UNITED KINGDOM Association NEWSLETTER

For an entree in our spring programme is a technical meeting organised by our Australian brethren for 30th May on developments in oil engineering in the North Sea. It will be addressed by Dr John Williams and Mr Brian Smith who have substantial experience in this spectacularly rugged and challenging sector of major engineering endeavour. Perhaps more than any other technological pursuit it represents 20th Century achievement across most of our professional spectrum and has spawned a tranche of innovative techniques that are now a part of established construction and process management practice.

The talk will be divided into two sections. The first, given by Mr Smith, who is the Engineering Manager for Odebrecht-SLP, will outline the factors which have driven new technological developments including the latest generation of minimum manned facility platforms.

Dr Williams, who is Technical Manager (Floating Production Systems) at Odebrecht-SLP will then describe Floating Production Systems, which will include both semi-submersible and ship-shape systems, as well as renewed interest in concrete platforms and deep water developments.

The presentation will conclude with a case study to demonstrate how the most suitable technology for a specific field development can be selected from the known field parameters and the criteria for developing the field.

This promises to be an extremely interesting evening and an excellent opportunity to learn about the latest technological advances in the development of offshore oil and gas fields.

Make the most of this opportunity to update your perception of what goes on under and over the waves in this huge exercise in wealth creation for our economy.

Details are;

Location:	Ove Arup's 6th Floor Lecture Theatre at 8 Fitzroy Street, (the nearest underground tube stations are Warren Street and Goodge Street)
Date:	Friday, 30th May,
Time:	1830 hours for light refreshments before the start of Dr William's
Cost:	£8.00 per head.

Hon. Secretary: Mrs Joanna Saywell Ph & Fax 01580 200 592, Wk Ph 01732 460 142,

email: saywell@clara.net

Please lose no time in completing and returning the enclosed form with your cheque to the Honorary Secretary so that arrangements for an enjoyable evening for you can be made properly in good time. We need to confirm numbers to IEAust by the 23rd May.

Don't forget to record this in your log of Continuing Professional Development.

.... and for their starters, a visit to France

A week before the above meeting is a full weekend in France. Again the IEAust Association has taken the organising initiative and has developed a programme from 23rd to 26th May. It is not clear how much space if any is available for IPENZ Association members. Await further news, if any.

Brunel's Bristol

The dessert course in our spring menu of engineering delicacies is a weekend of wonder from 7th to 8th June in Bristol. As the separate enclosure indicates it centres on the works of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, perhaps the most original of all the great 19th century engineers. This outing is a new venture by our Committee and although ambitious offers a wealth of interest that deserves your enthusiastic support.

This event does not quite counterbalance the Australian's French initiative. Brunel had French parenthood and was educated in France. But he was born in Portsmouth and achieved nearly all of his extraordinary life work in England

France and New Zealand make up

In the wake of an influential French trade delegation which visited New Zealand last month has been a meeting in Paris between foreign ministers to repair relations between the two countries. Many years of nuclear testing have left them in a frosty state.

Minister Don McKinnon is looking forward to a return visit from his counterpart, presently Herve de Charette, later this year to follow up an agreement for citizens to have working holidays in each other's country. They will seek further accords.

The trade delegation led by Claude Bebear thought business prospects in New Zealand favourable for expansion of activities between the two countries. They expressed particular interest in the country's labour laws.

French exports to New Zealand have risen to about $500 million per annum mainly from car manufactures. French subsidiaries now employ about 3700 people. New Zealand exports have been more static and are presently just over $200 million per annum.

Works Consultancy Sale

Works Consultancy Services, the former government-owned New Zealand consultant, has been renamed Opus International Consultants. The company, which is in joint venture with Benaim on the Canada Water and North Greenwich Station contracts of the JLE, was sold to Malaysian consultant Kinta Kellas last August in a £24M deal.

Maori fishing rights

A recent district court judgement has allowed a Maori to fish in tribal waters without a license and has caused a furore. Extension of this principle would create two-tier law enforcement in many other fields affected by tribal property rights. Several institutions from the Government downwards are urgently appealing against this judgement.

A better growth than expected

Apart from the Treasury, the wise men of the New Zealand economy have been a little pessimistic. In projecting from a slowing growth rate from 3.5% the year before to less than 3% this year, they found a consensus for the December quarter within a range of 0.3% to 0.7% and an average of 0.4%. The Treasury thought 0.7% and got it right. So this last year has yielded a total growth of 2.9%.

Growth has concentrated in the export sector which amounted to 2.1%. The internal economy has stayed flat.

Reserve Bank Governor, Don Brash, sees a steady continuation of growth of about 3% per annum through at least the coming year. The high growth in 1993/94 of 5% to 6% has not been sustained. He sees inflationary pressures from rising house prices and favours their containment by a capital gains tax. The Government emphatically disagrees.

Some concern has arisen about the increased spending which the Government coalition is committed to in the near future. The National Bank thinks that the consequent increased growth will raise interest rates and exchange rates and will restrain investment and exports in favour of retail trade and services growth. It may affect employment and the unemployment rate adversely.

Butter bother

Six of the Dairy Board's top managers have been arrested in London, charged with fraud in the butter trade. The amount involved is £5.4 million underpayment of import levies. Chairman, Sir Dryden Spring claims that a confused situation prevailed in 1995/96 after a GATT increase in New Zealand's quota and that Europe had resisted its implementation. There was no intent to defraud, he said.

Battered treasure

The America's Cup has been damaged by a frenzied attack by a political activist but the sportsmen who treasure it are unruffled. From the New York Yacht Club, the Commodore's message was simple. "Whatever it looks like, we're going to come down and take it from them". The game goes on.

NZ First under a cloud

The bright days when NZ First held coalition-forming power have been overtaken by murkier times. MP Tukoroirangi Morgan has compounded his earlier disgrace by allegedly using Government supplied health trust funds to pay for a trip to Hawaii. Deputy Prime Minister, Winston Peters has made a spectacle of a quarrel with John Banks by manhandling him in front of the media. The images, both of NZ First and of the MMP voting system that catapulted them into the limelight, are somewhat jaded.

Social turbulence

Apart from the public social dramas of NZ First in government, a series of spectacular personal tragedies have been making headline news. A climber of Mount Cook swept to his death by an avalanche just after reaching the summit. Another person on the same slopes lost his life and three weeks elapsed before he was missed, evidently because the tour company kept its passenger details to itself.

Add to these: a man who was torn apart by his pit bull terrier, a woman who was trampled to death by her pet stag, and a nine-year old boy who opened the wrong door on an Australian train and fell to an instant death.

Unemployment dilemmas

A recent conference 'Beyond dependency' was criticised by a key Australian speaker, Bettina Cass, for its title. 'Beyond unemployment' she said was more suitable. Many unemployed in Australia and New Zealand, she said, were trapped by a shortage of good quality, adequately paid jobs. They would be victimised by reductions in benefits.

Meanwhile the Government is proceeding with benefit cuts for people who decline to take up job or training offers without good reason or who fail to attend scheduled interviews. The cuts will range from 20 % cut for a week to a total cut for 13 weeks.

Industrial Espionage

A Chinese horticultural team has been caught trying to smuggle a new variety of apple out of New Zealand. 15 cuttings were found in their hand baggage. Farmers are angry that the team was allowed to go on home without arrest.

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