Gisborne Tatapouri Sports Fishing Club.
The Gisborne Tatapouri Sports Fishing Club held its 60th annual meeting on Tuesday this week with some 150 members attending, and we saw a changing of the guard.
After 18 years on the committee and 21 years as president, Roger Faber stepped down to enjoy some free time with family and pursue his fishing interests.
In his 39 years of involvement on the committee, Roger has held various roles including club captain, vice president and delegate to the NZ Sports Fishing Council.
On behalf of the club and its members, past, present and future, I would like to thank Roger for his hard work, commitment, dedication and loyalty, also his tireless advocacy for the club, not just at a local level but nationally as well.
This type of dedication and legacy is pretty much unheard of today.
Roger will not be disappearing totally, as he has assured the club that he is still around to help with overseeing the roof replacement of the clubhouse, which is scheduled to take place by the end of next month.
Thanks again, Roger, for this mammoth effort. We wish you and the family all the best for the future, and we know you won’t be a stranger.
At the same meeting, Fred Lewis was returned as the patron, Dean Quinn was elected vice president, Jax Twigley was elected secretary/treasurer, and Craig Sutton returned to the committee.
Along with the existing committee, I wish to welcome them all and look forward to working with them to keep the “Tata” the great club and community hub that it has become.
Dave Mullooly
Gisborne Tatapouri Sports Fishing Club President
Gisborne
I was in Dublin the other day, having a quiet Guinness with my friend in the sun in a pub’s yard overlooking Dublin Bay.
A large group of young people were sitting yards away from us, happily chatting and drinking various beers and cocktails.
The group was very international, with Asians, Africans and Europeans, reflecting the hip international status of the Irish capital, now home to A-grade international companies such as Google, Microsoft and Pfizer.
Ireland is booming and connected. It feels alive, almost unrecognisable from the country I lived in in the 1970s. Then it was inward-looking, economically moribund and exporting its people in droves, like it did in the centuries prior.
And yet, in the poorer parts of Dublin, national flags hang from lamp posts in their dozens, as a sign of protest against immigration. Not everyone feels part of the good economic times and open economy.
That seems to reflect the sentiments echoed by New Zealand First, the government partner that wants to reduce immigration because too high a proportion of NZ residents are not born in this country. A proportion, they imply, is shutting out too many from jobs, houses and opportunities.
Sitting in the Dublin sun with the happy international youngsters, my sentiment is that immigration overall has positive effects for NZ. It balances the loss of people and associated skills, energy and spending of those who are attracted to higher wages and better opportunities in Australia. Without immigration, NZ’s economic prospects are much more dire.
Immigration also adds to local communities, including in Tairāwhiti, being more interesting and inspiring with opportunities for cultural exchange, learning about the world and friendships.
Look around in Gisborne’s workplaces, sports clubs, and hospitality venues and see this positive multiculturalism in action any day of the week.
Embrace it and enjoy it. And when you relax near the sea, and add a pint of Guinness, you could easily dream that you are watching the Bay in Dublin. Or happily decide that our coast is way more beautiful.
Hans van Kregten
Mangapapa, Gisborne