes result from feedback you’ve given us, others because we’ve found something deserving of space. A new feature this month is “The Garden”, where we’ve stepped outside the neighbourhood to visit the “working garden” of Danvers Devereux. Danvers is a local — Remuera — and has for many years run his Les Floralies bodycare business from industrial East Tamaki. But a chance comment from one of his offshore clients made him think about where he really wanted to be, and what was authentic to his brand and vision for the business. Four years and a lot of hard labour later, he’s relocated his renamed company — now Matakana Botanicals — to a Matakana farm, placing the office and warehouse amongst the lavender the company uses. Enjoy a tour of the new HQ on page 38. In this issue we also introduce Judi Paape, who’s writing “The Teacher”.

A well-experienced junior school teacher and principal, Parnell resident Judi will become a regular contributor to the magazine, and for that, we give her top marks for putting her hand up! Welcome Judi, and to everyone, thank you for your ongoing feedback and comments. We love hearing from you, so please stay in touch.

Kirsty Cameron editor@thehobson.co.nz

Photographers Alexander Turnbull Library, Stephen Penny, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries

In this issue, we mark the 100th anniversary of Gallipoli with a special feature about some of Remuera’s Anzacs, written by Remuera Heritage’s Sue Cooper and Jenny Haggitt. My greatgrandfather, Charles Cowan, was shot through the chest and left leg during the Battle of Landing at Anzac Cove on April 25, 1915. This photo was taken in England in 1916, where he recuperated before being discharged as medically unfit. An engine driver on the logging railway at Piha before WWI, Gallipoli left him with a permanent limp. But unlike the tragic young men in our story, he was fortunate enough to come home.

Cover The Cenotaph, Auckland War Memorial Museum. Photo: Peter Mitchell/mychillybin. co.nz. See Anzacs story, page 26 The Hobson is published 10 times a year by The Hobson Limited, PO Box 37490 Parnell, Auckland 1151. www.thehobson.co.nz F: TheHobsonMagazine T: @thehobson Ideas, suggestions, advertising inquiries welcome. editor@thehobson.co.nz Or via Facebook: www.facebook.com/ TheHobsonMagazine

The content of The Hobson is copyright. Our words, our pictures. Don’t steal, and don’t borrow without checking with us first. We aim for accuracy but cannot be held liable for any inaccuracies that do occur. The views of our contributors are their own and not necessarily those of The Hobson. We don’t favour unsolicited contributions but do welcome you getting in touch via editor@thehobson.co.nz to discuss ideas.

Got the write stuff?

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Contact: editor@thehobson.co.nz

The Hobson is Remuera and Parnell’s community magazine. We deliver into letterboxes in these neighbourhoods, and copies are also at local libraries, cafes, and at businesses including Vicky Ave and White Heron dairies, and Paper Plus Parnell.

For more about us, visit www.thehobson.co.nz or TheHobsonMagazine on Facebook.

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The Columnists Left to right from top row:

Sandy Burgham (The Second Act) is a brand strategist and an executive coach with a special interest in midlife change and transformational behaviours. She runs a central Auckland practice. www.sandyburgham.com Remuera resident Warren Couillault (The Investment) is a partner in and director of Richmond Investment Management, the manager of a boutique fund of hedge funds. He is a shareholder in and director of Generate Investment Management Ltd; manager of a registered Kiwisaver scheme and an adviser to S.AG Private. www. richmond.co.nz Andrew Dickens (The Sound) is the host of Andrew Dickens’ Sunday Cafe on Sunday morning, from 9am, on Newstalk ZB. He is also the music reviewer on Jack Tame’s Saturday morning show on Newstalk ZB. He grew up in Remuera.

Hamish Firth (The Plan) lives and works in Parnell and is principal of the Mt Hobson Group, a specialist urban planning consultancy. mthobsonproperties.co.nz Dr Amrit Kaur (The Psyche) lives in Meadowbank and is a NZ-registered clinical psychologist specialising in helping children, families and young adults. She is part of the multidisciplinary KidzTherapy practice.

Caitlin McKenna (The Cinema) of Remuera is passionate about the cinema — she majored in film, sociology and marketing, graduating recently with a conjoint BCom/BA. Leigh Melville (The Arts) is director, art, at ART + OBJECT auction house. She has worked for several Auckland galleries and is co-chair of the Patrons of the Venice Biennale. She lives in Parnell.

Lee Parore (The Wellbeing) is an expert in executive health. A qualified naturopath and a personal trainer to elite athletes and executives, his wellness clinic is in Newmarket. www.leeparorehealthlab.com One of New Zealand’s leading lifestyle and beauty editors, Remuera’s Melissa Williams-King (The Pretty) is a former editor of Fashion Quarterly.

Gail Woodward (The Bookmark) is the senior book buyer for Paper Plus Newmarket. A “forgiving reader” across genres, she belongs, and advises on selections, to book clubs.

the hobson 6

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the village

Town & Around

LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION An application by the General Trust Board of the Anglican Diocese of Auckland for a zoning change near Holy Trinity Cathedral to allow for multi-level building, has upset some locals who want the old wooden homes on church land to be protected. Concerned readers have also contacted THE HOBSON about the state of the two houses, which now have windows blacked out and have for some years been in a state of disrepair.

The Diocese board has applied for the land currently occupied by two dilapidated double-story timber houses — 9 St Stephens Ave, pictured above, and its neighbour, 1A Brighton Rd, Parnell — to be changed to apartment zoning under the Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan (PAUP). Under the PAUP as it stands, the land is set down to be single zoning, allowing buildings around two storeys. The board has applied for Terrace and Apartment Zoning, which can allow up to six storeys.

General Trust Board secretary Grant Hope says the board is “always looking to maximize the value of its land” and would not rule out apartments being built. He could not comment on what would become of the two existing houses, saying the church has no long term plan in place at present.

Hope also said the Diocese would not sell the land, which implies it may be leasehold for any future development. He also said that rumours the buildings are purposely being neglected so they may be deemed beyond repair and demolished, are “completely untrue”.

“People need to realise the cost to bring these buildings up to standard is significant.” The buildings have also been deemed unsafe.

Grant Hope says the commonly-held view that the buildings are of historic significance to the Anglican church is incorrect. 9 St

Stephens Ave was built by a doctor on a 60 year lease, and when that lease came to an end the property was essentially abandoned.

“That’s how it came into the church’s hands.”

The building at 1A Brighton Rd, used as a deanery for some years, is not original to the site, having been relocated there from further down the street at some time in its history.

(The double-story villa at 3 Brighton Rd, on the southern side of the Cathedral carpark, was not owned by the church as some believed, and was sold last year).

“In keeping with the area, [the zoning application] is not out of the ordinary,” says Hope.

Under the current Auckland District Plan, the Cathedral, St Mary’s, the two wooden houses and the Heritage-listed stone-andtimber Bishop Selwyn Deanery at 17 St Stephens Ave are zoned Residential 1, which is a heritage-area designation.

Beyond 17 St Stephens Ave, and parts of Brighton Rd, the zone is 7a, which allows for townhouse-type developments of around three to four storeys.

Parnell Heritage co-chair Julie Hill says the body is “totally opposed” to the zoning application because there is “nothing nearby equivalent”.

“Zoning is supposed to have stepped levels of increments so people in one or two storey houses don’t have high buildings built next to them,” she says. “It’s in the heart of a heritage suburb.”

Hill also counters that the board has failed to properly maintain the houses, which has led to their current state.

Parnell Community Committee chair Luke Niue says “in terms of heritage value” the buildings are some of Parnell’s most significant.

He believes they should have heritage protection, “retaining the collective beauty of this high profile part of Parnell”.

— Zac Fleming p

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Parnell pushes back on port plans Formal hearings around Ports of Auckland’s proposed land reclamation are set to begin early this month, as the local community continues to fight against the port’s expansion.

The Parnell Community Committee entered into mediation with Auckland Council and Ports of Auckland Ltd (POAL) last month, arguing the port should be contained within its existing area.

As one of the waterfront-facing communities, Parnell is greatly impacted by port activity, and the PCC argues the increased port

traffic, construction and ongoing operational noise will have an adverse impact.

The battle will now play out at the formal hearing set down for next month.

“The PCC argues that it is fundamentally flawed to allow future land grabs by a so-called ‘industrial zone’ right in the heart of our beautiful city,” says Parnell Community chair Luke Niue. “Much better to label it an Urban City Port that operates in a manner more suitable and respectful to its unique positioning.”

POAL now handles one million container TEUs [twenty-foot

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vision, and not just short term profit. It needs to give real teeth to the ‘avoid, remedy and mitigate’ foundations of good planning practice,” says Niue.

Reclamation within the port’s boundaries is currently a noncomplying activity, and will remain so until the Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan is finalised as the planning blueprint for the city.

Auckland Council has recently softened its position in mediation, now wanting reclamation at the port to be a discretionary activity.

Council has instead proposed a three-tier zoning resolution for the port — which is an Auckland Council-owned entity — as well as new restrictions.

All zones would require public notification and propose reclamation only be allowed, Council states, if: “There is no practicable alternative, it will provide a significant regional benefit, it is the most appropriate form of development and potential adverse effects will be avoided, remedied or mitigated.”

POAL argue reclamation should become discretionary, as it “is the only port in NZ with non-complying status” and “the region’s marinas, and elsewhere on the city waterfront have all got [discretionary] status for reclamation”.

A POAL spokesperson told THE HOBSON it is “the responsible planning approach” that reclamation is made discretionary, and POA has provided “extensive evidence to the Unitary Plan Hearings Panel that demonstrates the need to expand”.

After considerable opposition, the council has now decided to commission a “stage two study” to look at the social, economic, environmental and cultural costs versus any alternatives.

“Any eventual decisions on the future footprint of the port will need to balance the rights of Aucklanders to have a say, with the important economic role played by our ports,” Mayor Len Brown has said.

As well as its bid for reclamation, Ports of Auckland is adding finger wharves to Bledisloe Wharf, extending into the Waitematā Harbour by 98 metres on one side and 92m on the other, which has also raised community ire.

POAL was granted consent for the extension because “ships are getting bigger and the port is getting busier”.

The extension will allow bigger ships to berth for longer. POAL says because the extensions are piled structures, they will have no impact on tidal currents. Construction starts this month and is expected to take until the latter half of 2016. — Zac Fleming. p Ports of Auckland wants to extend Captain Cook wharf (above left) to accommodate larger cruise ships, and has consent to add almost 100m to the Bledisloe container terminal (above).

Image courtesy of Auckland Council

REMUERA ROUND-UP

equivalent units] each year, says Niue, but have scope to grow this to 3.1 million without any further reclamation.

“But the downside will likely be a huge increase in truck traffic and the seven-high wall of empty containers that blights Quay St, and possibly extending out in front of Parnell to TEAL park as demand necessitates.”

The community group is also strongly opposed to shipping of west coast iron sand through the port at 1200 trucks per shipload, and the possibility of multilevel car storage buildings.

“Let’s hope the Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan is built on

Mark Thomas, Orākei Local Board rep on the Remuera Business Association, provided this update: Work is underway on the first stage of the Remuera town centre upgrade. An improved footpath entrance to the Village Green on Remuera Rd will help draw attention to this hidden gem. This month, a significant upgrade to the access lane which runs off Clonbern Rd begins. Ken Baguley, OLB’s transport lead and I, have been working closely with Laura Carr and the RBA team who are championing these steps to make Remuera more pedestrian friendly and to help support our businesses.

The RBA is also working closely with business landowners in the town centre, and recently held a forum to update everyone on the success of recent events such as the White Night art installation, and of the RBA’s ‘Live Life Local’ brand. The aim is to bring a key group of landlords together on a regular basis to work more collaboratively for the benefit of Remuera.

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the village The Remuera Residents Association is keeping a close eye on the work of the Independent Hearings Panel which is looking at Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan. The Panel has been considering regional policy issues and has started issuing initial guidance.

Special character and heritage issues which many are concerned about will start to be considered from April.

You will read below about the interesting public meeting Iain Valentine and the RRA held with the Mayor on his 10-year budget (the Long Term Plan). It wasn’t just the warm, late summer evening that contributed to the heat that night! In Meadowbank, Ruth Mackintosh and her Meadowbank/St Johns team also pulled a good crowd. Our residents’ associations provide a vital link to the work the board does. Please contact Iain (ChairRemueraResidents@ gmail.com) or Ruth (mbsjra@gmail.com) if you would like to get involved. — Mark Thomas p LEN BROWN IN THE TOWN The Remuera Residents Association invited Auckland mayor Len Brown to a public meeting on the supercity’s upcoming 10-year budget. Held at the St Paul’s Methodist church hall, the meeting attracted around 60 locals and interested parties.

RRA chair Iain Valentine says that for many residents, the major concern was the proposed hike in residential rates to 5.6 per cent for next year, dropping to 4.5 per cent for the following nine years.

