Editorial: A win and a loss

Tuesday's announcement that the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology will retain its adventure tourism course – at least for one more year – but shut down its creative writing programme was a win and a loss.

The first reaction is to congratulate the polytechnic's management and board for listening to the concerns of its students and the community who wanted the well-established adventure tourism school to carry on.

NMIT has done so despite the high cost of running the course and its poor retention and qualification rate, and that is a commendable move in the face of swingeing budget cuts imposed by the Government.

But the end of the creative writing course, a programme less tangible in its outcomes but offering a kind of study that some individuals thirst for, is to be be lamented.

Most parts of New Zealand are ready to put a case but the Nelson region, with its three national parks, wild rivers, mountains and beautiful coastline all within easy reach, plus a usually benign climate, can truly lay claim to being the ideal place to learn the guiding and adventure tourism business.

The NMIT school, set up 15 years ago, is a natural fit, especially with so many experienced tutors and established operators on hand. Many Nelson people will have shared the view offered by Prime Minister John Key when told of the planned course closure, that it was "a little unusual".

Yet the course has not succeeded in either paying more than 30 per cent of its operating costs or in turning out an acceptable percentage of graduates. If it is to survive after 2011, students and the tourism industry must make a stronger commitment than they have so far shown. They should do so, because the course opens up opportunities for individuals and businesses.

The worth of the creative writing course cannot be measured so easily. However, there is no doubt that it has helped to build Nelson's credibility and attractiveness as a centre for writers and a recognised provincial home for all of the arts, a role the city assumes but doesn't do much to support.

The course has helped many budding writers of various types towards publication. NMIT has no choice but to make savings, but it is a great shame for both the intellectual life of the community and the evolution of the polytechnic that the creative arts must suffer.

The code of the sea

Lives have been lost but how much worse it could have been for the crew of the Oyang 70 had Nelson-based deepsea trawler Amaltal Atlantis not been nearby and ready to help. Amaltal is owned by Talley's, the loudest fishing industry voice against foreign crewing of New Zealand-based boats. But the political argument was instantly cast aside when the call for help went out.

The Nelson-based crew, well-schooled by regular rescue drills, was able to lift 45 survivors to the safety of the Amaltal Atlantis and will soon deliver them to shore. This is a fine illustration of the wonderful tradition of seafarers always going to the aid of their fellows.

It is also a reminder of the hazards that fishing boat crews routinely experience as they go about their daily work, of how routine can switch to catastrophe in an instant.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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