title: James Mills: a carpenter who became Te Aroha’s first mayor

authors: Hart, Philip

abstract: After being active in Liberal politics in England, James Mills, a carpenter, settled in Te Aroha in 1882. Although he constructed many houses, work was erratic and he never became wealthy. Investing in Waiorongomai mining, he was outspoken in criticizing the management of the tramway and the policies of the Battery Company, accusing them of ruining the field through their high charges. He also criticized the county council for providing insufficient aid for mining, and sought financial assistance from the government. He assisted to form prospecting parties, and was especially involved in mining during the boom of the 1890s, with the usual unrealistic expectations. In 1899, as these expectations had not been attained, he ceased investing in mining.
For over 20 years Mills worked hard to benefit the district in every possible way, joining many committees, in particular the domain board, the county council, the town board, and the borough council. Having strong opinions, strongly expressed, his involvement resulted in many rows and strong criticism from those he opposed. He was not beyond misrepresenting those he quarrelled with, especially when he was trying, eventually unsuccessfully, to include Waiorongomai in a proposed borough. After becoming the first mayor of Te Aroha by the smallest of margins, he achieved much for the town. 
In national politics, as a strong supporter of the Liberal Party he attempted to overcome local apathy about politics and squabbled with those holding different opinions. His quarrelsome personality may have been, at least in part, caused by ill health. In his old age he was respected for his achievements, if not loved for his personality.

text: James Mills: a carpenter who became Te Aroha’s first mayor After being active in Liberal politics in England, James Mills, a carpenter, settled in Te Aroha in 1882. Although he constructed many houses, work was erratic and he never became wealthy. Investing in Waiorongomai mining, he was outspoken in criticizing the management of the tramway and the policies of the Battery Company, accusing them of ruining the field through their high charges. He also criticized the county council for providing insufficient aid for mining, and sought financial assistance from the government. He assisted to form prospecting parties, and was especially involved in mining during the boom of the 1890s, with the usual unrealistic expectations. In 1899, as these expectations had not been attained, he ceased investing in mining.
For over 20 years Mills worked hard to benefit the district in every possible way, joining many committees, in particular the domain board, the county council, the town board, and the borough council. Having strong opinions, strongly expressed, his involvement resulted in many rows and strong criticism from those he opposed. He was not beyond misrepresenting those he quarrelled with, especially when he was trying, eventually unsuccessfully, to include Waiorongomai in a proposed borough. After becoming the first mayor of Te Aroha by the smallest of margins, he achieved much for the town. 
In national politics, as a strong supporter of the Liberal Party he attempted to overcome local apathy about politics and squabbled with those holding different opinions. His quarrelsome personality may have been, at least in part, caused by ill health. In his old age he was respected for his achievements, if not loved for his personality.

year: 2016

title: A graphical notation for the design of information visualisations

authors: Humphrey, Matthew C.

subjects: computer science

abstract: Visualisations are coherent, graphical expressions of complex information that enhance people’s ability to communicate and reason about that information. Yet despite the importance of visualisations in helping people to understand and solve a wide variety of problems, there is a dearth of formal tools and methods for discussing, describing and designing them. Although simple visualisations, such as bar charts and scatterplots, are easily produced by modern interactive software, novel visualisations of multivariate, multirelational data must be expressed in a programming language. The Relational Visualisation Notation is a new, graphical language for designing such highly expressive visualisations that does not use programming constructs. Instead, the notation is based on relational algebra, which is widely used in database query languages, and it is supported by a suite of direct manipulation tools. This article presents the notation and examines the designs of some interesting visualisations.

text: A graphical notation for the design of information visualisations Visualisations are coherent, graphical expressions of complex information that enhance people’s ability to communicate and reason about that information. Yet despite the importance of visualisations in helping people to understand and solve a wide variety of problems, there is a dearth of formal tools and methods for discussing, describing and designing them. Although simple visualisations, such as bar charts and scatterplots, are easily produced by modern interactive software, novel visualisations of multivariate, multirelational data must be expressed in a programming language. The Relational Visualisation Notation is a new, graphical language for designing such highly expressive visualisations that does not use programming constructs. Instead, the notation is based on relational algebra, which is widely used in database query languages, and it is supported by a suite of direct manipulation tools. This article presents the notation and examines the designs of some interesting visualisations.

year: 1997-02

title: An examination of DHB climate change policy and implementation: Responsiveness to Māori health

authors: Powell, Elisha

abstract: The impacts of climate change have become increasingly evident throughout the world and in Aotearoa. Frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as flooding, coastal erosion, wildfires, and droughts are notably increasing. Climate-related disasters have devastating effects on human health, as is well documented in literature. These effects include cardiovascular disease, poorer mental health, food insecurity and water borne disease. 

