Sir Robert Edward "Bob" Jones is a property investor, author and former politician in New Zealand.

Bureaucrats wallowing in cultural correctness

For we were then told that under the new Draft Unitary Plan, not yet enacted, our building being within 50 metres of a designated Maori heritage site, we needed RMA approval (for a new shop window, for God's sake), this instantly forthcoming at a cost of $4500 plus the approval of 13 iwi.

The council refused to advise the addresses of these iwi outfits, yet added that without their consent, we can't put back the window.

So the planner located then wrote to the 13 iwi, ranging from Taranaki to Whangarei.

Five replied stating they had no concerns while others said they were considering the matter, presumably calling huis to weigh up this window crisis.

One respondent bearing that fine old Maori name of Jeff Lee, representing something called Ngai Tai Ki Tamaki, contacted the planner.

Look up their website if you have tolerance for Maori "sacred footstep in the earth" guff, although it's 100 per cent on the mark with its proclamation: "Our vision is only limited by our imagination."

I'm sceptical about Mr Lee's vision but have no doubt about his imagination, for after advising the planners verbally that no Cultural Impact Assessment Report was required for the window, he nevertheless asked them to consider it - brace yourselves - given his ancestors, centuries ago, gathered in the vicinity.

Lee then wrote, outlining his terms for "assessing the window's cultural impact" which, he said, would take him "a total of six to eight hours".

For this he sought $90 per hour plus GST and "travel expenses of 0.77c p/km."

At this stage we became involved and told the planners to tell Mr Lee to get stuffed. In the words of my company's manager, a historian knowledgeable in Maori history and who speaks the language: "It's a classic case of bureaucrats worried about cultural correctness without thinking through the consequences."

I more succinctly call it a racket, just as with the Bay of Islands hole in the rock ("our ancestors gathered feathers nearby and Captain Cook looked at it, so give us money").

So too with the gangsterish extortion attempt with the Mighty River float. Evidently, all of these "sacred" sites hypocritically become desanctified by the payment of money.....

Read Bob's full blog - click > HERE

Blatant try-on shows it's time to derail Treaty gravy train

So, the comical Ngaruawahia ex-truck driver who can't speak Maori and struggles with English but calls himself King of Maoridom despite his realm ending at his letterbox has declared Maori own the rain. That's excellent news. I assume His Majesty will accept liability for inflicting millions of dollars of flood damage annually through Maori rain supply mismanagement. He can ponder that when sitting on the only throne he'll ever occupy, namely in his lavatory.

Pulling the royal pretender's strings is his court jester, Underpants Morgan, a man evidently of Welsh ancestry and probably a direct descendent of Cardiff-born Henry Morgan of piracy notoriety. But that was the 17th century. Try this owning-everything-by-right racket in the valleys today, boyo, and you will discover your Welsh kin are not big on humour.

Another blowhard claimed Maori own the wind. He has a point, given the amount they generate at these hooey babblefests.

But be assured, soul-selling barristers, driven by their wallets, will shamelessly go to bat for them, twisting and turning the meanings of an anachronistic 170-year-old vague treaty.....

Continue reading Bob's humorous blog - click > HERE

Forcing te reo on children is a waste

Te reo Maori is not lost thanks to our European colonial ancestors who recorded it in print. But its usage is now redundant and it's ridiculous to try and resurrect it, more so given that the 15 per cent of New Zealanders with Maori ancestry are self-evidently not interested in learning it. It's not part of 85 per cent of New Zealanders' history and to assert that it should be because in this nation of migrants, the first arrivals were Maori is claptrap. On that basis we should equally insist that all of our women disfigure themselves with mokos. If there's to be language compulsion let it be in widening the vocabulary of the now globally accepted international language, namely English, in which our standards are appalling. The average American waiter has a wider vocabulary than the average New Zealand lawyer and Germans speak immensely better English than the average Kiwi.

English is the most mongrel of all languages, deriving from numerous diverse sources, including here with some Maori contributions such as mana. Today the whole world strives to learn it, thus we should be grateful we were born into it and not waste valuable head space and time learning a dead language on utterly bogus grounds....

Read the full blog - click > HERE