Valentine points to the compound effect of the increases, especially in light of the recent valuation spike in many homes across the region. “The city wide average increase was 34 per cent, and the average increase for Remuera is projected to be 40 per cent,” he says. “In my own case, a 70 per cent valuation increase has given me for next year alone a 27.6 per cent increase in rates with virtually no discernible added value. The compounding effect over 10 years is a staggering 98 per cent”.

Orākei Local Board chair Desley Simpson — who has previously referred to the ward as ‘Auckland’s EFTPOS’ — also addressed the meeting, highlighting that the highest residential ratepaying ward in the city would receive virtually no significant regional investment.

Under the budget, for which feedback closed off last month, a range of cuts have been proposed including the deferment of local improvements, a reduction in hours at libraries and a reduction in many services. p RISING TO THE OCCASION Actress Ilona Rodgers and musician Cathie Harrop will bring to life, through words and music, the stories of NZ women at home and abroad during WWI. The duo kick off what will become a three-year NZ-wide tour this month at the Auckland War Memorial Museum.

WWI was a period of massive change for women, and the show celebrates those who “rose to the occasion with true No 8 wire mentality.” They more than coped, say Harrop and Rodgers, “only to be forgotten almost completely by the history book writers of our nation.”

The show, “They Also Serve”, celebrates the bravery and ingenuity of women who never left NZ, of the heroic women who joined as nurses to serve with our forces all over Europe, and also the many of our women who were already overseas following careers that were temporarily put aside, and which for some were

never resumed.

“Should we also remember the despair of the woman who just couldn’t knit, or those who received up to four dreaded telegrams?

Or the woman who wrote beautiful poems, or even the misguided white feather girls?”

The audience will be encouraged to pass on stories of their own female relatives during wartime. The performance will celebrate the stories and music of all ages, ethnicities and backgrounds.

Bookings at Auckland Museum ticket desk, 306 7048 or www. aucklandmuseum.com p TAKE ME TO THE APRIL SUN We don’t have time to get to Cuba, but we’re sure we’re going to enjoy Little Havana. The newest outpost of the team that bought us Remuera Local Bistro Café and the newly opening Laneway bar (under the Local), Little Havana is taking over the space vacated

by Stable & Yard in the Village Green precinct. Expect great food, wine and atmosphere. p ST CUTHS STEPS BACK IN TIME

St Cuthbert’s College is marking its centenary year with a series of events, which have so far included a whole-school day off to enjoy a “1915” themed picnic. Students and teachers relocated to neighbouring Cornwall Park, where egg-and-spoon races, skipping and rounders were activities, just as the girls of 1915 would have enjoyed.

“Our entire College community dressed in clothing of that era.

With vintage cars, horse and cart and banners galore, the procession down Puriri Drive and into Cornwall Park was a great sight, and a feat of logistics!” says St Cuthbert’s principal, Lynda Reid.

“The 1915 picnic It was not only a chance to step back in time to celebrate our beginning, but also a chance to recognise how far we have come and how many girls’ lives have been enriched by St Cuthbert’s College.” p EGGQUISITE ARTWORKS Local artists have contributed again to the Whittaker’s Big Egg Hunt, which raises funds for the Starship Foundation, supporter of the national children’s hospital.

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Joining the inspired ovoid creations of artists including Dick Frizzell, Flox and Reuben Paterson are works by Remuera residents Jillian Freidlander (her work, Fiora della Vita, pictured right) and Nicky Foreman, Parnell’s Mark Olsen (The Thompsons, far right), and Kirsty Nixon, Meadowbank.

Eighty of the eggs were to be auctioned for Starship via TradeMe, and the remaining 20 at a gala event in Auckland on March 31.

Whittaker’s has also pledged $150,000 to the Foundation from sales of especially-marked packs of its Creamy Milk block. For more information, visit thebigegghunt.co.nz AND . . . WORDS FOR STARSHIP Starship will also benefit from the Barfoot & Thompson annual Young Authors Challenge, running from now until June. Primary and intermediate students are encouraged to harness their imaginations for the short story competition, now in its eighth year.

This year’s theme is “There’s no place like home”. Eight student authors (or groups) will be selected to be part of a published book.

All proceeds go to the Starship Foundation and the Magic of Reading program — the Challenge has raised $150,000 so far.

“Each year the stories submitted surprise and delight us,” says Peter Thompson, Barfoot & Thompson managing director. “It’s amazing to see what young people can achieve when they put their minds to it. The talent shown by local students continues to impress us year after year and we’re really looking forward to reading the adventures they take us on this time around.”

Entries close on June 3. Visit youngauthorschallenge.co.nz p

A NEW HAND AT RACKETS Remuera Rackets Club has a new club manager, Megan Crockett.

Crockett, formerly one of the high performance team at Netball New Zealand, has been given the brief to “lead the rejuvenation” of the Dilworth Ave complex, which features indoor and outdoor racket-sport courts, a gym, pool and fitness rooms.

Primarily, Crocket says that means establishing new systems and processes, as well as a 12-month and three to five-year strategic plan. Crockett says her long-term goal is to make Remuera Rackets “one of the elite rackets and health clubs” with a family orientation.

“A one-stop shop that will serve our community”. — Zac Fleming p

the village

waitemata¯ Local Board

Point Resolution/Taurarua Plan Thank you to everyone that provided feedback on the draft Pt Resolution/Taurarua Development Plan. We took this plan out to the community mostly to gauge support for the five design guiding principles that will be the basis of future short, medium and long term developments of Pt Resolution/ Taurarua, including the Hobson Bay Walkway.

The design principals are: enable recreation opportunities, increase connectivity, celebrate history, enhance ecology and the natural environment, and improve cliff stability. The design principles were supported.

We expect that the board will adopt the final plan at our April meeting. Despite some of the examples used for the consultation, budgetary constraints mean that rather than improvement projects, we will instead initially be prioritising the renewal of existing assets such as the pathways and upper stairs from the Pt Resolution Bridge to the Pt Resolution Reserve.

Parnell Train Station I am pleased to update that the Parnell Station passed two significant milestones in February. Approval from the Parks, Recreation and Sports Committee for construction access and works within the Domain, and funding approval from the Auckland Transport Board on a streamlined project — now without an overbridge to the Domain — enable the Parnell Station to be built.

The heritage building that was the old Newmarket train station building, built in 1908, and put into storage a century

later in 2008 after a fight by many to save it, will be reinstated as the Parnell Station building, sitting right in the Parnell Heritage Quarter.

At the time of writing there was still some project risk as negotiations with Kiwirail over access to the site were yet to be concluded, and the works must be completed this financial year, but we remain confident that this project that we have long advocated for will overcome this final hurdle.

Works are otherwise going to plan and the station civil works are expected to be completed by June 2015.

Ports Issue It was extremely disappointing to witness Auckland Council move away from its previous precautionary approach of noncomplying status for Port reclamation to the more enabling fully notified discretionary status. This is especially so in the face of Ports recently gaining, on a non-notified basis, planning consent for significant wharf structure extensions from Bledisloe Wharf, scheduled for construction in April.

Council argues that this is the same zoning as the remainder of the waterfront, but the end game is evident for all to see with the wharf extensions. Our local board position remains that any further extensions or reclamations should be paused until the Ports Study 2 has been completed, and any expansion plans can be measured against an integrated Auckland Inc. view of the social, environmental and economic costs and benefits of the Ports and its future expansion plans.

— Shale Chambers, chair, Waitematā Local Board p

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the village

¯ Local Board Orakei

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our Orākei Local Board works hard on your behalf to deliver. Ah, transport. It seems to be a favourite topic in our ward and indeed, Auckland. We have a lot to report in this area, though that shouldn’t come as a surprise given there’s so much room for improvement!

In the last edition of The Hobson the intersection of Parnell Rd and Ayr St was voted the worst driving experience. Whilst just outside of our ward, it is used frequently by many Orākei residents. Our board has begun advocating to Auckland Transport (AT) to improve this.

Another dishonourable mention was the Remuera Rd/ Victoria Ave intersection – especially for pedestrians. I am pleased to advise that from April to August this year, AT will trial an in-pavement light warning system at the intersections at Remuera Rd/Victoria Ave and Clonbern Rd. This system has been proven to be successful overseas to assist with pedestrian safety. Low-profile LED pavement markers are triggered by pedestrians waiting to cross the road at the intersections, showing a steady red light at the stop line to synchronise with the red traffic light, prompting drivers to be extra cautious as they approach the intersection.

Nearby, AT’s structural engineers continue to evaluate the car park in Clonbern Rd in the interest of safety, with on-going monthly monitoring. They’ve instituted weight restrictions on the top deck and are working through options, including a possible disposal. As soon as we know more, we will update via this column and through the Remuera Residents’ Association.

Another ‘difficult’ Remuera intersection is Grand Drive/ Abbots Way. The board have strongly advocated for an improvement here – preferably a roundabout. The transport team responsible for this are currently modelling all possibilities and are looking at a mountable roundabout, similar to the one on Victoria Ave and Shore Road. There are a number of considerations AT are working through, including looking at how much impact a roundabout would have on the

flow of traffic from Lunn Ave and Remuera Rd, through to Ladies Mile.

Close by is New Zealand’s largest urban wetland: Waiatarua Reserve. Following our recent pathway and ecological work in the park, we are now upgrading the Abbots Rd entrance to add extra parking and ensure this entrance works better from a transport perspective too.

We’ve had a lot of compliments on the stonework and pedestrian safety improvements outside the Benson Rd Deli.

We are now investigating stage two of this project to see if we can use a similar design on the other side of the road outside the Maple Room to give the area a consistent look and feel.

With police clamping down on speeding, we have been pleased to note that the electronic driver-feedback sign on Omahu Rd in Remuera has improved traffic safety with a 12km/h reduction in the average speed of vehicles using the road. The sign is now moving to another Remuera road with known speed concerns – Ohinerau St – where we hope it will have a similar calming effect.

Thank you to all those who submitted on council’s draft 10-year budget. At our community meetings on this, we received a number of questions on the City Rail Link (CRL), especially concerning its benefits to Orākei residents and wider Auckland. I invite you to join the board for our CRL update briefing on Thursday 23 April at 5pm at St Chads church in Meadowbank. A representative from AT will present on the project and answer questions.

Lastly, on transport, I’d like to offer my thanks to Ken Baguley, our board transport portfolio lead, who works tirelessly to advocate on your behalf to AT. With Anzac Day this month I hope you will take some time to reflect on the sacrifices of those who served our country and hopefully attend one of the Anzac services in our ward and/or at the Cenotaph. Last year I attended the College Rifles Anzac service and this year I will attend the St Heliers Anzac parade.

Lest we forget. — Desley Simpson, chair, Orākei Local Board

the hobson 16

the reps

DAVID SEYMOUR

PAUL GOLDSMITH

R

O

David Seymour is the MP for Epsom.

The Hon Paul Goldsmith is a list MP based in Epsom.

eflections of a rookie after six months in parliament.

Tuesday after the election: the press want to know when I’ll literally be in parliament. Nothing like tripping up a rookie to boost ratings. Campbell Live sends a camera to film me sitting on a plane.

By the end of the week, 3 News have confused my office budget with my salary. But let’s be fair on journalists.

They’re under pressure as newsroom budgets and deadlines tighten, but most of them want to inform the public well.

The type of people parliament attracts turns it into something of a bear pit. Normally, if you speak to 120 people, you have an enormous advantage: nobody wants to be where you are. You can go way off track before anybody will risk interrupting, because they don’t want the audience’s scrutiny for themselves. Parliament is different.

In parliament every member thinks all attention should be on them, all the time.

On television, the House looks childish. It’s like being back in 5B Chemistry, except neither of my bench-mates are doctors now. In the public gallery it’s even worse – television picks up only the speaker and little of the heckling. But this seeming delinquency improves the quality of debate in an unexpected way. If you sincerely believe what you’re saying, and what you’re saying makes sense, you will get ears and respect. If not, no dice.

Process, process, process. The biggest difference between government and private life is the relationship between process and results. A wise old former Treasury Secretary who grew up on Vicky Ave had warned me about this seemingly abstract feature of the institution. In private life, the question is; what process will get you the desired outcome? In government, you are made to follow the process and pray for the outcome.

Government in general has become less abstract. People come through my door, sometimes at their wits’ end.

They have been failed by a myriad of permutations of circumstance that the architects of government policy could never have anticipated. My team and I work the process to get results. Sometimes the problems are intractable, sometimes they take a long time to resolve, but mostly we win. This is a good time to mention: if I can ever be of help, my office number is 522 7464. My email is davidseymour. epsom@parliament.govt.nz.

