New Years Honours New Zealand – Otaki wins again.
January 4, 2010 in Uncategorized
Upmarket shops in Otaki. The person that built this shop probably won a QSM for services to the community and architecture.
Are the people of Otaki sentsational or what? Are they a cut above the rest of New Zealand? Perhaps they are a special breed of New Zealanders. Or perhaps the rest of us just dont do enough in our community.
I am sure you know what I mean by this brief introduction. You read the lists of New Years Honours winners and you where also astounded at the number of recipients from the sleepy town of Otaki. This little town, the one you usually drive through and take no notice of, received a statistically staggering one New Years Honour for every 911 inhabitants.
For those of you that don’t know, Otaki is small town on the Kapiti Coast. It lies about 70km to the north of Wellington. It has a population, from the 2006 census, of 5466 people. Basically it is the size of a flea’s zit when compared with the rest of New Zealand. However, this small town managed to have a staggering 6 recipients in the New Years honour list of 2010. Surely this can’t be right you say. What good can come from Otaki???
There must be something up with these awards. So lets compare the ratio of Otaki with that of some other selected towns and cities within New Zealand.
Otaki, 6 Honours from 5466 people – one honour per 911 people
Tauranga, 7 Honours from 103,632 people – one honour per 14,800 people
Nelson, 2 Honours from 42,888 people – one honour per 21,400 people
Wellington, 27 Honours from 179, 968 – one honour per 6,600 people
Auckland, 28 Honours from 404,658 people – one honour per 14,400 people
Christchurch, 19 Honours from 348,435 people – one honour per 18,300 people
Dunedin, 3 Honours from 118,683 people – one honour per 39,500 people
Napier, 3 Honours from 55,359 people – one honour per 18,400 people
Hamilton, 10 Honours from 129,249 people – one honour per 12,900 people
What also gets me is the type of awards the people of Otaki won. Two of the winners gained their awards for services to the community. We are talking about a community of 5000 people here, most of them probably farmers. It would be like someone in Auckland winning and award for services to Glen Eden. How hard would it be to offer your service to 5000 people? We probably have golf courses in New Zealand with higher memberships then the entire population of Otaki! Furthermore another person from Otaki won an award for services to the Customs Service. What sort of Customs Service do they have in Otaki? Or have I missed the fact they have an international airport and a large shipping port.
Don’t get me wrong the people of Otaki are probably fantastic people. However, it seems a little strange to me that we have such a high proportion of our New Years honours winners coming for the same town. Perhaps I am looking at this the wrong way. Maybe Otaki is like the place top achievers decide to live, a little like how old people congregate in rest homes when they are older. To test this I have gone through the last few years to see how many other people from Otaki have received medals. The results are interesting.
2009 – 2 both for services to the community
2008 - 2 both for services to the community
2007 – 1 services to public health
2006 – 0
2005 – 3 for a variety of services
So there you have it. The statistics don’t lie. In the last 5 years the sleepy town of Otaki has had 14 people honoured in our highest honours. It seems to me that if you live in Otaki and don’t have a medal from the Queen you mst be a social outcast. Therefore, I will be watching the Queen’s Birthday Honours list with more interest next year to see if Otaki can keep up this impressive run.