New Zealand Statistical Association Newsletter 64
September 2006
TV One News
Aug 6, 2006
Taranaki residents are learning they live in the shadow of a much more
active volcano than previously suspected.
New research shows Mount Taranaki is only napping and scientists say chances
it could belch back into life within the next 50 years are as low as one
in two.
Vulcanologist Mark Bebbington says it is potentially more dangerous than Ruapehu, which would mainly affect ski fields, the Hawke's Bay and perhaps some air travel.
"Taranaki is with prevailing winds is quite dangerous," he says.
Eleven years ago Mount Ruapehu spouted ash and spewed lahars over the central plateau, at a cost of $130 million.
The Taranaki Regional Council welcomes the new research but says it is already well prepared for an eruption.
"We have a network of seismic monitors around the mountain which enable us to track what's underneath the mountain as well as through the region as a whole, so we anticipate having a decent warning period before anything does start to happen," Gary Bedford says.
And those living under the volcano are happy to rely on that system.
"Well if it's going to go, it's going to go, and whatever comes we will cope with and just get on with it," a local says.
Human lives aside, the biggest risk is to the dairy industry.
"If the grass is not growing we can't keep the cows alive here, and we'd have to look at moving cows out of the region which would be an enormous undertaking, but it's something we would simply address," Bedford says.
Vulcanologists say there is no indication of abnormal activity at the moment, but they believe Mount Taranaki will wake again soon.
Study reveals costs of blindness
TV
One News
Mar 20, 2006
The hidden costs of blindness have been exposed in a ground-breaking study.
It found New Zealand's 11,500 blind people are $6,000 a year worse off
because of their disability.
Blindness is costing those who live without sight a staggering $60 million
a year and it reveals the blind spend more on a raft of activities that
sighted people take for granted.
Music has been a saviour for nine-year-old Lizzie Hollingworth.
Her talent for the piano is a wonderful discovery in a world where there's
much blind children can't do.
"It's providing an opportunity in her life to learn something and
get some sense of achievement and know she can be good at something,"
says her mother Jennifer Hollingworth.
But achieving in life is even more costly for the blind than experts have
believed up until now, with a wider cost to society estimated at $27.5
million.
"This isn't the cost of blindness, but these are the non optional
costs that blind people face everyday to participate in society,"
says Paula Day, chief executive of the Royal New Zealand Foundation for
the Blind.
They're costs blind university lecturer Jonathan Godfrey knows well -
right down to the special software that enables him to teach.
"It goes on and on and on, the costs of blindness start when you
get out of bed in the morning and end when you go to bed at night,"
says Godfrey.
The report also reveals a high social cost for families with relationship
failures, difficulties and depression. The blind often pay more because
of their restricted ability to take advantage of sales and specials.
It also said getting around is also difficult and more costly with an
enormous amount of time wasted waiting for transport, support and help.
The Foundation of the Blind has taken the report to the government in
the hope of a funding boost. The government's current contribution
of $7 million is one third of the money the foundation needs to meet it
operating budget of $21 million.
And for families like the Hollingworth's, government recognition of the
costs and challenges they face daily would be even more music to their
ears.