New Zealand Listener Issue 28 2018

Small- and medium-sized enterprises are an economic powerhouse and the country can’t afford to drive them out of business. Business confidence surveys are often Eeyorish when the Labour Party is in office. But the latest plunging New Zealand surveys show them heading into “Beware of the Bear” territory. The ANZ business outlook survey this week reported a seven-month low with a net 39% of firms surveyed expecting general business conditions to deteriorate in the coming 12 months. That’s 12 points lower than May’s result and the lowest since November 2017. It comes on the heels of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce’s warning that the spiking price of fuel, slow progress on housing and infrastructure and the threat of rising labour costs have sent business confidence in the nation’s biggest city…

Small- and medium-sized enterprises are an economic powerhouse and the country can’t afford to drive them out of business. Business confidence surveys are often Eeyorish when the Labour Party is in office. But the latest plunging New Zealand surveys show them heading into “Beware of the Bear” territory. The ANZ business outlook survey this week reported a seven-month low with a net 39% of firms surveyed expecting general business conditions to deteriorate in the coming 12 months. That’s 12 points lower than May’s result and the lowest since November 2017. It comes on the heels of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce’s warning that the spiking price of fuel, slow progress on housing and infrastructure and the threat of rising labour costs have sent business confidence in the nation’s biggest city into “free fall”. Nearly…

Two sentences in the article “Tiakina te reo” (June 30), given as exemplars of the kind of te reo conversation pieces that could be used in everyday life, must surely justify professor Paul Moon’s contention that attempts to make the language a linguistic medium are doomed to disappointment. These sentences – “Put the dishes in the sink” and “Would you like some Weet-Bix?” – contain the nouns dishes, sink and Weet-Bix that have no pre-1840 equivalents in te reo and would need, as do so many workaday conversations in 2018, to be rendered by inaccurate Māori synonyms, bastard transliterations or by a simple repetition of an English word. Thirty-seven years ago, professor Bruce Biggs, a revered champion of the study of formal Māoril, predicted, with regret, that a time would…

WINNING CAPTION Rhonda Ramsay, Thames FINALISTS Trump: “Ouch, I’m the one who’s supposed to be putting the squeeze on.” – Ross Megget, Christchurch Kim: “It’s Kim Jong-un, not Kim Kardashi-un.” – A Neale, Nelson Trump: “Ouch Kimmy, that’s my tweeting hand!” – P Riddick, Auckland Trump: “Okay, tough deal. I’ll give you Stormy’s phone number when you come to New York.” – Bill Grant, Napier Trump: “Nobel Peace prize alert. It’s within my grasp.” – Kate Gore, Rotorua Trump: “Is communism contagious?” – Warren Shaw, Marton Trump: “What makes you think I’m underhanded?” – David Chandler, Auckland Trump: “He’s got a better grip on this than I have.” – Iain Hawken, New Plymouth Trump: “Kim was pleased to learn the name of my hair stylist.” – Anne Ferguson, New Plymouth…

Two sentences in the article “Tiakina te reo” (June 30), given as exemplars of the kind of te reo conversation pieces that could be used in everyday life, must surely justify professor Paul Moon’s contention that attempts to make the language a linguistic medium are doomed to disappointment. These sentences – “Put the dishes in the sink” and “Would you like some Weet-Bix?” – contain the nouns dishes, sink and Weet-Bix that have no pre-1840 equivalents in te reo and would need, as do so many workaday conversations in 2018, to be rendered by inaccurate Māori synonyms, bastard transliterations or by a simple repetition of an English word. Thirty-seven years ago, professor Bruce Biggs, a revered champion of the study of formal Māoril, predicted, with regret, that a time would come when…

“I don’t have a clue why I’m famous, either. But I didn’t make myself famous. I’m not doing it. You’re doing it.” –Nicole Richie, quoted in the Week. “First Lady Melania Trump was wearing a jacket with ‘I Really Don’t Care, Do U?’ written on the back when she boarded a plane to visit the border. A lot of people are giving her a hard time about it. But I think it’s nice that she had a jacket made to display her wedding vows.” – Seth Myers “The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.” – Dolly Parton, quoted in USA Today “Sometimes you need to get knocked down before you can really figure out what your fight is.” – actor…