John Bell: New Zealand’s Constitutional Crisis - Where to for Treaty Principles?

With the recent defeat of the Treaty Principles Bill, New Zaland faces a constitutional crisis. With the exception of the ACT Party’s MPs, every Member of the House voted to reject both the principle that our democratically elected Parliament is sovereign and the principle that all New Zealand citizens have the same equal status before the law. Worse, the Prime Minister has specifically stated that there was nothing in the Bill that he supported.

John Bell: Confronting Separatism

Each year, on 25 January, Scots around the world  gather to celebrate the birthday of their National Poet – Robbie Burns. This commemoration usually takes the form of a Burns Supper, but Scots in Auckland, Hokitika, Timaru and Dunedin also have the option of an event featuring their town’s fine statue of the poet.  The statue in Dunedin’s Octagon, by noted 19^th century sculptor, Sir John Steele, is one of three modelled on his famous original in Dundee, the others being in New York and London.

Given the status of Dunedin’s Burns statue, I was concerned a few years ago to find that it had been disrespectfully adorned by a group of Maori staging a Parihaka protest in the Octagon. I wrote to the DCC expressing the view that, whatever the merits of the cause the Parihaka protesters were espousing, that did not entitle them to show disrespect for the culture and heritage of others, especially that of the city’s Scottish founders. I requested that the DCC require future groups allowed to use the Octagon to show proper respect for the city’s iconic Burns statue. The reply I received advised that no action was being taken not because my case lacked merit but because I was the only person  who had lodged such an objection.

Therein lies an essential truth about politics. Politics is about numbers not logic. 

John Bell: What’s in a phrase?

In recent times, it has become common practice to commence a communication to someone with Kia ora and conclude with Nga mihi or some other expression in the Maori language. This now appears to be standard practice in communications from Government Departments, state-funded institutions like schools, community organisations and even some public companies such as Contact Energy.

The body of the communication remains in English for the good reason that the writer intended it to be understood. Why, then, a salutation and conclusion in Maori?    

At the end of 2019, the CEO of Forest and Bird even went as far as to wish supporters Merry Christmas and Happy New Year in Maori despite the fact that Christmas is a European Christian festival and Matariki is in the middle of the year. Has the language that served Shakespeare, Shelley, Keats, Wordsworth, Tennyson et al. so well suddenly become inadequate for beginning and ending a letter?

John Bell: Letter to Forest and Bird

Jess Winchester
Forest & Bird
WELLINGTON

Dear Jess

Membership Renewal

Thank you for your recent mailing with advice that my membership is due for annual renewal.

Sadly, after more than 40 years of membership of Forest & Bird, I must advise that I can no longer remain as a member.

This is not because of straightened circumstances, nor because of any lessening in my concern for the protection of New Zealand’s native flora and fauna.