the galah

air quality is something i've followed for a while now. Yes invercargill is in the worst couple in nz..Timaru used to have the worst air in australasia for quite a few years and i think its nelson that also has historically had poorer air qualty at times. people just don't realsie how air quality can impact their health down the track. I remember talking to someone once whose wife was in getting treated for lung cancer at 30,never smoked. He told me how doctors had told him they saw far more lung cancers from the 3 areas mentioned and believed it was due to air quality. all you have to do is look at the mortailty figures relating to unexpected premarute death rates and their was always a pattern for the cities with the bad air.. theres lots of reasons for air pollution. like invercargill was a lot to do with heating in the winter,auckland does have good air, their pollution was more to do with traffic and other areas it could be a combination of industrial or even the likes of a ship unloading cement into a silo at a port. but the point being,your lungs and your hearts can be effected by bad air. the thing i find strange about governments approach to air pollution is,they have allowed all this urban sprawl and that effects air quality. On one hand we had labour promoting selling off good farmland, which created jobs,instead prioritising the planting of trees,all the while allowing the continuation of urban sprawl. So much of what happens seems poorly though out. I see the farming sector are hoping the current government will see sense and pass a law stopping overseas companies buying up good farmland and using that as a big picture excuse to keep polluting in another part of the world. anyways,back to air quality,even if you drive into the likes of christchurch,say from halswell you see this soft gey cloud sitting the city side of the hills. Thats not good. gully type area are bad for pollution.It may not be the noticeable big brown cloud you get at a couple of the previously mentioned nz cities,but its there . and then you thow in the effects of covid and throw in the effects of the covid vaccine. i feel like fraser from dads army,we're doomed,all doomed. theres a cherry note to end my post on(,depending of course where you live)

yes the economy and housing obviously has flow on effects on everything,including racing. we all know the rich get richer and the poor are struglling more and more. Ain't going to change. people are lucky enough in nz to have the government top up payment of their rents if they have nothing and theres more and more of that going on because if you rent for a reasonable period of time,you just go through your savings as rents and just living is more than you get,unless in a well paid job. Then you get to the point where you have bugger all left and at that point the governmant will step and top up paying your rent. People in that position still only live week to week but at least the government allows them to have a roof over their heads and hopefully stay warm.there would be heaps and heaps of households in nz getting top ups of around $300 extra, just so they can pay rent and get basic food requirements.I don't think people realise just how desparate it is for many and how much the government is paying out to wealthy landlords. its a bit like people who go into rest homes here. They use up their savings or value of assets to a certain point,then the government starts paying for their rest home care. e.g. i think if your partner has died you are still allowed just under $300,000 and thats when the government start paying for your st home care. The government of course take any benefit you may be getting.if your above that you have to pay it yourself. it varies if both you and your wife are still alive and whether one or two needs care. sometimes the formula. But whats obvious is if you live any reasonable amount of time once you go into a rest home care,you go through savings quickly. it seems rest homes cost around $1500 a week these days,dependings where they are and the level of care. but the rest home thing is the same as the renting thing,the rich emply people like accountants or solicitors to work around things with things like trusts,so they get the full government subsidy right from the start.when it comes time. The rich get richer and average joe bloggs and their family get poorer. just the way it works. its like the government recently spent 50 million on uncovering benefit fraud recently underthe current government. They investigated uncovered benefit fraud of around 700,but only prosecuted 33. those 33 fraud only amounted to undert 3 million. That differs a wee bit from a labour union man who told me that recently the governemnt had spent 50 million and got back 50 million. i guess the difference being they didn't prosecute many that had been overpaid. but heres the thing ,the labour unuion man said the government could have spent far lesss or even the same investigating fraud of those who are wealthy and it was obvious from figures that they would have uncovered far greater fraud and overpayments,but the current govenmenyt chose to focus on those on benefites and not the people who vote for national or act. all thats just the way it is,the way the world works,and all it means is wealth is going into fewer hands and the bottom end struggle even more,even though they are lucky to get the handouts.

you have to give him points for trying. He seems to be making reasonable observations,even if we know its not a big picture take on things.

