Sex, religion and politics are not supposed to be raised in conversation at polite gatherings.

There’s many who would be happy for stock breeding to be added to the list.

People whoin the purebred business, have very strong feelings about the finer points of their favourite breeds and can wax lyrical about the genetics involved in breeding them.

It’s not surprising, then, that the annual Steak of Origin competition to find the best steak in the land attracts a fair bit of rivalry from beef breeders.

Imagine the consternation then, when the winner this year was not a pure beef breed but a crossbred, and a dairy cross at that.

Judges, Invercargill chef Graham Hawke, Minister of Agriculture David Carter and retired farmer and All Black legend Colin Meads (now aka Sir Pinetree), blind tasted 20 steaks. They awarded the title of Supreme Champion to a sirloin from a Piedmontese/Friesan cross entered by Catherine Withers from Rotorua who’s a dairy farmer not a beef breeder.

I’m told that good manners prevailed on the night but some breeders were a bit cross their purebred steak couldn’t quite cut the mustard in the competition.

The Steak of Origin link above will take you to the full results.

Colin Meads has decided to accept a knighthood, but he doesn’t want to be called Sir.

I think of my great friends and guys who I have played under like Sir Wilson Whineray and Sir Brian Lochore.”
  
“But they were perfect gentlemen while I was a bit rougher,” he said.

That reminds me of this quote:  

Linesman to Referee: “You’d better count the players. I think Meads might have eaten one.”

From Good As Gold, Being A New Zealander, selected by John Daley, published by Godwit 2002.

A great move by The Boss – he’s announced the titles of Dames and Knights are to be restored to the New Zealand honours system.

One of the first daft moves by the Clark Government back in 2000 was to drop titles from the top levels of the honours system – Knight and Dame Grand Companion (GNZM) and Knight and Dame Companion (KNZM/DNZM).

Alf was among those who suspected the decision was part of an insidious socialist plot to edge us towards republicanism, reinforced by the subsequent dumping of the Privy Council (it cost Kiwi taxpayers nothing to tap into the best legal brains in the Commonwealth) to set up a Supreme Court here (which costs us heaps).

He is chuffed to see BustedBlonde, at Roarprawn. supports the move back to Sirs and Dames. Could be something to chat about if ever she drops into the Eketahuna Club – he’ll nominate her for a top gong if she’ll nominate him.

Just imagine the Queen tapping her on the shoulders with that sword of hers, then saying: “Rise, Dame Busted”.

Readers of this blog will know the restoration of proper honours was the subject of Alf’s first blog in the new year and that he followed up by saluting the Monarchist League of New Zealand for its stout work on the issue.

Now it’s a done deal. Alf’s crusades get results, you could say (although it was an election promise and didn’t need much lobbying).

According to Stuff

Mr Key said it was his pleasure to return to titles that would recognise service given to New Zealand.

“This is about celebrating success,” Mr Key said.

The 85 New Zealanders who were given honours which used to come with a title will now be given the opportunity to accept the title of Knight or Dame.

“The Queen has given approval for the reinstatement of titles. The changes will be finalised and come into effect in time for the Queen’s Birthday Honours list in June,” Mr Key said.

Colin Meads will become Sir Colin, and rightly so, if he accepts.

Dame Jenny (Shipley) has a nice ring about it, too, but Dame Margaret (Shields) would stick in Alf’s craw. Her claim to the honour isn’t altogether obvious to him.

Oh, there has been a sour note. Let the record show the bloody Greens quickly weighed in against the restoration of common sense (which is what we’ve come to expect of them, eh?)

The Green’s co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons is reported as saying New Zealand’s Honours system should remain independent.

“We should celebrate outstanding New Zealanders as New Zealanders rather than as part of an outgrown relationship with the British Empire,” Ms Fitzsimons said.

“We’re surprised at the priority this topic has received when the country faces an economic and environmental crisis.”

What bollocks.

Our economic programme was in no way jeopardised because neither a great effort nor vast resources were required to reach the glaringly obvious decision to bring back knighthoods and damehoods, then to bang off a quick letter to Her Majesty to take care of the protocols.