Where are the meanies from social media in real life? So far I’ve only found one. She drove past on Mortimer Pass sporting an obscene gesture, only to find an excruciatingly tricky parallel park 50m down the road. Real life gets back at you in a way Twitter never can. The other 60,000 people who live in the Epsom electorate have been wonderful.

I wrote this column because people ask me, “how’s parliament?” But now I’m asking you: how am I doing?

ne of the joys of life, when I’m not in Wellington and the opportunity arises, is to walk our two youngest to primary school. Our route takes us through the Remuera shops. Past the little brick wall in front of the library, along the top of which several generations of children have balanced. On a typical journey I’ll meet a dozen people that I know. Several suggestions as to how the government might improve its performance will invariably come my way.

Auckland is a series of villages. In this village the community spirit is strong. I love to see older primary school kids walking on their own. Their parents trusting them and their community to navigate their way safely. I read a few weeks ago of a policeman saying, in frustration immediately after an accident, that it was unacceptable for parents to let their children walk to school alone. I’m glad to see that is a minority view. I see the number of kids walking to school as a measure of our success as a society.

It wasn’t until our first child reached school age that I realised the central role schools play in the community.

Other clubs and institutions, such as churches, voluntary groups and sports clubs, are very important but their reach is not nearly so broad, across all generations.

We are blessed with excellent schools across the Epsom electorate. But none of us would take that as a given, or think there isn’t room for constant improvement. We’re living in a period of rapid change, with technology opening up new ways of doing things and requiring new skills.

Meantime, mastery of reading, writing and numeracy has never been more important.

The challenge is to ensure our schools are innovative.

In most spheres of life, the great driver of innovation is consumer choice and competition. The battle for survival spurs innovation. Traditionally that hasn’t been the model for education in NZ, although the relatively small private and integrated sectors play an important role in that regard.

Partnership Schools are another option for parents and students, giving them the ability to choose the type of education that best suits their learning needs. We need to give them a chance – they have been set up so that vulnerable kids who are struggling in the current system are given the opportunity to succeed in education.

Meantime, we need to innovate in our funding arrangements. National’s $359 million Investing in Educational Success initiative is designed to lift achievement in schools by helping schools share their best resources – their best teachers and principals. Children will benefit from shared teaching practices and expertise.We want to see greater collaboration among schools, improved transition through the education system for children, and better career pathways for teachers.

As ever, I’d be interested in your views on these topics.

the plan

M

ost of us never have the need for a town planner, or ‘resource management consultant’ in today’s parlance. If we do a renovation, the architect attempts to keep the design within the controls of the district plan, so no resource consent is required. We may be asked to sign off a neighbour’s plans for a new pool or addition which breaches the rules and requires a consent, or the Council may consult us on a consent, to, say, put in a public walkway or relocate a sewer. But that will be the extent of our involvement in the day to day machinations of the Resource Management Act (RMA) process.

However, if you live in a heritage or conservation zone – which most of the readership of this fine publication does — then each and every time you add or alter the exterior of your dwelling, a resource consent is required.

Your family may be growing and you need a few more bedrooms or a new double garage, or it may be time to jazz up the exterior of the house. So you engage an architect and a grand design is produced. Off to Council for a resource consent and the garage, located in the front yard like many of the others in the street, may be deemed not acceptable to the Council.

“Why?” you ask. Well, your house is one of the last remaining unaltered period houses in your street, and a double garage would detract from the streetscape. You argue that there have been changes to the house and Council’s heritage architect – who is passionate about heritage and not necessarily by default objective — disagrees and you are back to the drawing board.

A further $10,000 later in architects and Council and planner fees, you end up with a single carport and are dazed and confused by the experience.

Dear readers, welcome to my life. We achieve resource consents for highrise developments and marinas and new town centres and other complex arrangements, but the consents that can cause the most grief relative to the outcomes proposed are

those that effect home owners in character and heritage zones. Managing client expectations and delivering results through a minefield of uncertainty is how we make a crust. A prominent RMA barrister and QC will often chastise me for being “too soft” on the Council. The balance of time and cost and delivery of an outcome is one we grapple with each day. And no two cases are ever the same.

Another example: we have been asked to assess the potential demolition of a character house in Remuera. It is in poor condition, and is not original. The Council issue a series of guidelines and even with these to hand, we cannot give our client any certain guidance. Let’s call the

guidelines a crayfish pot — impossible to get out of. While the guidelines allow for demolition, ‘on balance’ the criteria are designed so that demolition should not occur — even though the district plan allows for it. We are not talking a scheduled or prominent house here, but an everyday, albeit old, house on the northern slopes of Remuera.

One of the criteria, or guidelines, is that a new house design of course should fit the zone and area. That comes with a $15,000+ price tag for the architects’ work. And which could be wasted if Council declines the demolition.

Another example relates to the absurdity of the process. We recently lodged for a resource consent for additions to an existing house of a double garage and a swimming pool. It breached many rules, and Council determined that neighbours’ the hobson 18

approval would be required. The crux was that the built form (which the pool contributed to) was over the 35 per cent permitted on such sites, and the additional building coverage, beyond that permitted, would give rise to an adverse effect, or enough to trigger neighbour approval.

Council was adamant that the neighbour was affected by the proposed pool. To avoid this we lowered the pool 700mm, so that it was then defined as impermeable area, and not building coverage which triggered the requirement for neighbours’ approval. Hey presto, a resource consent was approved without further ado.

Moving forward two months, we lodged a variation to the approved resource consent to lift the pool 700mm. The same Council officers reviewed the consent application, the same outcomes and effects were in place and the variation was signed off with not a blink nor disagreement.

I leave you with one more story which shows how subjective the process is. We lodged a consent for a new double garage to replace a single garage and carpark pad in Westmere. I noted on the application that the single garage and parking arrangement had been in place for 50 years. The replacement garage would use the same vehicle crossing, entry and carpark pad level. The Council planner advised that the slope of the entry from the footpath to the garage did not meet the standards in terms of slope, and vehicles would bottom out. We advised that there was no evidence of this, and that the arrangement had been in place for 50 years. To no avail, the pedantic planner would not budge. Then a new planner took over the consent. He looked at the correspondence, and advised there was no issue as it was existing, and it worked.

Resource consent which had languished with a pedantic planner for weeks was sorted by a pragmatic planner in two days.

How does all this happen? We ask the same questions ourselves and call it the subjective nature of paper shuffling, or the madness of red tape. — Hamish Firth

jesadaphorn/shutterstock

A Day in The Life

the investment

The Driverless Car M

y wife’s car has warning lights on the inside of its wingmirrors that flash orange if you try to change lanes when there is another car close by. It also has a cruise control function that not only maintains a steady set speed, but also keeps the car a safe distance from the car in front: when the car in front slows, my wife’s car slows too. Wonderful features that along with the more standard and widespread anti-skid braking, traction or stability control and power-steering, make for overall safer motoring.

Technology improves and changes every year and it looks like the next big change may be so radical it’s almost unbelievable.

Driverless cars or autonomous vehicles look as if they will be commonplace within the next 10 or 15 years. Most of you will have seen pictures or video of Google’s self-drive cars being tested in California. Testing over the past few years has been extensive, and progress has been such that Google launched a prototype just last December for trialling in and around San Francisco.

Google has indicated that it should have driverless cars available for sale in 2018-2020. Indeed the Ford Motor Company expects driverless cars to be available in 2020 and Audi is said to be bringing a driverless version of its A8 to the market in just three years time! Just recently there have been reports that Apple, maker of the iPhone, iPad, Mac and soon watches, is also developing its own systems for driverless cars. Apple has reportedly been hiring auto industry executives and specialists to join its high-powered team of software developers and designers. Now that is exciting!

So, will self-driving vehicles have the same effect on the motor vehicle industry and indeed society, as digital cameras had on Kodak, music downloads via the internet had on record labels and CDs, and lightbulbs had on candles?

Well it’s bad luck if you’re a taxi driver, truck driver or a bus driver. When driverless cars come along you won’t be needed.

Neither will there be as much of a requirement for road signs, give way and stop signs or even speed limits – the car knows. Perhaps intersections and road layouts will be different from what they are today too.

You can forget about doing the school run in the morning and afternoon, as your car will take Sally and John to school while you read the morning paper. No more circling around the city or the mall trying to find a carpark when you want to go shopping, as your car will simply drop you at your destination then go and find somewhere itself to park — or even go home.

The driverless car might go faster than cars do at present and there might be more of them on the road as they’ll be able to travel closely together. Your motor insurance premium will be reduced because you won’t be driving the car. The rate of motor vehicle accidents will diminish as there will be no more human error. Think of the impact on emergency rooms and hospitals. Carpark buildings will be affected too as the driverless car will simply drop the office worker at the office and then go home.

Driverless cars will probably lead to a drop in private car ownership — i.e. shared cars that do not require a driver will facilitate the ability to dial one up when needed to get you to your destination.

And probably the best benefits that I can think of are a reduction in police on the roads as the cars can control themselves, and of course the ability to stay on at your local pub longer, knowing that you can just drive home in your autonomous vehicle, having had that “one for the road”. — Warren Couillault

the suburbanist

Where Suburb & City Merge

M

any of those working in the area of urban research believe we have entered a new age of the city. Just when we thought that cities were dying and people were fleeing to the edges to build better and brighter suburbs, around the world evidence is mounting that the opposite is true. Author Alan Ehrenhalt calls this “The Great Inversion” – a reversal that sees cities grow as suburbs decline. What is interesting is that the move from suburbs toward the centre is happening in a range of socio-economic groups, for a range of reasons.

Empty-nesters and other affluent migrants from the suburbs might be relocating but they are not necessarily downsizing. Key features of suburban life are often continued by high-income people even after they move to the city. They bring with them their desire for larger homes or apartments, and both of their cars. Research in Canada found a strong relationship between suburban ways of living and higher incomes. This didn’t abate when they moved to the city, or close to it. The wealthy tend to own single-family homes and drive cars, whether in the suburbs or in highly urbanised neighbourhoods.

There has also been a new wave of millennials moving to the cities – those that can afford it. In the past this was called gentrification; now Markus Moos, an urban planner, has named it “youthification”. He defines this as the “influx of young adults into higher density cities and neighbourhoods”. The result can be places which stay forever young as new cohorts of young people move, while growing families depart in search of more space.

Kind of a revolving door for very mobile groups.

Youthification differs from gentrification, which is usually an increase in the social status of a neighbourhood or suburb.

Youthification is not as explicitly a class-based process, although

it does require people of a certain income to be able to afford it. It often starts as younger people move into relatively inexpensive areas, often semi-industrial or with fewer amenities. Over time, newer rental housing and blocks of, often, one-bedroom apartments are built and soon more amenities arrive — think restaurants, bars, and occasionally better public transport.

Many factors contribute to youthification, including less job security, high housing prices, delayed child-bearing and a growing desire for urban living. Surprisingly (or perhaps, not) inner city housing, including apartments, is more affordable than buying in the suburbs. It may lead to increased generational segregation in parts of the city and, Moos suggests, the potential for inter-generational conflict. But then who wants to live on the same street as their parents? Or their children?

Perhaps it has always been thus. We grow up, we move on, in to the city, out to the suburbs. The line between the suburbs and the city centre ebbs and flows with fashion, economic pressure and taste. Hasn’t it always been so?

So, while cities are resurgent, their new popularity is blurring the line between what we think is “urban” and “suburban”.

Wealthy people – essentially those who have the most choice about how they live – lead remarkably similar lives wherever they choose to live.

Their urban worlds might be denser and have more apartment buildings and their suburban options might have bigger sections and more-single family homes, but people from both places shop in the same shops, eat at the same restaurants and send their kids to similar schools.

You can rehouse the leopard in a new cage but in the end, it’s still living in a zoo. With the same spots. — Tommy Honey

Above — urban living at OneThree Cheshire apartments in Cheshire St, Parnell.

For more information, visit www.nzsothebysrealty.com/NZE10328. Image courtesy of NZ Sotheby’s. the hobson 20

Skin Institute Remuera

Restoring confidence, improving chances, creating smiles, building trust, healing scars, uncovering possibilities.

For 20 years our doctors and nurses have been restoring, protecting and repairing skin, but the work we do often goes far beyond the surface.

Our new Remuera clinic is now open for skin cancer checks and treatment, specialised Mohs/CCPDMA surgery for skin cancer, varicose vein assessments and treatment, appearance medicine and dermatology.

