Standing up for our smaller communities

Having read Prof Mike Hunter's splendid Otago Daily Times series on the "no brainer" neurosurgical unit saga and his frank assessment of the key medical patient care and professional appointment issues, I know there are many hundreds of good folk who would like to join me in this message of appreciation for one who has so generously and skilfully followed his family's unique contribution to the Dunedin Medical School and allied hospital institutions.

Prof Hunter raises some important and basic issues that confront all communities today outside the major metropolitan centres. Issues of continued and sustainable public and local body "core" services, local and regional provision of health and education to the resident population (and in some cases, such as Queenstown, short-term visitors too) comprise a critical element in this package.

This year, when worldwide we are celebrating biodiversity and sustainability of our natural landscapes, we should remember there is a case for the continued good health and welfare of our smaller communities.

The crucial element of social justice readily comes to mind, too. The World Bank last year published a major report titled Reshaping Economic Geography, which in effect provided a "super city" mandate in the interests of greater economic efficiency.

But the question that has loomed large in local government in recent decades has been what was once described as "decentralisation" and more recently as "regional development".

Prof Hunter has now addressed one of the key elements in this urban package. Do we want a couple of large metropolitan centres in New Zealand with a continued weakening of essential services in the more rural hinterland spaces? Where do the small country townships and the "lesser" cities stand in this strategy?

The ancient cities were once described as marketplaces of ideas and face-to-face encounter. But such communication and innovation can be more productive where there is closer association between top-ranking specialists of different disciplines working together in harmony.

For example, here in Alexandra in the '60s following the completion of the Roxburgh dam, the then government planted several one- and two-person specialist earth science (outlying) agencies together. The participating scientists often rose to the top ranking in their respective chosen specialist vocations to become leading national scientists.