now i've actually posted about it,even if by mistake, i googled it and it was "the gambling man by kevin perkins.apparently he spent 22 years researching it before he completed writing it then another 10 years being sued for defamation before it was made available for publication. lots of stories in their,all supposed to be factual,that people didn't want being published. it was sort of based around bill waterhouse and his gambling dynasty. to quote the promo " it exposes the intrigue,treachory andskullduggery ivolved in the upper echelons of gambling,polished crooks in high places,mind blowing betting duels,the truth behind the fine cotton ring-in scandel and other fascinating stories". ive never been much of a reader myself,but that book would label the best book i have read. And it was all supposed to be true.based on fact. I remember the story about the head of one of australias biggest banks and how that all ended. That was a story and a half in how it ended and how close he came to the possibilty of it never being uncovered.. it was sort of a bit like that aussie series underbelly. Underbelly was about kings cross,the criminal underworld and police corruption during the late 1980's early 1990's. The book the gambling man had all that,bit with so so much more. The gambling man would have made a fantastic tv series. Maybe they didn' make it because they were afraid of all the litigation the the author had to go through.

actually didn't mean to post anything . Thought i was goggling the book ,the gambling man. I once had it but lost it somewhere in my travels. Its a wonder its was never made into an aussie tv series. It was a great read. gammalites post made me think of that book the gambling man,all about a period of time in australia involving the likes of the fine cotton scandel and a top aussie bank executive and all the other goings on around life and gambling at the time.g some big aussie bank persoexecuui sthe a.

yes,seems a positive move i suppose,but only on a small scale due to how they have limited it.Doesn't sound like it will help brodie much as he's said he prefers to do place bets Also, it only applies to friday night harness meetings,so i think people who post on bit of a yarn don't spend much on those nights anyway, as you have auckland meetings with the small fields which are a big turn off to punters and even addington has a lot of races which aren't attractive to the punter these days. i find it interesting they also have limited the increase for nz gallops to saturdays. That means if you follow the south island gallops,you wo'nt get that many opportunities either.

The people you appear to like calling the entain nah sayers,are the ones who have consistently said entains going to focus on increasing their profits from sports betting and to do that, obviously it should go without saying ,they would have to grow the revenue. so what you posted really does nothing whatsoever to discredit anything anyone has said about entains intentions or performance. In fact the contary is more applicable.. also,whats the breakdown % for sports and racing. And when it comes to harness racing,they have held many more meetinghs. Thats an obvious factor if their % went up.. and another obvious factor. We know betting agencies revenue is impacted negatively or positively,depending on whether favorites are winning any sporting contest. Just as their racing revenue can be effected by the same thing.i.e. more favorites winning or losing in say the nba ,nrl.anything with an n in it,means more or less revenue. And of course it depends what happened the year before,when you compare a year with the previous. anyways, i think it really would need further analysis as to the actual impact on nz harness racing,which is what we comment on when it comes to entain.

better tell him to stop gatecrashing nz rugby board meetings. Cheeky bugga.

actually just reading that bit again. i don't make stuff up as i never said he isn't a crusaders man to the core.He and his board at canterbury rugby stuck with rob penny,becuase,thats just the make up and thinking of canterbury rugby people. You don't throw a loyal servant of canterbury rugby to the wolves when the going gets tough..thats why they win so much.I liked that and hoped that would come through with his decision making when it came to canterbury harness racing,which is the heartbeat of the nz racing industry. But it hasn't and i don't think he really is in touch with the thinking of the people the industry is losing in canterbury. you have to judge people by their actions,not their words..Rugby and racing are two different industries.

your inferring i said something i didn't again. i never referred to the crusaders franchise. i was talking about the general population of christchurch and one eyedness. Theres no way the general population of canterbury is as one eyed as it used to be. Sure there will be pockets of it,but no way its as prevelant as it used to be. All i did was explain the reason for that was because so many people from other areas now lived there and the make up of the popiulation had changed due to immigration as well as migration within nz. all you haver to do is walk around some areas of christchurch. Where we currently live,the closest 10 houses would have no maoris,3 houses of white people,4 of indians,1 of filipinos and one of a middle eastern country that i cant quite work out what it is they are saying. the previous place we lived,surrounded by asians.,mostly chinese. the indians mostly rent like us. Some of the people who own their homes are quite rich going by what they have. If you think these people who come to canterbury in the last 10 years are 1 eyed cantabrians,your kidding yourself. Now i don't care either way what colour people are,but i can make an obvious observation. also i can tell you,not 1 says hullo if you walk past them.white or brown.Most never open there windows.Thats canterbury for you these days.

