New Zealand was the first country to give women the vote back in 1893, whereas Australian women weren’t able to vote in Federal elections until 1903. More recently NZ enacted legislation allowing gay marriage. Meanwhile Australia continues to debate the issue with the Federal opposition appearing to be strongly opposed to such a move.
As one would expect some in New Zealand are already anticipating the next major change…….. However some Kiwi’s (according to an Australian friend) have “jumped the gun”!
We won’t mention the rugby!
It was rather difficult mooring in the wind yesterday afternoon and we were very fortunate that the moored boater behind came and assisted us. It wasn’t until later (much later) that we realised he must have been Dave of nb Sokai whose blog we follow. I popped my head out the back hatch this morning thinking I should introduce myself only to find they had already quietly departed. <damn> Their latest blog post mentions they are on their way to Oxford whereas we are heading north. Maybe another time Dave & Beryl!
Jan was appreciative of the blog comments regarding her birthday yesterday. In the end I treated her to a Scottish meal. Rather than both of us struggling through the wind and showers I walked the mile to MacDonalds on my own. She seemed rather impressed that I’d gone to the special effort of including a McFlurry dessert in the order. It must be true love because I walked past the Pizza Hut and Kentucky Fried, both of which were much closer to our mooring.
This morning the Hurricane heater ran for an hour and then stopped <grrrrrr>. The engine was also running to charge the batteries, so I wasn’t going into the ‘garden shed’ to check the Hurricane until things had cooled down. I suspect the problem is ‘fuel starvation’ to the Hurricane. As you might recall, the heater started for the engineer at Calcutt after being left turned off for the previous four weeks. My guess is the fuel trickled down to the heater fuel pump and filter during that period and this has been sufficient fuel to run the heater for the three hours since we left Calcutt. The plan is to have a look at the filter in the heater after the engine has cooled to check whether there is any fuel. I’m also going to attempt to restart the Hurricane after the engine has charged the batteries just to confirm it’s not a low voltage issue. I’m reasonably confident it won’t be the voltage because the SmartGauge was reporting the voltage as 12.25V before I started the engine.
After lunch a Willow Wren hire boat passed with a ‘stag party’ aboard. Their departure point wasn’t that far from our mooring but they appeared to have already consumed a significant amount of amber fluid and were acting accordingly. Jan was leaning out of the side hatch as they passed when one called out in a boozy voice “I’ll jump on your roof and do a sexy dance for you!” Jan just yawned and mentioned her birthday was yesterday!
2.30pm – The Hurricane Heater (Again!)
The engine was now cool enough to cuddle so doing my ‘indian rubber man’ impersonation I wriggled and squirmed into an awkward position where I could see the removable side of the Hurricane. The panel is held on by four machine screws and (of course) the shaft on the screwdriver was too long to fit into the confined space between the Hurricane and the hospital silencer. Extracting myself from the engine bay proved more difficult than the entry. At one point it looked like Jan might have to serve me dinner in-situ! Fortunately there is a Wicks store nearby and I was able to purchase a short shaft screwdriver for £1.32. Back in the garden shed I removed the inspection panel and started to identify the various components; specifically the fuel filter which Dave from Calcutt boats had mentioned. I wanted to see if there was any fuel in it as Dave had mentioned he could see fuel. The following photo shows the components.
As you can see there is a filter in a clear cylinder with what looks to be a paper cartridge. I don’t know if this is the air or fuel filter. There’s no photo in the manual so I need to do more research. Having taken the side panel off the heater an “jiggled and poked” the components I asked Jan to switch on the heater. Would you believe it…. the heater started! So we have an intermittent fault. But why… what is the cause? After looking at the training video in the Support Section of the International Thermal Research website (makers of the Hurricane) it appears there is NO fuel filter inside the unit. What I marked as a possible fuel filter in the above photo is the air filter. So what was the Calcutt engineer talking about?
Later… The second shopping trip to Tesco in two days. One each trip we have purchased slightly in excess of £60 which has now given us two fuel discount vouchers. We could have purchased everything in one trip spending £120 but then we would only have one fuel voucher. Moreover it’s unlikely we would have been able to carry all the items back to the boat. As it is; Jan’s £14 shopping trolley now has the ‘colliwobbles’ with one very wonky wheel. I expect a set of replacement plastic wheels will cost more than the total price of a new trolley!
