Well there is quite a lot that can be done in July…so wrap up and get rid of cabin fever, winter blues or whatever you may be suffering from.

Start pruning your roses. Begin with climbers then standards and then bush. If you are not sure where too start come into the garden centre and I will talk you through it. If any of your roses have very little new growth or not much top at all, you would be better to dig it out, remove the old soil and plant a newer variety, which will be more vigorous and give you more flowers. Why spend time on a plant that is not going to reward you with flowers.

On Wednesday, eight central North Island tribes will take control of 170,000 hectares of forests in the Kaingaroa region in the country’s biggest Treaty of Waitangi settlement to date. The total cost of the claim is over $400 million of taxpayers’ money.

Maori grievances over Treaty settlements date back to 1840. In his iconic booklet The Treaty of Waitangi, written to educate the public about the Treaty, Sir Apirana Ngata explains that under Article One of the Treaty, Maori Chiefs "do absolutely cede to the Queen of England forever the Government of their lands". Under Article Two, “the Queen of England confirms and guarantees to the Chiefs and Tribes and to all the people of New Zealand the full possession of their lands, their homes and all their possessions”. And, under Article Three, “Maori and Pakeha are equal before the Law, that is, they are to share the rights and privileges of British subjects”. In other words, the Treaty gave New Zealand a Sovereign Queen, it created private property rights, and it established equality under the law - no more and no less.

The financial redress includes a cash settlement of $25.025 million, along with an additional contribution of $4.859 million to cover the costs associated with the claims process.

Over the years, many of the Treaty related transactions between Maori and the Crown have been the subject of on-going protest and litigation. The deals were claimed to be unlawful or unfair, and any compensation provided by the government, inadequate. These grievances were often brought by the next generation of claimants, and successive Parliaments have dealt with them.

In their LTCC plan, CHBDC will defer renewal and maintainence work until after 2019. However, after rates have been struck and any of this work becomes urgent, it will be funded from the depreciation of assets process. What happens, if that depreciation finance isn't in a reserve fund when those assets require them ? For example, I believe CHBDC's vehicles have a five year depreciation duration. Depending on when that is, for what they have now, they could require a renewal twice before 2019. Many more plant components will have similar replacement time tables and depreciation. If there is another miscalculation in council's expenditure budget due to some 100 year old use by date,core facilities etc. and they have used up depreciation and reserve funds, with overall debt expected to be $18million plus by 2019, with replacements overdue?

Wrap up warm and enjoy the brisk weather. Unfortunately we still haven’t had much rain. It is still dry at the bottom of the hole if planting a new season rose or a shrub, so you must give them a good soaking after planting.
New season roses are in the garden centre now, so come and have a look as numbers are limited. We have plenty standard Icebergs, as it is still the most planted variety.
If you are replacing a rose you have removed because it didn’t do well, you must replace the soil with new compost or potting mix, as that soil could well be hosting fungi and bacteria that caused the problem.