A small crew, but what they lacked in quantity they made up in quality! President Phil, Wendy, the Davids. the Dons, Jim, Malcolm, Colin, Ted, Stephen, apologies to the member whose name YHC didn't note and Your's truly. 

 

Absent were the speakers! There was a certain amount of scurrying about on how to deal with this but all will be revealed below.

 

Were received from: Ingrid, Henry, Avis, Rory, Colleen and Phillippa.

 

Don C has done a great job lining up corporate sponsors for RYLA. So far Beca, Heartland, Restaurant Brands and Westpac are on board. There are, currently, 16-17 candidates for the early July course.

Ted commented on the forthcoming speakers - he and Phillippa have done well.

 

David deservedly collects a lot for the charities we support. He must spend hours scouring his library or the 'net for all the quotes he uses! One interesting fine was for those with coastal properties potentially affected by rising sea levels - four members paid up! 

 

Stephen has bought a tank! Not a water tank a real, honest to goodness war machine. He had to have gun licence to take delivery.  Unfortunately he hasn't any ammunition so the rabbits of Helensville are safe! It's a Centurion, one of 3,000 built between 1944 and about 1960, many going to Israel and proving their worth in the 1966 war.Stephen's machine was on active duty in Vietnam. It's not available for jaunts around the countryside as its tracks chew up the road and it only goes 150 metres to the litre! Cool, eh?

 

Actually the real topic of Stephen's three minute speech was forestry; mainly the advantages of growing poplars. Trees give two cash flows, carbon capture and, eventually, timber. On steep land they also have the advantage of holding it against slips in heavy rain. Stephen was very critical of the wok of Wellington who want to plant native trees. These trees and shrubs grow slowly, they absorb very little carbon in relation to exotics  and have little to no commercial value. However, they are indigenous so that give them brownie points (are you allowed to use that expression these days?) to the taxpayer employed wok. 

 

Stephen's  two topics, tanks and trees, easily replaced the two speakers. It was an entertaining and informative speaker.

PS: Just for Barry - he did exceed three minutes!