Due to pre-existing health disparities, Māori are particularly vulnerable to the health impacts of climate change. Further, Māori have unique relationships with whenua wherein destruction of the natural environment will have a negative impact on the health of Māori people and communities. The health sector has an obligation to respond to Māori health in a way that honours Māori relationships with the environment and prioritises equitable health outcomes for Māori in climate change policy. 

Although Māori face potentially severe health impacts due to climate change, there is limited literature that considers health sector climate change policy and its responsiveness to Māori health. In an effort to address this gap in literature, this thesis aims to examine whether there is existing District Health Board (DHB) policy focused on implementing institutional responses to climate change. Further, this research seeks to understand the extent to which any identified DHB climate change policy responds to Māori health. 

At the time of study, DHBs were responsible for providing and funding health services throughout Aotearoa. During the late stages of this research, the health sector underwent reform, and two health authorities have replaced DHBs. The implications of this research have important ramifications within the newly established health authorities. A dedicated Māori health authority will provide the health sector with the chance to advance health equity by acting on holistic understandings of health for Māori. These actions would establish health policy that recognises Māori health as fundamentally linked to the environment and therefore uniquely impacted by climate change. 

To achieve the aims of this thesis, two research methods were implemented. Initially, an environmental scan of 17 DHB websites was completed to identify climate change and Māori health policies. This was followed by qualitative interviews with three DHB staff from diverse localities. Additionally, tāngata whenua interviews from the wider research project named Haumanu Hauora, were analysed to ensure Māori understandings of climate change were included in this research (Masters-Awatere et al., 2022). 

Research findings provide insights that point to highly fragmented climate change policies across the health sector. There is a glaring lack of direction in the health sector's response to climate change throughout existing policy. Māori health policies were in place across all DHBs, however, lacked recognition of the interconnection between Māori health and the natural environment, and therefore the impacts of climate change. 

Although policy was fragmented across regions, there is potential to enhance both climate change and Māori health policies by recognising the interconnected nature of Māori health and climate change. This will necessitate a significant change in the health systems policy response to climate change that prioritises mātauranga Māori and addresses the ongoing impacts of colonisation.

text: An examination of DHB climate change policy and implementation: Responsiveness to Māori health The impacts of climate change have become increasingly evident throughout the world and in Aotearoa. Frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as flooding, coastal erosion, wildfires, and droughts are notably increasing. Climate-related disasters have devastating effects on human health, as is well documented in literature. These effects include cardiovascular disease, poorer mental health, food insecurity and water borne disease. 

Due to pre-existing health disparities, Māori are particularly vulnerable to the health impacts of climate change. Further, Māori have unique relationships with whenua wherein destruction of the natural environment will have a negative impact on the health of Māori people and communities. The health sector has an obligation to respond to Māori health in a way that honours Māori relationships with the environment and prioritises equitable health outcomes for Māori in climate change policy. 

Although Māori face potentially severe health impacts due to climate change, there is limited literature that considers health sector climate change policy and its responsiveness to Māori health. In an effort to address this gap in literature, this thesis aims to examine whether there is existing District Health Board (DHB) policy focused on implementing institutional responses to climate change. Further, this research seeks to understand the extent to which any identified DHB climate change policy responds to Māori health. 

At the time of study, DHBs were responsible for providing and funding health services throughout Aotearoa. During the late stages of this research, the health sector underwent reform, and two health authorities have replaced DHBs. The implications of this research have important ramifications within the newly established health authorities. A dedicated Māori health authority will provide the health sector with the chance to advance health equity by acting on holistic understandings of health for Māori. These actions would establish health policy that recognises Māori health as fundamentally linked to the environment and therefore uniquely impacted by climate change. 

To achieve the aims of this thesis, two research methods were implemented. Initially, an environmental scan of 17 DHB websites was completed to identify climate change and Māori health policies. This was followed by qualitative interviews with three DHB staff from diverse localities. Additionally, tāngata whenua interviews from the wider research project named Haumanu Hauora, were analysed to ensure Māori understandings of climate change were included in this research (Masters-Awatere et al., 2022). 

Research findings provide insights that point to highly fragmented climate change policies across the health sector. There is a glaring lack of direction in the health sector's response to climate change throughout existing policy. Māori health policies were in place across all DHBs, however, lacked recognition of the interconnection between Māori health and the natural environment, and therefore the impacts of climate change. 

Although policy was fragmented across regions, there is potential to enhance both climate change and Māori health policies by recognising the interconnected nature of Māori health and climate change. This will necessitate a significant change in the health systems policy response to climate change that prioritises mātauranga Māori and addresses the ongoing impacts of colonisation.

year: 2025