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OPINION: While most of the country is still lamenting the All Blacks one point loss to the South Africans in the Rugby World Cup final, the Hound – always on the outlook for a cloud with silver lining – found one bright spot on the sporting front.
Just 24 hours before the ABs heart-breaking loss, New Zealand regained the coveted Wayleggo Cup in the hotly contested Trans-Tasman Sheep Dog Trial Test Series held, late last month, in Ashburton.
The event saw the country’s four most talented sheepdogs taking on their Australian counterparts vying for supremacy.
The Kiwis dominated, winning by 84.25 points across the two tests.
NZ has now won 22 of the 36 matches since the competition’s inception in 1985, which is far superior to the Springboks’ four RWC victories (as opposed to NZ’s three) since the William Web Ellis Cup came into existence in 1987.
OPINION: Your old mate reckons townie Brooke van Velden, the Minister of Workplace (or is it Woke Place) Relations is now showing how underemployed she is as a minister by initiating an investigation into whether young children should be banned from collecting eggs on farms and feeding animals.
OPINION: There's an infamous term coined by a US general during the Vietnam war, specifically in reference to the battle of Ben Tre: "We had to burn the village to save it."
OPINION: The sudden departure of Jim Ward, manager of Molesworth Station for 24 years, highlighted some major dysfunction in the way conservation estate is managed in this country - the biggest problem, as the Hound sees it, being idealogues who harp on about "taonga" and use all means possible to block sensible commercial operations on conservation land.
OPINION: While the destruction of NZ's oil and gas industry by Jacinda Ardern's band of merry vandals was virtue signalling on a heroic scale - producing no environmental benefit whatsoever - the politician vowing to make that industry whole again, Shane Jones, is not above a bit of virtue signalling of his own.
OPINION: Your old mate's ear has been chewed off recently by farmers voicing their displeasure with the National Party, particularly relating to how they're treating their farmer base.
The Government has struck a deal with New Zealand's poultry industry, agreeing how they will jointly prepare for and respond to exotic poultry diseases, including any possible outbreak of high pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAI).
The conversion of productive farmland into trees has pretty much annihilated the wool industry.
OPINION: Productive whole farmlands conversions into forestry are becoming a thorny issue for the Government.
Thus far in 2025, the Hawke's Bay rescue helicopter crew have completed over 220 missions, resulting in numerous positive patient outcomes.
The New Zealand Food Network's (NZFN) fifth birthday celebrations have been boosted by a whopping five tonne meat donation from meat processor ANZCO.
Pukekohe vegetable growers farewelled 101-year-old Alan Wilcox in late July, celebrating his many achievements and reflecting the widespread respect in which he was held.
