Thesis (PhD--Māori Studies)--University of Auckland, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Various writers, for example Rudolf Bahro and Arne Naess, have for a long time associated Green politics with an impulse toward deepening democracy. Robert Goodin has further suggested that decentralisation of political authority is an inherent characteristic of Green politics. More recently in New Zealand, speculation has been raised by Stephen Rainbow as to the consequences of the direct democratic impulse for existing representative institutions. This research addresses that question. Examination of the early phase of Green political parties in New Zealand has found that the Values Party advocated institutional restructuring oriented toward decentralisation of political authority in order to enable a degree of local autonomy, and particpatory democracy. As time has gone on the Values Party disappeared and with it went the decentralist impulse, this aspect of Green politics being conspicuously absent in the policy of Green Party Aotearoa/New Zealand, the successor to the Values Party. Since this feature was regarded as synonymous with Green politics, a certain re-definition of Green politics as practised by Green political parties is evident. This point does not exhaust the contribution Green politics makes to democracy however, and the methodology used in this research, critical discourse analysis (CDA), allows an insight into what Douglas Torgerson regards as the benefits in resisting the antipolitical tendency of modernity, of politics for its own sake. This focusses attention on stimulating public debate on fundamental issues, in terms of an ideology sufficiently at variance with that prevalent such that it threatens to disrupt the hegemonic dominance of the latter, thereby contributing to what Ralf Dahrendorf describes as a robust democracy. In this regard Green ideology has much to contribute, but this aspect is threatened by the ambition within the Green Party in New Zealand toward involvement in coalition government. The final conclusion is that the Green Party in New Zealand has followed the trend of those overseas and since 1990 has moved ever closer to a commitment to the institutions of centralised, representative, liberal democracy and this, if taken too far, threatens their ideological integrity.

The thesis seeks to reveal, through the use of numerous case studies, the timekeeping processes that helped to make New Zealand. Whilst the period under review covers primarily the period 1840 to 1868 there is also a discussion of the emergence of clock time in thirteenth century Britain and Europe and its development through to the late nineteenth century. This is because the settlers‟ apprehension of time and their use of clocks and watches had evolved over the preceding centuries. The importance of reliable time was recognised by the Church from the medieval period but as ownership of public and private clocks proliferated the decentralisation of clock time commenced. Clock time commanded the lives of people and imprinted itself through the inculcation of such notions as punctuality and productivity. Better clocks brought a new emphasis to workplace efficiency underpinning the belief that time was money and facilitated the efficient coordination of Land, Labour and Capital. The discovery of New Zealand required timekeeping at sea. The achievements of James Cook, underpinned by improved chronometers, facilitated the large-scale British colonisation of New Zealand and seldom brought respite from the rule of time. Once on land, the settlers looked to establish a temporal order similar to Britain. The challenge to establish and disseminate the „true‟ local time within communities led to the setting up of observatories and the use of public clocks, time ball stations, bells and guns to signal clock time. The myriad of local times was not a problem at first but once the telegraph began to link communities they hindered its optimal efficiency. This led to the introduction of „telegraph time‟ in early 1868, dual time systems in communities using the telegraph, and public debate. Whilst most provinces accepted the new clock time, Otago saw it as an affront to their community‟s autonomy and identity. The province challenged the imposition of telegraph time, instigated a Parliamentary debate, and argued for the introduction of a common New Zealand time. Parliament‟s 1868 decision was a triumph for convenience and economic rationality over tradition and local identity. New Zealand was the first country entirely to abandon local times and regulate its time in relation to Greenwich mean time.

Aspects of customary land tenure may survive even where formal rules in a society supersede custom. This thesis is about persisting custom for Maori Freehold land (MFL) in New Zealand, and the Communal Areas (CAs) of Zimbabwe. Three questions are addressed: what unwritten land tenure custom still persists for Ngai Tahu, Shona and Ndebele, what key historical processes and events in New Zealand and Zimbabwe shaped the relationship between people and land into the form it displays today, and how do we explain differences between surviving customary tenure practices in the two countries? The research was based on in-depth interviews. A key difference between the two countries was found to lie in the type and degree of security available over the years to Maori and Shona/Ndebele. Roots of security were found in the substance of the founding treaties and concessions, and thereafter in a variety of other factors including the help (or lack of it) offered by the law in redressing grievances, the level of intermarriage between settler and autochthon, the differing security of land rights offered in urban centres in the respective countries, demographic factors and the availability of state benefits. This research finds that greater security was offered to Maori than to Shona and Ndebele, and that this has reduced the centrality of customary practices with regard to land. The research found that, in Zimbabwe, tenure security in the CAs is still underwritten by communities and that significant investment is still made in both living and dead members of those communities. Another finding is that land custom has adapted dynamically to meet new challenges, such as urban land and CA land sales. In New Zealand, investment in groups that jointly hold rights in MFL has, to some extent been eclipsed by the payment of rates and the availability of services (e.g. state-maintained boundary records and law enforcement mechanisms) and of benefits (e.g. superannuation, disability and unemployment). Land and community are not as closely linked to survival as they were in the past and, for many, they have come to hold largely symbolic value and less practical significance. Overall, it is the pursuit of security and �belonging� that have been the greatest influences on customary land tenure practices in the long term.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Waikato, 2008. / Title from PDF cover (viewed April 7, 2009) Includes bibliographical references (p. 281-296)

