28 August 2023 Vol 45 No 8
Membership and New Club Development Month
President Bryan Haggitt
To Members and friends of Remuera Rotary:
This long awaited presentation on the Light Rail Project came from their Design Engineer Alan Peddle and PR Officer Darryl McIntosh. Very interesting - Alan gave a very detailed description of the Project and explained that, down Dominion Road, the line will run in a tunnel, something not many of us were aware of. It is intended to form a central North/South spine linking the City Centre with Auckland Airport though, not necessarily, being a specific commuter link to the Airport.
Alan, in the face of being reminded of the political uncertainty of the Project, answered a good many questions at length and the Meeting extended well over time. The Project seems to have morphed from what one originally envisaged being a collection of tram like wagons ambling down Dominion Road to a serious, high grade, underground line to which future East/West links could be added. The cost, even of the original, mind boggling!
On a personal basis, I can say that when I was transferred out of Auckland by NZI back in 1964, the Mayor, DM Robinson was not highly regarded by the business and professional fraternity. I returned on leave 11 years later - "Robbie" was now highly regarded by his former denigrators and, in the years hence, many who would consider themselves "City Fathers" rue the day that his vision of an underground city rail link was not undertaken at the time. "Robbie, when I joined Remuera Rotary 36 years ago, was an Honorary Member of this Club - he attended a number of our meetings which were then at the CT Club. Auckland certainly needs to solve it's traffic/transport problems but one is still left wondering if this Light Rail Project is the right answer.
Bryan
Iain Valentine introduced & thanked
Alan Peddle & Darryl McIntosh
Please check Upcoming Events at left &
Maui fundraising below
Climate change, aka the end is nigh! Part 1
The Arctic Ocean is warming up, icebergs are growing scarcer and in some places the seals are finding the water too hot according to a report to the Commerce Department yesterday from Consulate at Bergen Norway.
Reports from fishermen, seal hunters and explorers all point to a radical change in climate conditions and hitherto unheard-of temperatures in the Arctic zone.
Exploration expeditions report that scarcely any ice has been met as far north as 81 degrees 29 minutes. Soundings to a depth of 3,100 meters showed the gulf stream still very warm.
Great masses of ice have been replaced by moraines of earth and stones, the report continued, while at many points well known glaciers have entirely disappeared.
Very few seals and no white fish are found in the eastern Arctic, while vast shoals of herring and smelts which have never before ventured so far north, are being encountered in the old seal fishing grounds.
Within a few years it is predicted that due to the ice melt the sea will rise and make most coast cities uninhabitable.