Level 2, 123 Remuera Road Phone: 974 1731

Skin cancer | Veins | Appearance

www.skininstitute.co.nz

the district diary - april

monday tuesday wednesday

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Termites in the Harbour Bridge? Watch out for April Fools’ pranks (until midday) Term 1 ends St Cuthbert’s College

2

Term 1 ends Auckland Grammar, Baradene, Diocesan, EGGS, Saint Kentigern College, Boys’ and Girls’ schools, local primary schools and most other schools Book Group at Parnell Library 10am, phone 374 1321 for info

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Easter Monday

Back to School: Term 2 Commences

Book Group at Remuera Library 11am

Book Group at Remuera Library 11am

Win with Words Remuera Library’s annual writing competition for Year 7 & 8 students starts: entry forms at the library or Westpac Remuera

27

Anzac Day Public Holiday The first “Mondayised” day off

Parnell Community Committee Monthly meeting (last Tuesday), 7.30pm, Jubilee Building, Parnell Rd. All welcome

thursday

9

16

They Also Serve: Stories and Songs of NZ Women in WWI. Cathie Harrop and Ilona Rodgers, Auckland War Memorial Museum auditorium, 6.30pm. Also Saturday 18 and Sunday 19, 2pm. $25/$22. Book at the museum, or www.aucklandmuseum.com

Teen Book Club at Remuera Library 4pm - 5.30pm 429 Remuera Rd (always fourth Thursday of the month)

Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” Annual EGGS/Grammar production, 10 performances, tonight until May 9 at the Grammar Centennial Theatre. See ags.school.nz or eggs.school.nz

The Interrupted Game Remuera’s College Rifles sports club will again mark Anzac Day with its traditional parade and service, acknowledging the clubs’ military history. And in a more recent tradition, the Club will host a men’s lacrosse international at its Haast St turf on April 25. The game commemorates the test NZ was set to play against Australia at College Rifles when WWI broke out, “interrupting” the fixture. NZ beat the Australians last year, the rematch takes place at 2.45pm on Anzac Day. At the same time, the Rifles premiere rugby side will play Marist in a special Anzac jersey. The jersey bears the names of the 54 College Rifles players lost in WWI, 12 of whom died at Gallipoli. Rifleman Cyril Bassett is recognised too — he was the only New Zealand soldier to be awarded the Victoria Cross at Gallipoli.

the hobson 22

friday

saturday sunday

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Good Friday

notes

La Cigale French Market Every Saturday and Sunday 69 St Georges Bay Rd Parnell

Parnell Farmers’ Market Every Saturday from 8am Jubilee Building, 545 Parnell Road, Parnell

Nico Penny’s Birthday

Parnell Farmers’ Market Every Saturday from 8am Jubilee Building, 545 Parnell Road, Parnell

Parnell Farmers’ Market Every Saturday from 8am Jubilee Building, 545 Parnell Road, Parnell, plus Craft Harvest today too (a week earlier than usual due to Anzac Day)

Grammar Juniors Club Day From 10am at Orakei Domain (see below)

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Anzac Day Local services: 6am and 11am at the Museum; 9am march from Minto St followed by service at College Rifles; Auckland Grammar service 9.30am

Sandy Burgham’s birthday Got an entry for The District Diary?

Community groups, schools, special events, birthday and anniversaries too if we have room! Email details to hobsondiary@gmail.com

Anzac Lacrosse Test: NZ v AUS men, College Rifles, 2.45pm

Grammar Juniors Rugby Club The Juniors have moved home turf this season due to the upgrade of the Shore Rd fields. Providing weight-restricted rugby for kids aged 4 to 13, come along and join in the fun on the first club day of the season, Sunday April 19, at Orākei Domain. See grammarjuniors.co.nz for more details.

Photo courtesy of Grammar Juniors

the hobson 23

Simply Matching Pe

www.remuerareale

Terry King 021 484 332 terry.king@remueraregister.co.nz

Telephone: 0

Remuera Real Estate Register

eople with Property

estateregister.co.nz

Why we are leading local Estate Agents Remuera’s only “specialists”

We are Remuera’s only specialist real estate company - we KNOW Remuera. More and more people who wish to buy homes in Remuera come to us first. We take a brief of their requirements, and enter them onto our Register. This Register of Remuera buyers, and their needs, means that we can directly match them to properties that we list. The result is quite often an almost immediate sale.

Little need for expensive marketing campaigns

We sell the majority of properties within the first week of listing. This is often the result of having the ‘right’ buyer already on our Register; the majority of sales have been to local buyers; the majority of sales have been for record prices in their respective areas and across the spectrum of price categories. From a three bedroomed duplex in Mahoe Ave for $905,000, to one of Remuera’s biggest sales in recent years - an Orakei Road property that we sold for almost $7m.

We sell by price

We take responsibility for setting a property’s value - we agree values and selling prices with our vendors, and price properties accordingly. This makes it easier for buyers. They know from the beginning whether a house is within their budget. The majority of our sales have been for the agreed asking price, or close to it.

We form real relationships

We form real relationships with our buyers and sellers, and this makes a tremendous difference in understanding needs and negotiating end selling prices. Have a look at the testimonials on our website - they say it all.

Our fees are highly competitive

We own the business. For this reason our fees are remarkably competitive.

Testimonials

“We chose Terry and Diana because of their Remuera Register of buyers, and because they don’t conduct open homes (for tyre-kickers and nosy neighbours!). I had been dreading the inconvenience and uncertainty of selling a house. To make matters worse we put our property on the market three weeks before Christmas which we thought would have been really bad timing. But Terry soon presented us with an attractive offer, and just two weeks, two days and one hour after listing our property, it was sold to someone on the Register.

The process was easy, fast and virtually stress free. We highly recommend the Kings of Real Estate to anyone considering selling in Remuera.” - Shelley and Kevin

Diana King 021 613 884 diana.king@remueraregister.co.nz

09 520 6624

Limited licensed REAA 2008

muratart/shutterstock

the anzacs

the hobson 26

To mark the centenary of World War I, Remuera Heritage has dedicated itself to the task of discovering the “story” behind the names of servicemen publically commemorated in the area. For this April issue of The Hobson, Heritage members Sue Cooper and Jenny Haggitt honour the lives of six young Anzacs who answered the call for King and country

All

The King’s

Boys

the hobson 27

the anzacs

T

here are about 80 names of those who gave their lives in World War I on the war memorials in Remuera at St Aidan’s, St Luke’s and St Mark’s churches, and on the gates at Remuera Primary School. Many more soldiers had an association with Remuera – they either went to school at King’s College or Auckland Grammar, lived or worked in Remuera, went to church, played sport, or their parents lived in Remuera. Some lived all their life in the suburb, others moved away after childhood – the Auckland Museum’s Cenotaph database records hundreds of mentions of Remuera.

The Battle of Landing from April 25 to May 1, 1915, at Anzac Cove on Turkey’s Gallipoli peninsula, claimed 147 Kiwi lives — by the time the eight-month Gallipoli campaign ended, 2,779 New Zealanders had died, and 8,709 Australians. Most New Zealanders who died on April 25 have no known grave, and are commemorated on the Lone Pine Memorial on the Gallipoli peninsula, the site of some of the fiercest fighting and overlooking the front line of the flawed, tragic campaign. The unsuccessful incursion however lasted another eight months, until the Allied evacuation began in late November.

From Remuera, Harold Allen and Lewin Barnett died on April 25, 1915, at the Battle of Landing — both were 21-years-old. Graham Reid, 32, died on May 8 on Cape Helles, and 27-year-old Hewitt Barnard Brown on April 27 or May 19 (there are conflicting dates in contemporary reports). Reginald Hill died on May 19, age 21, and Norman Beattie on August 28 at the age of 20, one month shy of his 21st birthday.

HAROLD GORDON ALLEN (12/686) Harold Allen was born on 29 July, 1893, in Liverpool, England to George and Lucy Allen. His family immigrated to New Zealand sometime before 1906, when Harold was recorded as a pupil at Remuera’s King’s College (the forerunner of today’s King’s School and King’s College). George Allen was a tea merchant and the family lived at 10 Warrington Rd. Whilst at school, Harold took a deep interest in military matters, and as a marksman won the school rifle championship, and represented New Zealand in the rifle team which shot for the Lord Roberts’ trophy in 1910. He then went on to be a farm cadet at Taupiri, before attending the new Duntroon military training college in Australia.

Allen was one of the first 10 New Zealanders selected for training as a cadet at Duntroon, which had opened in June 1911. Harold is listed as living in NSW at the time, so he joined his fellow New Zealanders when they arrived in Sydney for their two-year training.

He was only 20 when he was made Second Lieutenant in the 3rd Auckland Regiment (Countess of Ranfurly’s Own).

At the outbreak of the war, both the Auckland and Northland Regiments provided a 250 man company to the 1,000 strong infantry battalion raised from the Auckland region. By October 1914, there were sufficient volunteers to form two brigades; the New Zealand Infantry Brigade and the New Zealand Mounted Brigade.

These two formations formed the main body of the NZ Expeditionary Force and, together with the Australian 4th Infantry Brigade and the 1st Light Horse Brigade, were the basis of the combined Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC),

which fought at Gallipoli against the Ottoman empire Turkish troops, who had entered the war on the side of Germany. (The Anzacs made up close to half of the Allies’ Mediterranean Expeditionary Force of 75,000).

Allen was commissioned on August 5, 1914, the day after war was declared, and enlisted on August 12 as a Second Lieutenant in the Auckland Infantry Battalion. He embarked from Auckland on October 16 on either the Star of India or Waimana, bound for Egypt. They arrived on December 3, and after further training, set off as part of the newly formed ANZAC combined force for the Dardanelles.

In Gallipoli: The New Zealand Story, historian and author Christopher Pugsley quotes Lt Westmacott, who shared a cabin with his friends Harold Allen and Herman Stuart Baddeley : “I had hardly turned over to go to sleep again, when the rumble of guns made me jump out of my bunk and the two others joined me at the porthole.

They were the guns at Cape Helles where the 29th Division must by now be going ashore. Day was just breaking. There was a slight mist along the shore. Save for flashes from ships’ guns we could see nothing in the half light. It was nice and cool with the promise of a glorious day. It was a little after 4am I said, “We may not rest so comfortably tonight. Let us go to sleep again” and we did very quickly. My words were prophetic. Before another night both my friends were dead …”

2nd Lieutenant Allen was only 21 when he was killed on April 25. His body was later found, identified and buried in the Baby 700 Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery on the Gallipoli peninsula.

LEWIN MAUGHAN BARNETT (12/699) Lewin Barnett’s military record says he was born in Auckland, but his birth is not officially recorded in NZ. His parents were Harriet and Maughan Barnett, of 212 Remuera Rd. They had arrived in Napier in 1893 from Yorkshire via Hobart Cathedral in Tasmania, with Maughan Barnett already a renowned virtuoso pianist, organist, choral and orchestral conductor, and composer.

After a period in Wellington, Maughan Barnett was appointed Auckland city organist in 1912, and was organist and choirmaster at Remuera’s St. Mark’s Church. Little is known about his son’s early life, but he did win a prize for carpentry at Wellington College in 1909.

Lewin Barnett was farming at Piopio when he enlisted at Te Kuiti one week after New Zealand declared war in August 1914. He joined C Company 16th Waikato Regiment as part of the Auckland Infantry Battalion, giving his age as 21.

His medical record described him as 5’8” tall (173cm), weighing 145 pounds (66kg), with a dark complexion, brown eyes and dark hair. Like Harold Allen, he left from Auckland in October 16 with the main body of the NZ Expeditionary Force, sailing to Egypt.

Lewin was part of the Anzac landing. In May 1915 he was listed as wounded, and then listed as missing in August 1915.

In September 1915, The Dominion reported of Barnett that “There is every reason to believe that he is confined in one or other of the military hospitals or convalescent homes. This assumption is based on the receipt of a cable message received from a friend of the young man’s, stating that Mr. Barnett had been wounded in the right arm and had gone away in a hospital ship. So far Mr.

the hobson 28

Opening pages: The quiet waters of today’s Anzac Cove, Gallipoli, Turkey. This page: main picture, NZ soldiers resting in a trench at Gallipoli, 1915. Photograph by Sgt. W A Hampton; Alexander Turnbull Library. Inset, from top to bottom: Remuera soldiers Harold Gordon Allen (portrait from King’s College honour roll); Lewin Maughan Barnett, Norman James Beattie, Hewitt Barnard Brown and Reginald Michael Hill — images courtesy of Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries.

the hobson 29

A view of Anzac Cove from the WWI albums of Laurie Mackie, Alexander Turnbull Library

Maughan Barnett has not been able to trace his son, nor, has he heard from him, but in respect to that the injured man might have refrained from cabling under the impression that his case had been reported on in the ordinary war. The injury to his right arm might have prevented his writing”.

But, as a result of a Board of Enquiry at Moascar Camp, Ismailia, Egypt in January 1916, it was decided that Barnett had died on April 25 at Anzac Cove. He is commemorated on the Lone Pine Memorial.

NORMAN JAMES BEATTIE (13/885) When war broke out, Norman Beattie lived and worked in Orakei Rd, where he was a chauffeur/first class motor driver for Mr C R Anderson of ‘Lingarth’, Orakei Rd. He was born in Halcombe in the Manawatu/Wanganui region on 27 September, 1894, the son of the late Henry and Amy Beattie.