Thesis (Master of Arts)--University of Canterbury, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 356-369). Also available via the World Wide Web.

No description available.

“Are South African Buildings as Safe as New Zealand Buildings?” A person going into or using a building anywhere in the world has certain expectations as to the perceived and acceptable level of risk to life safety. There are also societal expectations and acceptability levels which are perhaps not explicitly stated. Building legislation in both New Zealand and South Africa appear to have similar goals, yet when applying the relative prescriptive document to a similar building in each country the perception is that one country has a higher level of safety over the other. Having worked for a number of years under both sets of building design regimes, the author was of the opinion that aspects of one prescriptive document has more stringent requirements than the other and that buildings in the one country thus had a higher apparent level of life safety than the other. The question was asked: How much difference is there in (fire) life safety for an occupant of a building in New Zealand compared to a building in South Africa? Is a similar building designed to a higher standard in one country as opposed to the other? To test the author‟s hypothesis in a measured way a scoring system was required to quantify the relative level of safety. The comparison is carried out using the Fire Safety Index scoring system developed by McGhie. A spreadsheet analysis is carried out for similar building types (Building Use, Height, Fire Load and Number of Occupants) complying with each country‟s relevant acceptable solution or deemed-to-satisfy document using McGhie‟s weighted risk ranking model. Buildings are assessed across four Building Use Parameters (Purpose Group, Escape Height, Occupant Numbers and Fire Hazard Category). As the buildings assessed are very similar, the Building Use Scores are virtually identical; with some variations, for example, when occupant numbers are capped because of limitations on fire cell floor areas. The Fire Safety Features Score for each building is then assessed for the minimum requirements of the prescriptive documents across eight main category headings (Fire Barriers, Fire Alarm, Smoke Control, Building Fire Control, Emergency Power Supply, Communication System, Fire Service and Means of Escape) and a number of sub-categories. Once the attribute score is assigned and the ii weighting applied the total score is summed and a numerical rating score is achieved for each building out of a possible maximum score of 5. As approximately 63% of commercial buildings (in NZ) are single storey and a further 28% are two-storey‟s high, the discussion of the differences in score between the two sets of buildings will primarily focus on one and two storey buildings, and the scoring is weighted to account for the relative building stock, with averaging used for the various occupant loads. The results show that for equivalent Working Purpose groups (WL), Mercantile Occupancies (CM) and Residential Occupancies (SR) the South African buildings are safer than the New Zealand buildings. Occupancies which are Crowd Activities (CL) and Sleeping Accommodation (SA) are safer in New Zealand than in South Africa. The Working Moderate fire load (WM) occupancy is rated equal for both countries.