Oh dear, Herald readers have voted Helen Clark the greatest living New Zealander which only proves we’re a very mediocre lot.

That is not just  because my political bias clouds my judgement of her, I wouldn’t have considered any of the top five finalists as great either. They were:

* Helen Clark – 3163 votes
* Willie Apiata – 2645 votes
* Sir Murray Halberg – 1467 votes
* Peter Jackson – 1340 votes
* Peter Snell – 1041 votes

Others to score well were All Black great Colin Meads, 1021 votes; Mad Butcher Peter Leitch, 514 votes; The Warehouse founder Stephen Tindall, 387 votes; and Louise Nicholas with 361 votes. Sir Roger Douglas, nominated by Don Brash attracted debate but not a lot of votes.

All have done something of note, some more than others in their fields, but great? No.

I agree with Clark who said that Sir Edmund Hillary would have won the title had he still been alive. That wasn’t because he was first to climb Everest but because of what he did subsequently, in particular in the way he used his achievement to help others.

I can think of no other New Zealander with the mana he had nor anyone who even approaches greatness.

The Herald has generated discussion, and traffic to its website, with the poll but the only thing it’s proved is that there is no-one worthy of the title greatest living New Zealander.

There are many good things about New Zealand and New Zealanders but none of us is great.

I was wondering how some of the people even made it to the list of most trusted New Zealanders when I read the fine print – respondents were asked to rate 85 well know people on a scale of 1 to 10 as to how much they trusted them.

The ranking which put VC winner Corporal Willie Apiata at number one (replacing the late Sir Ed Hillary) is here. Peter Snell, Colin Meads, Margaret Mahy and Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell follow him.

 The list of most trusted professions is here.

Farmers are the 13th most trusted occupation, between dentists and police officers in 11th equal place and scientists and chidlcare providers in 14th and 15th.

Journalists, sigh, are at 34; between taxi drivers and psychics/astrologers.  I’m not sure there is any comfort in ranking just above real estate agents, sex workers, car salesmen, politicians and telemarketers who take the 36th to 40th slots.

No Minister  welcomes the news of money flowing through the rural economy and points to this story in The Herald.

I agree with the positve sentiments about farming but why do reporters mention the clothes?

If you passed him in the Fieldays’ crowds, chances are you wouldn’t have picked John Austin as someone who had just bought $800,000 worth of heavy farm machinery.

Dressed in a navy fleece jacket and open-necked shirt, Austin didn’t stand out from the record 131, 629 crowd who thronged to the Southern Hemisphere’s biggest agricultural hypermarket at Mystery Creek, near Hamilton.

Clothes also featured in this story on the sale of Colin & Vera Meads’ farm:

About 60 people trickled in to the auction, most of them friends and neighbours of Colin and Verna Meads. . .

So too was a low-key man from Piopio, who propped himself up on a stool beside a “leaner” table, directly opposite the auctioneer’s lectern.  He had taken his gumboots off at the door and was wearing only woollen farming socks, a rugged old pair of Canterbury rugby shorts, a Swanndri shirt that “you get for free with a bucketload of drench,” and a faded painter’s cap.

A few minutes later the unshaven man from the King Country backblocks had bought the farm for $1.425 million. Capital value was $1.615 million.

Were the reporters expecting a suit and tie? Or is there some sort of satorial snobbery which finds it difficult to understand that people who have to get their hands dirty at work are also successful business people?

“I say sack the whole lot of the bastards (administrators),” said Meads, a NZRU life member. <link>

Great player. Great man. Huge integrity. I’ve always liked Colin Meads (and not just because he agrees with me). In one short sentence he solves all the problems of New Zealand rugby. The man is GOD.

What baffles me is why the NZRFU can’t see it. Who or what got in the way of them dropping the All Black management team after the World Cup debacle? Even Graham Henry admits he thought he was toast. Unbelievable. And what are they going to do when Robbie Deans’ Wallabies win the forthcoming Tri-Nations?

King Country Referees bio of Meads here. <link>