Beattie enlisted at the age of 20, in November 1914. His military record describes him as 5’9” (175cm) with fair hair and blue eyes, and an Anglican. He joined the A Squadron, Auckland Mounted Rifles of the 4th Reinforcements as a trooper, and sailed to his fate on 18 April, 1915, a week before the Allied landing at Anzac Cove.

He was posted to the Dardanelles on August 16, and killed in action less than two weeks later on August 28 in the last major Allied

attack of the campaign. It was one month before his 21st birthday.

Beattie was part of the last desperate charge by the New Zealanders to take Hill 60 on the edge of the Suvla plain, just north of the Anzac area. The first attempt to take the hill from its Turkish defenders was made on August 21, an unsuccessful general attack at Suvla that left 5,000 Allied casualties. Six days later, the remnants of the brigade (about 300 men, down from the 1,865 who landed in May) made another daylight attack that extended the line, but again failed to capture the target. The British historian Robert Rhodes James later wrote that “For connoisseurs of military futility, valour, incompetence and determination, the attacks on Hill 60 are in a class of their own”.

Norman Beattie’s name is recorded on the Hill 60 NZ Memorial to the Missing at Gallipoli. He is also remembered at home on the WW1 memorial at St Aidan’s Church, Remuera.

HEWITT BARNARD BROWN (13/671) Hewitt, born in 1888, and Frederick, born in 1892, were the sons of Ellen and William Frederick Barnard Brown (known as Frederick) of 6 Roslyn (now Entrican) Ave, Remuera, and then of 194 Remuera Rd. The brothers attended Wanganui Collegiate along with their cousins, William and Rainsford Balcombe-Brown, both of whom, like Hewitt, would be killed in action.

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the anzacs absence of this information has caused us, especially his mother, much pain and anxiety. Through the medium of the Herald I wish to protest against such unnecessary delay when information of such a nature is contained in the letter. Whakatane. F. Barnard Brown.

Hewitt Barnard Brown is buried at Gallipoli, at Walker’s Ridge Cemetery.

His brother Frederick had joined A Squadron 11th of the Mounted Rifles Brigade in December 1915, and was discharged in September 1916 with general disability and debility. He was given leave without pay until told to re-enlist in October 1917, when he joined the 40th Reinforcements. He was ultimately discharged in 1919. Their sister Louise Barnard Brown also volunteered, and was selected for the Army Nursing Service, which sailed to Egypt in February 1916.

She served with the NZ General Hospital in Cairo.

The Barnard Brown’s cousins, brothers William and Rainsford Balcombe-Brown, also died in action. At just 23, Rainsford was the 56 Squadron’s commanding officer, and the highest-ranking NZ WWI airman to die while flying. He is buried in the military cemetery near the Somme. William, 22, was killed in action at Flanders in June 1915.

REGINALD MICHAEL HILL (13/1004A) The son of John and Matilda Hill of “Mooi Plaats”, 1 Rothesay St, Remuera, Reginald Hill had been born in Chelsea, London. He was farming at Kaitaia on enlistment. Reginald joined the Auckland Mounted Rifles 11th Squadron as trooper and trumpeter, and for reasons unknown he transferred to Wellington with the rank of Regimental Sergeant Trumpeter. Three months later, in April 1915, he reverted back to the Auckland Mounted Rifles, as Trumpeter 3rd Reinforcements.

Reginald Hill was 21 when he was killed in action on May 19 at Gallipoli, a victim of a Turkish assault that became the third major battle of the campaign. This battle was followed by the negotiated truce to allow the mounting corpses from both sides lying in noman’s land, to be buried. Hill is buried at Walker’s Ridge.

Before the war, Hewitt and Frederick were farming, Hewitt at Marton, and Frederick with their father at Whakatane. Frederick senior came to live in Remuera when his sons left on active service.

A report in the Wanganui Chronicle in June 1915, announced of Hewitt that “an attack of dysentery prevented him leaving with the first Expeditionary Force, but he got away with the Second Reinforcements” [in December 1914].

He joined the 4th Waikato Squadron Auckland Mounted Rifles, left Egypt on May 8, and was killed at Gallipoli on May 19. However an obituary in The Press on June 26, 1915, said Hewitt was killed on April 27. “As a boy he was noted for his horsemanship. When only ten years of age he swam the Ohau river when in flood to and fro, hanging to his horse’s tail, because, when asked why he did it, he had seen a bushman do it the day before. He was also a crack shot, and stood 6ft 1in in height”.

Frederick was moved to write a letter in August to the Herald about his elder son’s death, after suffering a delay in communication caused by the censor.

Sir, —We have lost a son in the fighting on Gallipoli peninsula. He fell on May 19 in a night attack, and his corporal, Greville Garland, wrote to us on the 20th telling us of his death, and saying it was painless. There was no war news in the letter, yet it was kept back by the censor, and the date of the field post office is June 21. Surely such a letter might have been allowed to pass without delay. The

STUART GRAHAM TEMPLETON REID (12/503) Graham Reid was a popular figure in Remuera. He was born on July 15, 1883, the son of John and Mary Reid of 3 Dilworth Ave. He attended Remuera Primary School and must have been one of the first pupils at King’s College when it opened in 1896 in Remuera.

After leaving King’s, he entered the service of the Northern Steamship Company, and subsequently was managing clerk for Messrs. Anderson and Colbeck, sharebrokers. In 1912 he started a business as a company secretary and sharebroker, and acted as secretary to the Auckland Merchants’ Association.

Reid was a prominent member of the King’s College Old Boys Association, in which at various times he was president, treasurer and secretary. He also belonged to the Auckland golf and yacht clubs, and several other athletic and social organisations. He was on the founding committee of the United Hockey Club, which leased land from the Dilworth estate next to the Remuera Railway Station, and was on the 1903 inaugural committee for the Auckland Hockey Association. He was one of the founders of the Auckland Junior Club for young business and professional men, and secretary of the Citizens’ Defence League. He was known for his organising ability, for example, of the successful ‘Citizens’ Ball’ held during the 1913 visit of the battleship gifted to the British by the New Zealand Government, H.M.S. New Zealand.

He was well known in Auckland social circles and was described in the Observer newspaper of the day as “popular, clever and

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the anzacs

Graham Reid. Photo Sir George Grey Special Collections

accurate” and that was “good reason why his business as organising and company secretary, stock and sharebroker and estate and insurance agent shall prosper”.

Reid enlisted on August 10, and left NZ on September 7, 1914, with the rank of corporal in the Auckland Infantry Battalion, 6th (Hauraki) Company. He was promoted to Sergeant, and then Second Lieutenant, in April 1915.

He was killed in action with the 3rd Infantry Brigade on or about May 8, 1915, on Cape Helles on the Gallipoli peninsula. A friend, Surgeon-Captain B. S. Finn, of Parnell, Auckland, wrote in a letter to his own mother, “You will have seen in the latest casualty lists notice of the death of poor old Graham. He had just earned his commission on the field, and was killed with his first command. He has been a hero, and his mother should be a proud woman to have had such a gallant soldier for a son. Take his career as a soldier as an example. He was the ideal of a true patriot, and a soldier to the backbone. He died as he had lived, ‘playing the game’. In the first day’s engagement he was shot in the leg, but carried on and made a name for himself and his regiment. If those who follow in his footsteps take the game as seriously and carry it through to the finish not one day off duty from the day he enlisted until he fell on the second day as he did, they will do well. His name will have been

mentioned in despatches ere this, and he has not lived to see it. I have written to his mother to tell her not to mourn for him, but to glory in him, and well she may. I am proud to have been his friend.”

His character and bravery was also lauded from another, unknown source in the Herald. THE BEST OF THEM ALL. “Our fellows were all game, game as pebbles’, but perhaps the man I thought most of was Lieutenant Graham Reid. He was the keenest and the best of them all; brave as a lion… They promoted him from corporal to lieutenant on the field. I was with him one day when he got bullets everywhere but in his body. One went through his cap, a second through his water bottle, a third through his haversack, and a fourth right into his tin of bully beef, from which it was afterwards extracted. Graham Reid was a wonderful organiser, and even before we left Egypt was sent to Alexandria to help in carrying out the equipment of the transport. He would have had a fine military future, and his loss was bitterly felt”.

Reid is buried in the Lancashire Landing Cemetery on the peninsula.

There is a memorial window and plaque in St Mark’s Church, Remuera, dedicated to him by his mother Mary and sister, Myra Brabant, and a memorial window in the chapel at King’s College. p

“On April 25, 1915, a date regarded in the Near East as the most memorable of the Great War, the New Zealand Brigade landed early in the day and fought valiantly on the northern or Suvla side of the Bay. Everything was strange and astonishing to these boys from the green, well-watered islands of the South — the enemy, the precipices, the thirst, the wounds and death around them; but no veterans have ever done better than they did during those first few hours.

Then it was that they carried, occupied and held, under steadily-increasing shell and machine-gun fire, what was afterwards known as Plugge’s Plateau (from Lieut.-Colonel Plugge, commanding the Auckland Battalion), and Walker’s Ridge (from Brigadier-General Walker, General Birdwood’s Chief-of-Staff, who commanded the New Zealand Infantry Brigade at the Landing in the absence of Brigadier-General Earl Johnston, sick). These are the prosaic facts of a feat of arms which will endure as long as heroic poetry and history are written or read.” — From Project Gutenberg’s New Zealanders at Gallipoli, by Major Fred Waite

Closer to home, College Rifles has unveiled new displays at its Haast St clubrooms related to the sports club’s military history. A third display under construction will show the theatres of war in which Rifles served. The displays are open for public viewing: visit collegerifles.co.nz the hobson 32

the teacher

Screens, Dirt & Boredom: A Parental Guide

Meet our newest contributor, Parnell resident Judi Paape. Judi is a highly experienced teacher and former junior school principal who will be writing in The Hobson on today’s children, from a teacher’s perspective.

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the responsible (and on occasions irresponsible!) role of being hat do you want for your children in the 21st century? Is Grandma. it more or better opportunities than you had as a child? Is Today’s children face so much more than any other generation it something you feel you need to be in control of because of all and we, as parents and teachers, need to be mindful of what the negative press, or is it a great opportunity for you to be an the future will offer them. This is impossible for us to predict involved, loving part of an exciting journey? This is a question of course, so we need to give them sound skills to enable that would have a thousand different answers as parents struggle development and understanding of the world they are entering. through the minefield of today. However there would be a thread How do we do that? Young children today need to experience of ‘sameness’ woven throughout every answer and some things in as much as possible, particularly in their early primary school life are constant. years. These are the curiosity years when they are open to giving Life as a child for me was uncomplicated and blissful, although everything a go, a great window of opportunity to learn through my father, a NZ athlete, had high expectations for me on the sports play. field, contrary to my In my opinion, so mother, who aspired little importance is more to education. So given to the word I guess this could be ‘play’ and parents interpreted as a good can often misinterpret balance. In hindsight it. Children’s play that is just how it turned is about physical, out. emotional and I grew up on a farm social development. in Taranaki with four ‘Playground play’ siblings, was educated at school is about at a two-room country children testing their primary school and then ‘positions’ and finding at Stratford Technical out for themselves High School. I went on what is right, and to Teacher’s Training what is wrong.

College (as it was called Of course all then) in Palmerston school playgrounds North. My career are monitored, with turned out to be more teachers on hand to than I could have ever help resolve conflicts imagined. I discovered The young teacher — Judi Paape with her class, Wellington, 1969 that are sure to arise; a passion for children’s all very healthy and learning and found normal under the right supervision and with sturdy school policies classroom teaching incredibly rewarding. I discovered through in place. Through this experience children will learn resilience, attending countless conferences, seminars, lectures and hours of to listen to each other, to understand what ‘rules’ are and the reading, what children could achieve given the right environment importance of respect for others.

— one that met their individual learning needs, academic, social, I have worked with over-protected children and seen the results emotional and physical. this can have on their learning. Over-protectiveness results in I was fortunate to have been appointed to the role of junior children being anxious and experiencing stress in situations others school principal in three excellent independent schools, Chilton find unthreatening. We live in a highly protective world, but we St James and Samuel Marsden Collegiate in Wellington, and do need to be careful not to restrict children from experiencing Auckland’s Kristin School. I retired from Kristin after 48 years ‘play’ (climbing trees, stomping in the puddles) or from taking in education and now enjoy a part-time teaching and mentoring risks. Risk-taking is an essential part of development, whether position back in the classroom at St Cuthbert’s College junior it be physical or emotional. As parents and grandparents we can school. calculate the risk factor and then let them ‘go for it’.

