Vanya and Sonia have led quiet and uneventful lives while taking care of
their ageing parents in their family home. However, their peaceful existence is upended when their glamorous movie-star sister Masha unexpectedly arrives with her much-younger boyfriend in tow and a plan to sell the house. Insecurities and old resentments boil over in a weekend of wild costume parties, hilarious misunderstandings and unexpected romance.

 

Please note that the correct price is $35/ ticket not the $24 that was advertised in the last Bulletin.

 

When: Thursday 17th July 

Where: Howick Little Theatre

Price: $35 a ticket

To make a booking: payment to Rotary Club of Pakuranga

02 0223 0017811 002

It was in July 1969 that Percy Eaton of the Rotary Club of Panmure was delegated to form the Pakuranga Club by ceding part of Panmure Club’s own territory. In its ‘pomp’ the Panmure Club had approximately 120 members and had already formed the Auckland East Club. Sad to say neither exist today.

 

The nucleus of members of the Pakuranga Club came from the Pakuranga Ratepayers Association Inc. These were somewhat turbulent times as Eastern ratepayers strove to get a court order ceding territory from the existing Manukau City Council for an Eastern City to bring about a fairer distribution of rating moneys. The winning of the mayoralty by Lloyd Elsmore paved the way for a good result even though the court action was unsuccessful.

 

Percy Eaton managed to secure his first batch of members from the hardworking executive of the ratepayer’s association, including Lloyd Elsmore, Colin Baker, Cliff Koefoed, yours truly and Russell Brighouse. These in turn brought in the likes of Bob Ritchie and Terry Carson. It was decided that as the membership grew those committed would meet weekly from October onwards in a little restaurant then situated in Basin View Drive. By the beginning of 1970 it seemed likely that the then requisite minimal number of 22 of members for a club would soon be found and in February a charter was applied for Rotary International by the Panmure Club. By this time a more permanent home had been found at Waipuna lodge where the Club was located and remained there for in excess of 40 years. Members were already becoming familiar with the objects and rules of Rotary membership and a sergeant in the form of Tom McDonald- the long-time proprietor of the Pakuranga Dairy -was becoming a key man in seeing that everything was ship shape and in true Rotary fashion.

 

Finally, on the 6^{th of} May 1970 at the Manhattan Lounge on Dominion Road our Club was chartered with a total of 28 members by District Governor Pat Lichenstein on behalf of the Panmure Club. Lloyd Elsmore as president, and myself as secretary who had held their respective offices since October 1969 were already crowing that they would be the longest serving president and secretary of our Club. Who would have thought that 55 years later the president would be standing for a second term and producing the Club bulletin to boot!

Socialism is a word that often gets used incorrectly. Socialism advocates for public or collective control over the means of production, distribution, and exchange. Put simply the government owns the factories, farms and shops. As a form of government, socialism is now very rare. Now days socialism is used to describe any policy that advocates for the redistribution of wealth or involves government participation in the economy, such as universal healthcare or social welfare programs. In the USA for example any politician who says there should be a universal health care programme like the one we have in NZ is branded a socialist. 

Far more common are social democracies, such as Sweden and Denmark which have private ownership of most of the production [i.e free market] but also use state intervention to ensure a fairer distribution and prevent market excesses.