yes,i was watching a rugby show just yesterday and jeff wilson mentioned all 5 super rugby franchises have lost a lot of money,one over a $ million in the last year. people in canterbury are nothing like they used to be when it comes to the one eyed mindset. the population has been diluted by too many jaffas coming down to canterbury and buying the cheaper housing. It certainly wouldn't be for the warmer weather. Lots of people who talk in languages i don't understand. They say selwyn is nz's fastest growing area. I just can't understand that myself. The weather is worse than invercargill in some of the populated parts of selwyn. We currently rent a house in rolleston and that house sold for $416,000 in 2020,now 5 years later its on the market for over $700,000. We are surrounded by houses with indians,middle eastern people in them.If i go for a walk the most notable thing is theirs no maoris here,the tradesmen ,and theres lots are 75% white and about 15% filipino. The people you past in the steets or see in their houses,more indians than any other group. i was brought up in the days of one eyed cantabrians. If you lived in parts of canterbury,but not central canterbury you were not considered a true camtabrian and you were always gettingb stick and giving it back,because iof that. i rmember the gold old days of when canterbury had the ranfulry shield. i fmember ,i think when raidio stations useed to all be local and broadcast the local rep games and provincial games live,no matter what dfay or time it was. i still rmember listening to the likes of ken andeson commentatries on the canterbury games. I remember driving to the addington races one day,listening to the radio and ken anderson describing the shield match. I still rmember his words. he described a try canterbury scored. how gloomy it was,players covered in mud and then out of the gloom victor simpson was given the ball,simpson side stepped one way,then the other,yet all the oppostion could see through the gloom was a pair of eyes wide open darting one way then the next in front of them,they never had a chance,.it was no wonder simpson....anyway you get the picture. Of course he was playing on simpson also being a maori. ken anderson was a great rugby commentator .Everyone used to mimic him.But thats when cantabrians were one eyed,fair,but very tough. If you were from canterbury,you were one of us,if not you weren't. Those one eyed days will never return to the good old days..

i think australia is just going through a patch where they have the better horses. I don't think its any different to the past. I don't agree with you there. the likes of gammalite/popular alm ,lightning blue /steel jaw/etc,etc so many aussie horses over the years who came to the nz cup and interdominions ,they have been doing it for decdaes and decades. Its not a new thing.

so your saying grass roots particpants can no longer compete anywhere,even though if you go back 20 years,grass roots people had no trouble competing for the previous 100 years or so. actually ,i would partly agree with that. i talk about mindset as being a significant factor in peoples participation. Well part of the reason grass track meetings still have good numbers,is because the small time trainers who go there don't fear having to run against horses who they think are both superior and on legal performance enhancers.You mention the likes of the dunns,hopes,williamsons being too good at the grass tracks. The trainers you mention who attend the grass track meetings are repected,both for their horses but also their attitude to fair play,

our definitions of success are different.. i'm looking at the slot races and saying,do they do anything to increase numbers being bred,number of participants,number of owners,punter participation,those type of things. I would say the answer is a definite no as all the things. the rate of decline for all those indicators is still picking up speed. If i was to look at the slot races and say,do they give the harness media something to focus on and does it get some positive publicity for a couple of days racing,then yes it does. But do not underestimate the message hrnz sent to the bottom end of participants in harness racing when hrnz chose to fund the slot races. HRNZ promised the slot races would not be funded by them. Why was that.Well i had thought it was pretty clear why. Because those on the bottom rungs would view it as yet another example of exactly who hrnz view as their priorities. I.e. the elite,the wealthy,the high achievers.. Just look at the statements hrnz made about why they funded them. As predicted when they first came about,you watch,this will become an examp[le of where hrnz priorities lay. I predicted it,because HRNZ are predictable. People need to understand the mindset of the people whose participation ijn the sport has been hanging by a thread. HRNZ cleary don't understand that mindset,or more obviously,don't actually care.They want those people to participate on hrnz's terms and people are reluctantly walking away. Its getting very dire for the industry.. Numbers being bred is a very dire situation.

dare i say it,thats was never the area which made harness racing in new zealand strong It is however,the type of thinking which we currently see at hrnz,and look at the results they are getting. HRNZ are failing.and harness racing in nz is in accelerated decline.. it should be a given, that the strength of any sport,is in the numbers at a base level. (participant numbers as well as followers of the sport numbers.) look at what sports like rugby do. Give them a choice of more grass roots participantion or a small number more at the elite level and they will categorically tell you the grass roots is of greater importance.thats what they have said. the strange thing is ,isn't the chair of the hrnz board also on the nz rugby board. Why doesn't someone ask him,why is the hrnz board perceived by so many as prioritising the elite and the wealthy in nz harness racing,yet your on a rugby board which is perceived as recognising the opposite end of the spectrum as of more importance. Personally i think the formula for what hrnz needed was staring everyone in the face, The focus and priorities should always have been on the retention of the people the industry already had. But they didn't . instead more have left than should have.An area especially significant,has been the decline in the base of small time breeders.