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LOCAL BODY NOMINATIONS close on Friday 12th August, time is running out for prospective councillors to register..
“ONE OF THE PENALTIES for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors” – Plato
SEVENTY FIVE PERCENT of the world’s food is produced by twelve plants and five animal species. In total only 150 -200 of the world’s 250,000 known edible plants are currently eaten.
THE TOP 10% of New Zealanders own 59% of the wealth. The bottom 40% own 3% of the wealth and the poorest 5% owe more than they own – figures Bernard Hickey.

‘IF THERE is no dull and determined effort there will be no brilliant achievement’ –Confusion philosopher Hsun Tzn
BILL GATES, Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Ralph Norris were all very successful without having a University degree.
ACCORDING TO OECD figures New Zealand is fourth in literacy levels in the OECD. Following Japan, Finland and the Netherlands. New Zealand is also fifth in problem solving using technology.
WHEN TWO opposing parties advocate with equal vigour the truth isn’t necessarily half way in between. It is possible that one side is simply wrong. Alan Crafar Physicist and Mathematician
SPORT NEW ZEALAND has a budget of eighty nine million dollars to spend on ensuring NZ sports people and teams are in top condition. Any money the government decodes to ‘invest’ in Team NZ’s Americas Cup bid is addition to this total.
‘LIFE’S TRAGEDY is that we get old too soon and wise too late’- Benjamin Franklin
WASPS cost the New Zealand economy one hundred and thirty million dollars a year. Industries adversely affected include forestry, beekeeping, horticulture and farming.
‘EUROPE was set up by clever, Catholic, left-wing, French, bureaucrats. Most Brits have problems with at least three of those five’ – historian Peter Hennessy
CHINA’S COAL production peaked in 2014, it declined by 5.8% in 2015 and had dropped by a further 9.7% in the first half of 2016. Meanwhile the first six months of this year saw China’s solar power increase by 28%, wind and hydro power increase by 13% and nuclear power by 25%. (figures from: London Guardian)
NOT EVERYONE who wants to make a film is crazy but everyone who is crazy wants to make a film’ –Clive James.
The deadline for the September is sue is 4pm Wednesdaty August 31st