9 comments :
Definitely the air filter. On top of the unit there is a fuel return hose, have they returned the hose to the tank or just terminated it? If you turn on the hurricane and disconnect the black fuel hose you can check to see if there is any air in the system. You should have a fuel filter between the unit and fuel tank.
Paul
By the way the bleeder valve should be shut whilst the heater is running, only open it for bleeding out air.
Paul
Hi Paul
The fuel return hose goes back to the fuel tank. I can't remove the fuel hose off the heater (neither could the engineer) because it's on so tight. However fuel is getting to the heater because we had some in the bilge from my first attempt to check. There is a filter in the line between the tank and the heater.
The manufacturers installation manual and the engineer from the UK distributor both state the bleeder valve must be partially open when the return goes back to the tank.
My latest thought is that the fuel tank is so full it's above the level of the fuel return connection in the tank and blocking any air from returning. But that's only an uneducated guess!
Hi Tom & Jan
yes it was us at Rugby
sorry I didn't introduce ourselves
the boss was sewing curtains and
the weather was not conducive to nattering we will meet again I am sure Beryl & Dave
Hi Beryl & Dave,
We will try harder next time!
Some pretty dodgy history of women's suffrage here!! When the Commonwealth was formed, the first elections were held in 1901 based on the existing state laws, and the federal parliament passed the Commonwealth Franchise Act providing universal suffrage for Commonwealth elections was pass the following year, and applied in the 1903 elections. In contrast, NZ took nearly 40 years after the New Zealand Constitution Act (1852) to get around to granting universal suffrage to women.
In any case, it was still at that stage a self-governing colony, and if compared to the to the other antipodean self-governing colonies, it was again well behind the times (as one might have expected :)). The Pitcairn Islands had granted women's universal suffrage in 1838, and this transferred to Norfolk Island in 1856, 38 years before NZ granted this right.
In South Australia, limited women's suffrage existed for some time before universal suffrage was granted with the right to stand for parliament in 1894, the latter not a right for women in NZ until 1919, 17 years after that right was granted in federal elections in Australia. It took NZ 12 years from its formation as a Dominion to get around to that, while Australia only took a year, further evidence of the low importance placed on these important rights in NZ compared to Australia.
Finally, there is the dodgy claim that NZ was the first country to grant women universal suffrage. As a self-governing colony, NZ could not claim to be a country until 1907, at which stage Australia had already granted women universal suffrage.
I'm afraid that while NZ might have been amongst the leaders in the world in granting women universal suffrage, it wasn't the head of the pack by any means. Australia, on the other hand ...
Doug
You’ve been “weasel wording” as a Canberra bureaucrat for too long. :-)
Salient facts are NZ gave women the vote in 1893 and Australia did it in 1903. Doesn’t matter how long it took NZ to give women the vote. They did it ahead of Australia!
If you want to tell me Pitcairn Island gave women the vote in 1838 that’s fine. But in 1856 all the inhabitants left Pitcairn for Norfolk Island. As you know, at that time Norfolk Island was part of NSW so the women no longer had the right to vote until Australia gave it to them in 1907
When the Pitcairn Islanders moved to Norfolk Island, they brought woman's suffrage with them and kept it. While the two previous penal settlements were part of NSW, when it was resettled in 1856, it was established as a colony separate from, but administered by, NSW. Today they are administered as an external territory, not as part of NSW.
As for mealy-mouthing and weasel wording, Australia didn't exist until 1901 to enfranchise women, but individual colonies that later constituted Australia had starting to grant universal suffrage from 1856 (Norfolk Is). New Zealand might have stolen a march on the mainland colonies, but only by a year, with South Australia granting universal suffrage and the right for women to stand for parliament in 1894.
BTW, are you sure NZ wasn't beaten to the punch in 1893 by the Cook Islands?
Is this a history lesson about insignificant Pacific Island nations, or a blog about old people moving the speed of snails up waterways?
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