These positions gave me an enlightening opportunity to learn Today’s children also need to develop strong resilience, and and understand how children learn best. Not only that, but I was good strategies to be able to stand up for themselves in any able to observe parent behaviours, and how that often affects the situation they will face in the future. An over-protective parent can learning outcomes of their children. I am also watching my two deprive a child’s development in learning to take responsibility for daughters raise my four grandchildren, while thoroughly enjoying the hobson 33

the teacher their actions, thoughts and feelings. I know you will all be aware of the ‘helicopter parent,’ and no doubt you know one! Helicopter parenting — hovering over and monitoring the child in many situations — can stifle development and will often manifest itself in the teenage years when children struggle to know who they are.

I can’t stress strongly enough how important it is to stand back and let your children investigate their world, let them struggle, make mistakes and feel what it is like to be bored.

How often do you hear “I’m bored’? I attended a conference in Australia a few years ago where the guest speaker was the Dali Lama. The hall was full and held spellbound for two hours listening to his calm wisdom. One thing that stuck with me was when he encouraged us let our children experience boredom.

“Stop filling their lives for them, and let them discover their creativity.” What wisdom, what truth.

Children need some ‘alone’ time too, to learn how to occupy themselves. Don’t fill their week with activities after school. In this valuable ‘alone’ time, children will learn to be creative, a highly valued 21st century skill. It is a fact that too much screen-based entertainment seems to relinquish conscious mental control, taking from them spontaneous learning. To balance this, children must be encouraged to read and write, which will enhance self-disciplined conscious thought and good learning habits. Add to this some good conversation with adults to acquire language and thinking skills.

children from the future and it is our role to make sure they acquire the skills to live there.’ It is our responsibility to teach them to be great and responsible people who will be able to contribute to society, their community and the world in the future. To sum up, • Be the best parents you can possibly be by always modeling good behaviours • Always listen, really listen, to what your children say. The best time to listen to them is bedtime. I always found this a very revealing time for them to voice any concerns they may have • Don’t try to make your children’s life a substitute for your lack of success. They will find their own way but they will need your support, encouragement and love to start them on their way • Be careful and thoughtful around visiting your children’s

Samuel Marsden Collegiate pupils help their principal mark a special occasion. All photos courtesy of Judi Paape

The importance of play: siblings Pauline, 5, Lorraine and Judi, 7, and Maree, 10, at Ratapiko, Taranaki

It is also a well-known theory that boys do not develop as quickly as girls. Living in a complex 21st century culture, screen-based systems seem to be taking the place of personal, relationship-based support. This is a worry, and parents need to be aware of assuring there is a balance in the lives of both the girls and the boys’ development, making sure they witness great role-modeling from both mother and father and that they are experiencing family connections and the simple, but essential, value of ‘love’.

May I remind you of the saying that we have ‘borrowed our

teachers too often. Teachers do an amazing job getting to know your children, and know exactly what their learning programme will be for the year. Believe me, teachers will always contact you if there are any concerns • Make sure they get plenty of sleep and eat well. Children cannot learn when they are tired, hungry or not well • Be careful of expectations you place on them. Some will be the doctor or the lawyer you want them to be, but let them make those decisions much later on. Keep them curious and getting dirty for as long as you can • Make sure they have an opportunity to experience extracurricular activities outside of school without crowding their week.

This will be a highly valued inclusion in a CV later on in life • And lastly, remember that you are the parent and they are the child. They need you.

Most of all I wish you an enjoyable journey raising your beautiful children. Love is always the key factor in any home.

Make sure you tell them tell them you love them every single day.

— Judi Paape Judi’s suggested reading: “21st Century Boys” and “21st Century Girls” by Sue Palmer. Anything written by Celia Lashlie is hugely valuable reading, as is any work by Nigel Latta p

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the wellbeing

Epsom Electorate Office Suite 2.4, Level 2, 27 Gillies Avenue, Newmarket.

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PO Box 9209, Newmarket 1149.

To contact me for an appointment please call 09 522 7464

David Seymour, MP for Epsom davidseymour.epsom@parliament.govt.nz

Promoted by David Seymour, MP for Epsom.

PAUL GOLDSMITH NATIONAL LIST MP BASED IN EPSOM

107 Great South Road, Greenlane PO Box 26 153 Epsom, Auckland 1344 P: 09 524 4930 E: paul.goldsmith@parliament.govt.nz W: www.paulgoldsmith.co.nz facebook.com/PaulGoldsmithNZ Funded by Parliamentary Service and authorised by Paul Goldsmith 107 Great South Rd Auckland

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ne in five people suffer from autoimmune disease, making it the number three cause of poor health and degenerative disease in the industrialised world. Unfortunately, it may still be a common belief to think that you’re living a healthy lifestyle if you’re eating whole grains, low fat dairy/soy and raw greens; exercising and not smoking. Yet even living this so-called “healthy lifestyle” doesn’t mean you can’t still experience what are common indicators to autoimmunity, such as severe digestive issues, hair loss, irritable bowel syndrome, reflux, and even carpel tunnel syndrome.

The bittersweet truth is that many people with autoimmune conditions are either misdiagnosed, or not diagnosed at all.

Autoimmunity is what happens when your body’s immune system goes haywire and confuses your tissues as foreign invaders.

The immune system produces antibodies against these tissues, causing their progressive destruction.

The keyword is “progressive”. It doesn’t happen overnight.

For example, your immune system may be currently producing antibodies to your thyroid. You may not feel any effects today, however a few years down the track you may experience symptoms of poor thyroid function like fatigue, cold intolerance, depression and anxiety, digestive issues, and the inability to lose weight.

Your doctor may prescribe thyroid medication. Yet the problem doesn’t reside in the thyroid itself. Rather, the root cause is often the autoimmune reaction perpetrated by the thyroid antibodies, produced by your immune system! Conventional medication to replace the thyroid hormone your body can no longer make won’t stop these antibodies flaring up and chewing at your thyroid tissue.

Early detection is the key in controlling autoimmunity. If not, then you may eventually get diagnosed with a condition such as Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, commonly treated with steroid medications. This is not ideal, for once the autoimmune genes have flipped on they stay on, leaving tissue destruction unchecked.

A key to autoimmunity resides in understanding three interactive factors: environmental triggers (like stress), genetic vulnerability and intestinal permeability. Your intestines are where 80 per cent of your immune system resides. And when your intestinal barrier is compromised due to inflammation, bacterial/fungal overgrowth, parasites, gut infections or food sensitivities, then you’re in the predicament where undigested food particles and various gut bugs can cross over into your bloodstream, where they’re not welcome.

When this happens, your immune system recognizes these antigens as invaders, and mounts an immune response to fight them off.

Be it a gland like the thyroid, the brain, or the joints of the body, it fast becomes a case of mistaken identity, whereby the immune system begins to attack. It can even attack hormones like estrogen, leaving you infertile. This process is called molecular mimicry, confusing one molecule with another.

Environmental toxins, called haptens, can also trigger autoimmune reactions. Haptens include inorganic compounds like formaldehyde, and heavy metals like mercury, lead and cadmium.

If you suspect toxicity is playing a role in your autoimmune condition, you may want to think twice about using heavy detox protocols (like chelation) without increasing your glutathione levels first. Heavy metal chelation can be devastating to anyone with autoimmunity if glutathione is not there to take the hit.

One of glutathione’s primary roles is detoxification. It acts like sticky paper grabbing onto toxins, and carrying them out of the body. Glutathione is the mother of all antioxidants that takes the hit for you, allowing the immune system to rest, and you to keep autoimmunity at bay. — Lee Parore

the pretty

Cocoa Loco

Melissa Williams-King avoids Easter egg indulgence by choosing chocolatey beauty goodies instead

Who said chocolate was bad for your skin?

This mask uses cocoa powder to draw out dirt, and cocoa butter to moisturise. Lush Cupcake Fresh Face Mask, $18.90. Lush, Newmarket

Nivea In-Shower Body Lotion is the most convenient way to moisturise. It now comes in a new flavour, Cocoa Indulging, $7.49.

At New World Remuera

Keep your summer glow going with Brownallyear Chocolate Tanning Cream, $33.50. This organic tanning range is made in New Zealand.

Stephen Marr, Newmarket

This cheeky body wash makes budgeting not seem so boring.

Anatomicals 100% Not Chanel but cocoa all the same body cleanser, $11.99. Countdown 277, Newmarket

This pinky brown is great for sculpting cheeks. Bobbi Brown Pot Rouge in Milk Chocolate, $52. Smith & Caughey’s Newmarket

Perk up your manicure with Essie Mochacino, $22.99.

A can’t-go-wrong classic. At Farmers Newmarket

The Aromatherapy Co. Therapy Range Coffee Body Scrub, $24.99, smells as tempting as a mocha latte sprinkled with vanilla sugar. (It’s also available as body balm). The Wild Bunch, Remuera; Farmers, Newmarket

This decadent candle is ideal for cosy autumn nights. Glasshouse Galapagos Kaffir Lime & Cocoa Butter Triple Scented Candle, $52.50. Redcurrent and Peter Alexander, Newmarket

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This multi-tasking moisturiser works on face, body and hair.

The Body Shop Cocoa Butter Beautifying Oil, $30.75.

The Body Shop, Newmarket

Whether you prefer it strong and dark or rich and milky, chocolate looks great on lips once we head into cold weather. Estée Lauder Pure Color Envy Lipstick in Discreet (top), $59, and Brazen, $59.

Life Pharmacy 277, Newmarket

the hobson suggests

The Secret to Younger Looking Skin D

o you want your skin to be more youthful and radiant, without looking like you’ve had something ‘done’? Then you’ll want to know all about the latest skincare advance, Dermastamp Collagen Induction Therapy, available at Prescription Skin Care.

What is a Dermastamp?

It’s a specific type of skin needling device ideal for facial rejuvenation. Skin needling tricks the body into thinking it has been wounded, initiating a natural healing response. The Dermastamp is a small, pen-like device that the nurse runs over your face, after first applying anaesthetic cream. The nurse looks for lines, pores, and areas of discolouration on the face, altering the length of the needles to generate the best rejuvenating effect.

thousands of genuine Dermastamp treatments have been performed worldwide, with no negative side effects reported. (Avoid operators using copycat equipment).

What is the cost? $599 per single treatment. Or, to get the best results and a free post-treatment skincare pack worth $250, take a course of three treatments for $1499. Treatments are performed six weeks apart.

Prescription Skin Care are specialists in skin health, facial rejuvenation through Botox, fillers, laser, peels and facials and CoolSculpting.

Led by Plastic Surgeon Stephen Gilbert FRCS, FRACS (plastic).

243 Remuera Rd, Remuera Phone 529 5784

What are the benefits?

Dermastamp promotes skin regeneration by reducing fine lines anywhere on the face, and by closing open pores, which are common around the mouth and nose. It also reduces redness caused by spider veins and sun damage, as well as promoting skin tightening, so the face feels less saggy. Acne scarring can also be treated very successfully. You’ll see results almost immediately, with increased effectiveness over the following months as your own collagen production rapidly increases.

Who performs the treatment?

At Prescription Skin Care, the nurse treating you is a highly-experienced professional, working in a sterile, safe, medical environment with genuine Dermastamp equipment. For the first 24 hours, patients may notice mild redness and occasional swelling. Hundreds of

Prescription Skin Care is pleased to introduce our newest team member, nurse Asia Chylek. Asia is a specialist in Dermastamp Collagen Induction Therapy.

the garden

Four years ago, Remuera businessman Danvers Devereux bought two hectares of rundown Matakana farmland and began the process of regeneration to create both a productive nursery, and the new headquarters for his Matakana Botanicals (formerly Les Floralies) bath and bodycare company. Danvers spoke to Kirsty Cameron about the transformation to an eco haven.

Botanical The

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Garden photography by stephen penny

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This place you’ve named Matakana Botanicals looks amazing — black barns, bees, lavender, worms recycling all the waste.

But I understand it wasn’t always quite so idyllic?

If you can recall the movie Smash Palace with car wrecks and machinery scattered all over the place, this was it! Most of it was grown over, and once a tow rope was attached to the Landy, we uncovered some surprises destined for the scrapmetal heap, which in the end required eight truck loads to remove. As an added bonus, the house was a very rundown hoarder’s bungalow, which had not been lived in for eight years. It had wildlife as tenants.

Some friends offered me a box of matches, but I decided the house was worth recycling. The back garden was a jungle, but I could see heritage fruit trees like plums, apples, oranges, pears, figs and grapes which are now very prolific, and will provide for the café we plan to open in September. The road frontage was a swampy low-lying area with privet. Now we have a wonderful pond with large grasses and rocks as features, and a black post and rail fence.

Why did you pick this location?

