As a member of the CHB Business and Professional Women, I am interested to find out how local women feel, and what issues are important to them and other local women.

BPW is an national and international federation of women whose objectives are to improve quality of life for women

Why these issues are so important is relevant too. I wish to put together a list of the ten most pressing issues, so i can present this to the club. CHB BPW may be able to support or assist local women in these issues in some way.

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.