The media in their usual slap-dash manner have all reported Microbiologist Siouxsie Wiles as the New Zealander of the Year.

Well known Wellington identity Chris Gollins is hyper-active and fast building his commercial property business with three provincial offices established in the last year. Thus he’s a regular newspaper advertiser.

Chris is also noted as a wag who enjoys joking.

His company placed the above advertisement with the Dominion-Post to appear amidst his regular adverts.

The recent announcement that the New Zealand birth-rate is below the rate of population maintenance passed with surprising little comment. In our case it’s marginal compared with other nations but the fact remains that our population has been sustained in recent decades through large-scale migration.

I once generously offered well-known Wellington property developer Ian Cassels to have him lashed daily with barb-wire, this solely out of kindness. I did that, assuming he’d like it as it’s a constant source of amazement to me why developers pursue such a masochistic activity.

The above was a heading in last week’s Hutt Valley weekly newspaper, The Hutt News.