Many don’t know this, but just about all our products over 25 years have been conceived at our beach house at Leigh! It’s here many wonderful things have started and then evolved into a finished product. We have always had a connection with the region, and over the years I’ve got to know many local growers who supply our hero ingredients. A few years ago, I was giving one of our overseas distributors a tour of Matakana and Great Barrier Island [another Botanicals brand is Great Barrier Island Bee Co]. We returned to our office and warehouse in the commercial area of East Tamaki, and this person said we had this wonderful jigsaw-puzzle of places, but being based in East Tamaki was the odd piece in this great picture. This was a defining moment, as our lease was about to expire and a new idea was emerging. Given our connection to our places, growers, beekeepers, and a personal interest and background in horticulture, it just felt right to become a part of it all.

What’s your favourite part of this garden?

I think it depends on the time of day. In the morning, I like sitting in the hanging chilling chairs with a coffee, looking out over the raised herb gardens taking in the fragrant aromas. In the afternoon and evening, it’s looking down the lavender rows, with the sun going down over the Sugarloaf. Very calming!

Who introduced you to gardening?

My parents, Colyn and David. Our original family home in Seaview Rd was a place where we all helped out to maintain the garden from an early age. My chores list was huge, but I’m grateful for all that I learned there which inspired me to carry on and study horticulture at university. It’s quite ironic, as a few years later I ended up back in the garden assisting mum to make the Les Floralies products [Colyn launched the Les Floralies business].

What existing or natural features did you keep here?

Most of the land has been recontoured, but the house garden remains the same. We certainly kept all the fruit trees and even some very large flame trees which are not everyone’s favourite, but are appropriately located next to our candle-making barn and home to loads of tui in spring.

Does any part of the garden hold special significance?

My kids and I have just planted a kauri in the area which we are going to revegetate in natives. Hopefully one day we can all sit and talk in chairs hanging from it.

What are the kids’ favourite parts of the garden?

Madi, who’s 14, likes relaxing in front of the outdoor fire.

Georgia, her twin, likes sitting in a hanging chair by the herb gardens, as there’s wifi there! My 11-year-old, Ellamia, likes lying in the hammock between the pear and the apple tree. And my little bloke, Luca, who’s five, enjoys the big rope swing from the totara.

What’s your favourite chore, so to speak, in the garden?

Harvesting, be it fruit, herbs, lavender or honey.

And your least favourite?

Weeding the lavender rows by hand!

What do you plan to do next?

Plant out the NZ natives, and I’ve got another thousand lavender cuttings to plant out in May. How will you know when your garden will be complete?

I’d say when the kauri is tall enough for us all to sit in hanging chairs, enjoying a wine and catching up with my kids and friends.

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the garden

THE MATAKANA BOTANICALS Garden, Year by Year Year 1: Removed tonnes of hoarder’s rubbish and uncovered the overgrown house. Started removing car wrecks and old farm equipment from the grass, and took the Stihl chainsaw to the privet. I worked on plans to renovate the house, which surprised many, given the state of it.

Year 2: Started the house renovations with local builder Gus McKergow, also worked on designing our new buildings with Customkit Barns and putting together resource consent.

Year 3: Major earth works, landscaping and commenced barn building. We planted 2,000 Grosso lavender, 1,000 natives, 250 jasmine, built 10 large raised herb gardens and one long-wall garden.

Year 4: Our green installations started: three 30,000-litre water tanks, a septic system, a full solar power system and a DIY seaweed irrigation network. We relocated the business from East Tamaki to our new home, and the new journey began! — Danvers Devereux, right, with daughter Ellamia

Opposite top: Luca keeps his distance from the bees that pollinate the lavender, and provide honey and wax. The barn in the background is the implement shed. This page, clockwise from top: the restored farmhouse; the productive orchard garden; an outdoor bath with a fireplace designed by Danvers; a shady spot; the new barn as seen from Leigh Rd road houses the Matakana Botanicals office and warehouse; the same barn from the back. The raised garden beds will provide herbs and veges for the cafe, due to open in September in the wing seen to the right. Another barn houses the lavender distillery and candle-making facility, which will be open to the public once completed. the hobson 41

the psyche

Listening as Problem Solving

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he mother of a 10-year-old boy sought help for her son, who she said was having problems with friendships at his new school. Among other things, she reported that “Billy” had come home from school in tears the day before. “Sam won’t let me play with him at lunch. He just doesn’t like me,” he said.

His mother tried her best to make him feel better. Among other things, she said “That’s ok, Billy, I like you,” and “Let’s think of other friends we can play with”. When that didn’t work, she tried saying “Of course he likes you. He just has other friends too.”

Nothing Billy’s mother could say seemed to help. Billy fell silent, stormed off to his room, slammed the door, and proceeded to throw three massive tantrums between the time he emerged at dinner, and before bed.

One of the first things you learn when training to be a psychologist or a counsellor is to listen. Not just to listen so that you can jump in and solve a problem, but really listen so the other person can be heard. The idea behind it is that more than any “intervention” a therapist can provide, and more than any “solution” that a therapist might offer, what an individual needs is simply to hear themselves and be heard. To paraphrase the father of counselling, Carl Rogers, it is from this process of working through the mess of thoughts in our own minds with someone who is able to truly listen, that we find the clues that lead us to the solutions to our own problems.

In working with parents, it is often clear that truly listening is really a hard thing to do. As Billy’s mother came to learn, the impulse to tell your child how to solve his problem is hard to resist.

In working with parents and children, I often think back to the advice that supervisors gave me when I was training.

First, suspend judgement and interact with the client with “unconditional positive regard”. With a child, that may be very easy (even mothers of criminals will tell you that they love their child), or it may be very hard if you’re at home alone with the kids, and the child in question has pushed all your buttons.

Second, suspend your need to provide a solution. Even if the solution is obvious to you, older children and teenagers rarely come to us looking for answers. More often than not, they may be offended when you offer one. Think back to the times you’ve tried to tell your wife what to do when she was upset. Alternatively, think of what it felt like to go to your husband with a problem you’re having with a loved one, and have him try to solve the problem. All we want, children included, is someone to listen to us, even if all we’re doing is having a moan.

Third, reflect what the person says back to them. In Billy’s situation, his mother could have said “Sam didn’t play with you at lunch, and you felt like he didn’t like you”. Repeating what he said back to him shows him you are interested, and that you’ve truly heard what he’s said.

Fourth, take things a step further and name the painful emotion and provide empathy. “How awful you must have felt. I would have felt terrible too!”

Both healing and learning occur most effectively when the individual feels heard and supported. The simple act of reflecting Billy’s experience back to him, and naming his emotion, validates his experience and makes him feel heard and supported. Often this feeling of being heard and empathised with allows us to let go of the pain, and frees up space in our heads and in our hearts to move toward a solution.

In Billy’s case, his mother learnt that the more she repeated what he said back to him, the more he talked. And he almost always would come to a point in which he was done moaning, and ready to find a solution. The feeling of being heard freed him of the need to show her how bad he felt (by tantrums and slamming the door), and freed him also to find solutions of his own to try and make more friends at the new school.

While Billy’s challenges were solved easily enough, the listening skills are invaluable in many contexts. Try this with an irritable boss, an angry spouse or a surly teen. See how fast you can change the mood! — Dr Amrit Kaur

the hobson 42

the second act

Here’s To You, Mrs Robinson

A

s a feminist I have always subscribed to the assertion popularised by my heroine, Gloria Steinem, that “a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle”.

That was until I was in Britomart the other day, and was unexpectedly propositioned by a handsome young man on a bicycle.

Youth is relative of course, and he would have been 31 to my 51. He wheeled up alongside me and started a conversation. I assumed he wanted directions, but in fact he complimented me on my dress. It is indeed my favourite dress, so this I was quite pleased about.

Then he went one step further, and told me that I “looked great in it”.

I thanked him before we started a very brief conversation in which I ascertained that he was from Brazil. Thinking that this is the sort of boy who would be nice for my newly-single niece or even my student daughter, imagine my surprise when he asked me out for a coffee.

“You … are … joking?” I ventured, as I scanned Britomart for television cameras or sniggering friends pointing their phones at me. He looked puzzled, and suggested tea instead.

When I declined this invitation, feeling like a repressed Westerner against his laissez faire Latin-ness, he seemed curious as to “why not?”

It is revealing that the immediate

answer that popped into my head was, “I have no time to waste on chatting to a young handsome stranger when I am trying to close the gender gap in New Zealand leadership and other worthwhile pursuits”. But I chose to speak a language I thought he might understand.

Conscious that I was wrongly portraying my husband as a possessive alpha male, and me as a submissive dependent, I said, somewhat pathetically, “I don’t think my husband would like it.”

To this he offered, “But we can do it as friends”. “Haha, not today thanks,” I said nervously, pulling out my blanket response to telemarketers. To which he shot back, “Tomorrow?” At this I hurried away, blushing hotly like a Victorian spinster (or maybe it was menopause).

When I shared the story with my girlfriends the response ranged from the insulting — “Was he trying to sell you something?” — to the hilarious: “Maybe it’s a new experiential marketing concept from Britomart to attract the older wealthier shopper” (that’s actually not a bad idea!). Days later, I’m still getting texts like this one: “Hola lady in the dress, now let me put the little pill in your coffee. Sleepy?”

My own husband annoyingly put forward two possible theories. First, that the Brazilian was simply playing a numbers game, and secondly, that it might be promotion for a new bike shop

in the area. I deeply regret not going for that coffee.

In a western culture that is youth obsessed, many women in their second act complain about becoming invisible.

Admittedly I haven’t noticed this myself, given my earnest focus on the aforementioned worthwhile pursuits. It’s been a long time that I ever considered myself — or cared — whether I was attractive to a man other than my husband (and even then I can’t say it’s top of my to-do list).

But that might be about to change, given the impact of that little bit of unsolicited attention from the opposite sex in an inappropriate age group.

The incident has me reflecting on the double standards we have when it comes to age and gender behaviours.

Admittedly, if the Brazilian was 51 like me, I would have written him off as a recently divorced sleazebag. If he was 71 I would have let him down gently, assuming his Viagra prescription was nearing its use-by date. But because this was clearly a Mrs Robinson affair, I considered it simply flattering and can’t stop going on about it.

So for any younger male readers out there, be generous with the compliments to the over-50 woman. A little love goes a long way.

Go on, make my day.

— Sandy Burgham

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the hobson 43

the bookmark

The April Bookshelf

INTO A RAGING BLAZE — Andreas Norman (Hachette) Norman, a former Swedish Foreign Ministry official, has written an explosive exposé of AngloAmerican spying and surveillance on European civilians in the name of counterterrorism. This dizzying thriller anticipated the Snowden revelations, and rocked Sweden on publication. That said, on a pure enjoyment level, it’s great. We have two women protagonists, each fighting for recognition, and the Brits acting as the very bad villains of the piece. I loved it.

THE WOMAN WHO LOST HER SOUL — Bob Shacochis (Allen & Unwin) Opening with a death, this ambitious novel, vast in scope and eloquently written, has too many strands to neatly summarise here. So readers, you will just have to be happy with a description of how I found it. This powerful novel of sex, lies and American foreign policy in 1990s Haiti, Nazi-occupied Croatia and Cold War-era

Istanbul, is reminiscent of Graham Greene and John le Carre. The reader is held in its grasp trying to unravel knots of romance, espionage and vengeance. At 600-plus pages, it’s not for the faint-hearted.

THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER — Andrew Keen (Penguin) As a fan of Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows, Keen’s book beckoned. In this sharp, witty read, the long-time Silicon Valley observer argues that, on balance, the internet has had a disastrous impact on our lives. Informed

by Keen’s research and interviews, as well as the work of other writers and academics, this is an investigation into the tech world — from the threat to privacy to the impact on unemployment and economic inequality.

THE YEAR OF LIVING DANISHLY — Helen Russell (Allen & Unwin) We all want to be happy, and judging by the number of books published about this, no complete answer has yet been found —

or has it? Russell, a London magazine editor, is worn down by long hours and commutes, so when she’s given the chance to move to “the happiest place on earth,” she does. A funny, poignant, record that shows us where the Danes get it right, where they get it wrong, and how we might all benefit from living a little more Danishly. I’ve started.

THE LAST BOOK — Reinier Gerritsen (Thames & Hudson) I have longed to own this book. It beckons to me as a lover of books made of paper, and the world it shows. The work began for photographer Gerritsen as a series of modest observations, and turned into a series of documentary portraits set against a visual landscape of best sellers, classics, thrillers, Bibles, biographies, and more.

Gerritsen depicts individuals engrossed in the worlds they hold in their hands, and creates layered narratives informed by the choices of readers. — Gail Woodward

the cinema

April at the Movies

WOMAN IN GOLD — director Simon Curtis. Starring Helen Mirren, Ryan Reynolds, Daniel Bruhl, Charles Dance, Tatiana Maslany. Based on the true story of Holocaust survivor Maria Altmann, the film follows the elderly Altmann (Mirren, above with Reynolds) as she takes on the Austrian government to recover artworks stolen by the Nazis from her family. With the help of lawyer E. Randol Schoenberg (Reynolds), the duo take their case to the US Supreme Court, beginning a process that would ultimately take more than a decade to resolve.

