I would like to thank those who email me with news and opinions – I did not expect so much correspondence when this column began. This week let us talk about some light-hearted topics and a serious social issue.

Opunake Tui
I have been in Opunake for over a decade and I have never seen a tui in our town. Hence, we have a new expression – “as rare as an Opunake tui” or perhaps “as lonely as an Opunake tui”. Long-time residents tell me that the birds are on some local farms, but not in the town.
I asked Barry Hartley the Taranaki Regional Chairman of the Ornithological Society why we do not have tui. Barry wrote:  “My thoughts would be lack of habitat which in turn means lack of a favoured food resource. The area was surveyed regularly for the Atlas Project but there is little in the way of large bush areas outside of the national park”.  The “Atlas Project” refers to www.nzbirdsonline.org.nz, a fantastic website.
I wonder if the absence of tui has something to do with the absence of green corridors from the mountain down to the sea. John Smith does well with his Opunake Butterfly Club. Perhaps he could also advance the interests of the tui and the bellbird.

Opunake Thrush
Local author, Rolland Mckellar, has a short story entitled “Janet, Jacquie and an Opunake Thrush”. He writes historical fiction. These are stories about actual people and circumstances with fictional dialog. I hope he publishes a book of his stories for they are excellent.
            The stories challenge the reader’s knowledge of history and the people who appear. The Opunake Thrush story is about Janet Frame and Opunake author Jacquie Baxter. They meet in Stratford and visit Opunake.

Stratford
Janet Frame shifted to Stratford from Auckland about 1977. I asked the Stratford Council and the Stratford Library to direct me to the Janet Frame Memorials. There is not one stone to mark the fact that she lived in Miranda Street and Juliet Street. One of the houses still stands. Evidently, Janet purchased the Miranda Street property for $12,500 (Rolland’s research).
Wander around the south of Scotland you will have notice all the mentions of Robbie Burns. This is the pub where he drank, he had a girlfriend who lived in this house and another in the house in the next village, this hill inspired a particular poem, and he rested under this tree. Burns statues and fountains abound. It shows local pride and local marketing at work. Not so in Stratford.  Perhaps that is why house prices in Stratford fell 2% in the last 12 months. They might have been the only place where houses became cheaper.

Opunake’s famous person
How much involvement did James K Baxter have with Opunake? He must have spent some time in South Taranaki for he refers to our bird life in a poem to his wife. He says she sings like an “Opunake Thrush”: “In the kitchen she sings, Ko tenei to po, Like an Opunake thrush”.
Baxter’s wife, Jacquie, was born and is buried in Opunake. Her mother (Mary Kingsley Papuni, died after childbirth 1 June, 1927, aged 20 years) and her grand-mother (Julia Harrison, died 11 September, 1919, aged 58) are in adjacent graves. Be proud of these people Opunake, they are our history.
Jacquie is probably Opunake’s most famous person, but not because she was Baxter’s wife. She is famous in her own right, known by her pen name, J.C. Sturm. She is famous nationally and overseas, but she is virtually unheard of in Opunake. Jacquie Sturm had four names in her lifetime, if you count the name of her second husband. He was a professor of English at Victoria University of Wellington.

Baxter’s grave
Last winter, on a rainy day, I drove from Opunake in search of James K Baxter’s grave. The headstone is a white painted river stone marked “Hemi”. The area around it was overgrown. My photo reflects the failing light and the sombre mood.

Suicide increasing
Grave statistics have just been issued. Our suicide rate is rising fast. Now NZ has the highest rate ever. Last year, Taranaki has 20 suicides among the national total of 569. Compare the deaths by suicide (569) with the deaths by road accident (317). In Taranaki: 20 suicides to 11 road deaths (last year).

Our challenge
In general suicide is worse in the regions than in the cities. New Plymouth had 13 deaths by suicide, while South Taranaki had six and Stratford one. Given the relative populations of the areas, it is South Taranaki with the greatest problem.
These numbers do not appear high, but they indicate the families and colleagues who suffer. Most importantly, the numbers are of those who succeed at suicide – far greater numbers of people are depressed, face overwhelming problems and are ground into alcoholism and despair. 
The suicide figures are a measure of social and economic well-being. They are more relevant than many of the “feel-good” statistics government publishes.  Rural-Pakeha-men are a group of much concern, as are young people. I wonder what STDC’s new 10-year plan says we will do for them.

Robert Shaw
robert@porirua.net