The Lake Clearwater catchment, in the Canterbury high country of New Zealand, has a native ecosystem that is adapted to low nutrient conditions. Wetlands in the catchment are identified by the Department of Conservation’s Arawai Kākāriki Wetland Restoration Programme as one of three important endemic wetland types in New Zealand. Uncertainty regarding diffuse nutrient load from agriculture into the lake and wetland ecosystems is limiting effective management of the catchment. This study investigated hydrological processes and nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations to improve knowledge of the sources, characteristics and magnitude of nutrient loading from agricultural land use in this 46 km2 high country catchment. Relevant hydrological data and literature pertaining to the catchment was extensively reviewed. In addition, flow for five key surface waterways was continuously logged at ten sites for 2 years. Concurrently, nutrient concentrations for total nitrogen, nitrate, ammoniacal nitrogen, total phosphorus and dissolved reactive phosphorus were measured at ten surface water sites and three groundwater sites. Total nitrogen and phosphorus load from farmland was calculated from annual flow and median concentrations for four waterways: farmland perennial stream runoff, farmland ephemeral stream runoff, a wetland channel below the farmed hillslope and the lake outlet. Similarly, total nitrogen and phosphorus load for unfarmed land was calculated from the flow and median concentration of two un-impacted perennial streams. Total nitrogen and phosphorus mass balances were calculated and used to estimate subsurface nutrient load and runoff volume from the farmed hillslope. Estimates of subsurface runoff were also made using Darcy’s equation and a water balance. Nutrient load predictions from the Catchment Land Use for Environmental Sustainability (CLUES) model were compared to measured loads. Nutrients were found to be elevated downstream of farmland, especially nitrogen, which was often above relevant guidelines and typical concentrations in upland waterways in Canterbury. Nitrate in farmland subsurface runoff was elevated and was estimated to contribute 52% of total nitrogen yield from farmland. Total nitrogen yield (1.96-2.94 kg ha-1 year-1) for farmed land was comparable to minimum values for pastoral land use in literature but total phosphorus yield (0.093-0.123 kg ha-1 year-1) was well below published values. The range in yield estimates is due to subtraction of a high and a low estimate of natural baseline yield from the measured in-stream yield. Total nitrogen export from the lake (2518 kg year-1) was greater than estimated input (1375 kg year-1) from farmed and non-farmed land indicating an additional source of nitrogen into Lake Clearwater. Total phosphorus export from Lake Clearwater of 58 kg year-1 was 24% less than total estimated loads into the lake (76 kg year-1) from farmed and non-farmed land. Phosphorus was not often above relevant guidelines and the median total nitrogen to total phosphorus ratio in Lake Clearwater (49:1) indicated phosphorus is the limiting nutrient in the lake. Because phosphorus was less elevated relative to nitrogen, an increase in phosphorus inputs could have a greater effect on productivity in the wetland and lake. With corrected land use information, total nitrogen loads predicted by the CLUES model were reasonable but total phosphorus loads were greatly overestimated. Investigation into potential impacts of the elevated nutrient loads described in this study on receiving native ecosystems is recommended to inform conservation efforts.

The New Zealand forest industry produces a diverse range of log grades and sorts to meet domestic and export market demands and to maximise returns to the forest grower. An implication for the supply chain is the number of log grades and sorts a harvesting operation is expected to produce from one species, radiata pine (Pinus radiata). The number of log grades and sorts can impact on landing size and layout requirements, value recovery, log-making complexity, machine utilisation and quality control requirements. A study was conducted to investigate if the number of log sorts affects mechanised log processing productivity and value recovery. This would determine if any gross value gains derived from producing a higher number of sorts are offset by losses in log processing productivity. Two landing-based mechanised log processors at cable yarder harvesting operations were studied using different cutting scenarios producing five, nine, twelve and fifteen log sorts. The study collected data from over 26 hours of mechanised processing which included the processing of 578 stems at an average piece size of approximately 1.6 m³. Machine utilisation results showed processors spending 84% of total time on productive tasks and that 49% of total time was spent on the primary productive tasks of log processing. Quadratic regressions were used to model log processing productivity trends which showed piece size and cutting scenario as significant predictor variables (p-value <0.01). There was a significant difference between cutting scenario with five log sorts and the cutting scenarios with twelve and fifteen log sorts (p-values <0.05), as well as a significant difference between the nine and fifteen log sort cutting scenarios (p-value <0.01). There was not enough evidence to suggest productivity was different between cutting scenarios producing five and nine log sorts. Based on this analysis, it was likely that the null hypothesis that the number of log sorts does not affect log processing productivity should be rejected. At a piece size of 2 m³, the productivity model estimated processing productivity was 10% higher producing nine log sorts compared to producing fifteen log sorts. A linear regression model showed a strong relationship between gross value recovery, piece size and cutting scenario (p-value <0.01). Gross value recovery increased as the number of log sorts increased. A significant model suggested it is likely null hypothesis 2, that the number of log sorts does not affect gross value recovery, should be rejected. There were only some differences in variances between cutting scenarios which were statistically significant. Both the average results and regression estimates showed the five log sort cutting scenario recovering 94% of the value of the cutting scenario with fifteen log sorts. Incremental gains in value recovery as the number of log sorts increased were marginal, which appeared to be due to log prices for many major log grades trading in a close range in relation to historic price trends. Regression trends for productivity and gross value recovery indicated that the most optimal cutting scenario, in terms of processing value outturn per productive machine hour, was the cutting scenario producing nine log sorts. This suggests that declines in processor productivity offset gains in gross value recovery when producing twelve and fifteen log sorts. Market sensitivity analysis suggested that differentials in log prices impact on the number of log sorts which optimise the value outturn per productive machine hour from log processing.