THE AGE OF ADALINE — director Lee Toland Krieger. Starring Blake Lively, Harrison Ford, Angela Lansbury, Ellen Burstyn, Michiel Huisman. After an accident, Adaline (Lively) is left without the ability to age, eternally 29. Unable to stay in one place long for fear of her

identity being exposed, Adaline spends the twentieth century roaming the earth in a tortuous existence of isolation. That is, until she meets a man that makes her wonder if it’s time to end her immortality, a secret only shared with her now-elderly daughter (Burstyn). Literally, a timeless romance.

TESTAMENT OF YOUTH — director James Kent. Starring Hayley Atwell, Taron Edgerton, Kit Harrington, Alicia Vikander, Dominic West, Emily Watson. Having watched her brothers and young love go to fight in World War I, Vera Brittain (Vikander, above right with Harrington) postpones her studies at Oxford University to serve as a Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse. As the war concludes and the world reflects on its enormity, Brittain returns to Oxford, becoming a renowned writer, feminist and pacifist. Based on her memoir

of the same name, this is a coming of age tale against the background of war.

BOYCHOIR — director Francois Girard.

Starring Dustin Hoffman, Kathy Bates, Kevin McHale, Eddie Izzard, Garrett Wareing, Debra Winger. Described by Variety as a “feelgood but far from treacly family drama”, Boychoir is the musicimbued story of a stroppy Texan kid, 11-year-old Stet (Wareing). Orphaned, whisked across the country and enrolled in an elite boys’ music academy, Stet can’t think of anything worse. Well out of his element, he must choose whether to give up, or go with his choirmaster (Hoffman), who recognises Stet’s extraordinary talent as a boy soprano, and pushes him to use his gifts. — Caitlin McKenna All films listed will screen at Rialto Cinemas Newmarket this month

Coming to Rialto Cinemas from 7 to 20 May Tickets on sale 9 April www.rialto.co.nz

the arts

Glimpses of The Past

O

ne of the real pleasures of a job like mine is unearthing previously unknown masterpieces, although sadly it doesn’t happen much these days in the field of fine art. I will never forget the day a very unlikely looking man struggled into the gallery I was working in, with a beautiful painting by Colin McCahon inside a box that had previously housed a washing machine. There are only a couple of other instances that I recall, but hope springs eternal.

The field of rare books is a specialist area where exciting finds are relatively more frequent. People are more likely to put special books and papers away in cupboards or drawers, only unearthing them occasionally. A couple of weeks ago I arrived at work to find our rare book specialist, Pam Plumbly, in a state of great excitement. Leafing through a mediocre first edition copy of Captain James Cook’s Third Voyages, Pam had found some unusual pages stitched into the back of volume three.

These pages turned out to be David Samwell’s A Narrative of the Death of Captain Cook: To Which are added, some Particulars concerning his Life and Character, And Observations respecting the Introduction of the Venereal Disease into the Sandwich Islands.

The surgeon on Cook’s ship HMS Discovery, Samwell accompanied Cook on his third voyage and was present at the captain’s death in Hawaii in 1779.

Varying from the official account, Samwell offers a frank and accurate description of the circumstances surrounding the death of Captain Cook. Obviously a great admirer of his captain, reading Samwell’s vivid account you almost feel transported back to the event itself. This manuscript has been described as an exceedingly rare work, and which may be considered the highlight of a Cook collection.

We were fortunate to find it tucked safely into the

back of another book, waiting patiently for its next owner.

Another item we have recently uncovered, while not of the same value as the Cook manuscript, is significant for its timeliness. As thousands of people prepare to visit Gallipoli for the centenary commemorations, we have been consigned a very attractive folio of sketches made at Anzac Cove by Sapper Horace Moore-Jones in 1915. The portfolio contains 10 panoramic colour plates with captions, accompanied by an index. A member of the 1st Field Company of Engineers, Moore-Jones participated in the landing at Anzac Cove on the Gallipoli peninsula in April 1915. He was subsequently attached to Lieutenant General Sir William Birdwood’s Anzac Printing Section, to make topographical pencil and watercolour sketches of the landscape and plans of Allied and Turkish positions.

Moore-Jones’ sketches of the harsh terrain, made under hazardous conditions, were an invaluable aid for planning operations and defence and were used to illustrate official dispatches. Birdwood himself remarked; “Many of Sapper Moore-Jones’ pictures were, I know, done while shells were whistling overhead, and they portray very faithfully the country in which we were operating, and being so full of detail as they are, give a good impression of the condition of life in which our troops were working for some eight months”.

Wounded in late 1915, Moore-Jones was classed unfit for battle duty however he continued to work as an artist, with his Gallipoli watercolours being widely exhibited. He is remembered as New Zealand’s foremost war artist from the period, with his works providing a vital glimpse into the struggles of the Gallipoli campaign.

— Leigh Melville

Background image: Title page of David Samwell’s “A Narrative of The Death of Captain Cook” Photo courtesy of Leigh Melville/Art+Object

the hobson 46

the sound

50 Shades of Great

I

t was six years ago that I officially became a music reviewer.

Paul Holmes called me up and asked whether I would like to be his reviewer on his Saturday show. His reasoning was that I had spent a lifetime in music radio, starting at Radio B and progressing through ZM, Radio Hauraki and Classic Hits; and so I must have picked up a thing or two about all sorts of music. The other very relevant point was that I was already working for the company and so he could get me at a bargain basement rate. Which he did.

I took the offer because it was a chance to be on Newstalk ZB, and most importantly it meant that I’d get heaps of free records. Which I did.

But what I realised from Day One is that I had to figure out the answer to that question that we all ask about artistic endeavours. What is good? And that then leads onto what is art, and all sorts of other gnarly philosophical questions.

And all that can apply to something as innocuous as a Taylor Swift LP. The King of “Is This Good?” is undoubtedly Bob Dylan, the man who writes some of the world’s greatest songs and then wheezes them out like a yowling cat with an adenoid problem. Some people can’t get past the idiosyncratic delivery. To them Bob can’t sing.

A criticism he’s copped all his career and famously answered this year when he received the Person Of The Year award at the 2015 MusiCares Gala.

In a very rare speech Bob said, “Critics say I can’t sing, I sound like a frog. Why don’t critics say that about Tom Waits? Critics say my voice is shot. Why don’t they say that about Leonard Cohen?

What have I done to get this special attention? Voices are not to be measured by how pretty they are. They’re to be measured by whether they’re telling the truth.”

Boom! There you go.

But unfortunately for me, Bob’s gone and released a new album and I had to review it. It’s his 36th studio album and it’s called Shadows in the Night. Bob took songs recorded by Frank Sinatra and covered them, some of them quite unknown. It’s a strange beast. The songs chosen have an autumnal groove which is not surprising considering Bob is 73 and more than a little autumnal himself. Which makes “Autumn Leaves” on this album seem predictable.

Less so though, is his version of “Why Try To Change Me Now,” which was a song Frank did as a two-fingered salute to his record label, who were trying to box him into singing sappy, pretty hits when Frank wanted to explore the edges of the soul. It fits Bob like a glove. Genius move. In fact, half the album is songs that I

didn’t know, so I had to research them. Discovering the thematic links between Frank’s songs and Bob’s choices made me respect the album more. Many of these songs feel like Bob could have possibly written them.

Instead of getting a whole band, a la Nelson Riddle, together, like so many artist’s “Great American Songbook” projects do, Bob used his touring band and recorded them live so the songs have a bluesy, rootsy slide to them. Which is a nice interpretation, but it does get a bit same-same over the whole album. But, still more genius. On his website Bob said he was not covering these songs but “uncovering” them. And that’s true, but there is an absence of light and shade and humour. Sinatra at least could have a good time.

So this whole thing is a grand concept done very well and if you’re a Bob-studying-pointyhead there is much to discuss and appreciate. Under that precept, this is one of his better later releases so

gets at least an 8/10.

So what did I say? Weeellll. I often put records on in the car because that’s a good way to hear them loud and uninterrupted.

When I put Shadows in the Night on with the rest of my family in the car on an outing, my teen sons couldn’t believe it. All they heard was a consumptive old man who couldn’t hold the notes, wheezing out Grandad’s music. “Is this man about to die?”, was one of the kinder offerings from the back seat.

So I called it like I see it. This is a great work of art by a man who can’t sing. But if you think he can, go for it. Personally, I’ve listened to the album four times and I think that’s enough for one lifetime.

Which all goes to show that beauty is in the art of the beholder.

Kanye likes Beyonce and not Beck. Madonna had 100 people on stage at the Brit Awards (and fell over) while Ed Sheeran blew the crowd away all by himself.

So when I review albums and I say they’re good, I know that I’m likely to be 50 per cent wrong and that’s fine by me.

Because I still get heaps of free records. — Andrew Dickens.

Images courtesy of Sony Music. the hobson 47

the heritage

A Towering Landmark The Norfolk Island pine at 320 Parnell Rd has been a local landmark for as long as anyone can remember.

Parnell resident and author Carolyn Cameron looks back on the most memorable events in its long history.

T

the tree had been trimmed for some time to alleviate the nuisance, but this had created an imbalance and the tree had become lopsided.

In September 1954 Caroll took the Darrocks to court, applying for an injunction to have the tree cut down. At this time the pine was reported to be 90-years-old and 100 feet high.

The judge, H. J. Wily, SM, made a special detour on his way to court to view the tree. Carroll won the case, although the magistrate was clearly saddened at having to order the felling of such a magnificent tree, but agreed it was causing a nuisance. By this time Parnell Rd had become a built-up mixed residential and commercial zone.

In April1955, the Darrocks appealed. The result was that a variation of the original decision was allowed and the tree could stay, provided that the lower branches were kept trimmed. It was unusual for a judge’s decision to be altered or varied and it would appear that in this case it was allowed because of the approval of both the appellants and Carroll. It was a close call.

In the 1950s the tree was adorned with coloured lights at Christmas time. This practice was also adopted a few years ago, but has since been discontinued, to the benefit of the tree.

In 1960 Pine Lodge, now enlarged to 10 rooms and operating as a boarding house, was severely damaged by fire, which destroyed most of the rear of the villa.

Fortunately no lives were lost. The paint on one side of the Carroll house was singed.

The Norfolk pine must have suffered severe smoke damage, but survived. The house was demolished, leaving the tree alone on the section.

When a motel was built on this site in the early 1960s, the tree was left untouched.

The motor lodge was aptly named Norfolk Lodge, now renamed the Parnell Inn. Today, 150 years on, the Norfolk pine looks like an elderly gentleman, its branches thinning on top, but it still stands tall and proud, and rightly deserving of care and protection for the remainder of its natural life, however long that may be.

he story begins in September 1865, when newly emigrated Scots John and Margaret Mowbray and their children moved to Parnell and rented a villa in Manukau (Parnell) Rd. The land on which the house stood had been part of the Hulme Court estate, which was subdivided in 1863. In those days, houses were described by the number of living rooms (kitchen and bathrooms excluded) and this one-totwo-year-old wooden single storey villa contained six rooms.

The pine seedling is believed to have been planted by the Mowbray family in their front garden in 1865, shortly after they took up residence. John Mowbray purchased the villa in 1868 and it became known as “Whitby House” (not to be confused with nearby Whitby Lodge which can just be glimpsed to the right in the historic photo).

The tree thrived. In 1896 it was witness to the family’s sorrow when Margaret Mowbray died. Her husband, overcome with grief, refused to eat and died six weeks after his wife. The house was then occupied by siblings William and Jane Mowbray and after 1911, by Jane solely, with various lodgers, mainly genteel widows and single women. Jane Anna Mowbray was a remarkable woman. A founding member of the Parnell Tennis Club, formed in 1872, she became a notable player, winning several championship titles in the days when women played in wide-brimmed hats and long skirts. She was also a founder of the Victoria League, and a fundraiser for the Anglican Church. In 1934 she was awarded an OBE for her commitment to social work.

Jane Mowbray lived at 320 Parnell Rd until a few years before her death in 1940 at the age of 88.

The tree and house were mentioned in her obituary.

In the 1950s, the house was known as Pine Lodge and owned by a Mr and Mrs William Darrock, of Rotorua. The neighbour on the north side at 318 Parnell Rd was Robert Carroll. He was annoyed by the plumbing bills he had for the frequent clearing of pine needles from his gutters and spouting. The lower branches on one side of

Araucaria heterophylla: Parnell Rd’s historic Norfolk Island pine in its glory, and today.

Photo at top courtesy of the New Zealand Herald the hobson 48

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