November 11, 2025 • 11 mins
Sitting in for the Prime Minister today is Central Hawke’s Bay farmer (and Labour Party apologist). He talks about the big dry, Damien O’Connor in Ireland and the beauty of Istanbul.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
But sitting in for the Prime Minister Christopher Luxen, who
normally kicks off the show. He'll be on the show
on Friday from christ Church is Steve wyn Harris, who
vicariously claims he could have been Prime minister. Hello Steve,
if you'd accepted the offer to stand for Parliament many
years ago.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Yeah, by both National and by Labor and I tea
them both down, Jamie.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Well, that smartest move you ever made, other than marrying Jane,
I think. But Steve, you let let's face it, you
used to be on the show. You used to be
a regular because I needed a bit of a wet
liberal on the show and you filled that void nicely.
Are you a Labor Party apologist?
Speaker 2 (00:39):
No, I'm just I'm in the center.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
You know.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
It was a bit of pooled to see the previous
government going, you know, as left wing as it did
with all their dogmas and probably but the same at
the moment with the two big tails on the dog
and that's probably one to be more right wing governments.
I just want to be in the center. I want
us to be in the middle, Jamie.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
While the middles are safe. Z Well, come we might
come back to politics. I've got a great story about
the last man who died in World War One. Remind
me to squeeze that one out before the end of
our our chat, Steve. But I want to talk to
you about the I guess the big is Shue in
Hawks Bay. You're based in central Hawk's Bay at the moment,
and that is the dry You are standing out like
(01:19):
a sore thumb on the Kneewa or Earth Science as
en Z Drought Indicator MAPE.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yeah, very dry. Many of us have only had half
of an annual rainfall bequeathed a nice easy winter and
a fantastic lambing and carving through the spring because it
was so dry. But those winds kicked in and no
late spring rains have come. Although there has been a
bit of a change the last couple of days, but
just a bit overcast. There's a bit of drizzle around.
(01:48):
A few places got a thunderstorm, not many, and most
people have had two or three mills, so you know,
barely enough other than make you feel better. So people,
the hills have gone off brownd off quite fast, and
the crops are struggling. Any dry land crops, including you know,
schoot and beef farmers brescas hours have struck, direct drilled
(02:09):
and to sprayed out paddocks. They've struck and just a
few meals ie and they desperately needed. Only ten or
twenty meals would be good. So we keep our fingers crossed.
But the good news is I had to look at
the saw and anomaly from last year, and we're as
dry as we were last year. We were really worried,
and then we got a bit of rain in early December,
and then of course it rained right during Christmas New
Year and bequeathed this a really good late summer and autumn.
(02:33):
So you know, it's not too late, but it's getting close.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Well, there is talk of a La Nina, which would
play into your hands, wouldn't it if it did turn
around that way? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:43):
I spec in eighty two eighty three when we discovered
El Nino and I started writing a bit about it.
At that stage, I thought, you know, l Dino good,
I mean El Nino bad, Lar Nina good. Because at
eighty two eighty three drought it started blowing as like
it did a couple of weeks ago, a few weeks ago,
blowing in September, and it never stopped until May. It
was incessant gale force winds and the fair paut transporation
(03:06):
was horrendous and it drove me in and be mad.
But subsequently, you know, we've had probably as many Lamina droughts.
They tend to be autumn droughts tend to be a
nicer drought, it's not as windy. But and then of
course there's the years where Lanina brings a cyclone. So
you know that only having half our average rainfall at
the moment, they could be rectified at Christmas with a
(03:26):
cyclone and we could get through a four hundred MILLI
who knows you.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Sent me a text during or after yesterday's show accusing
me of being a bit tough on Damien O'Connor. For
the life of me, I can't see why we're sending
him or any backbench MP opposition MP to the other
side of the world. I mean, the government's trying to
preach austerity when it comes to spending. They're not leading
(03:49):
by example there.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Well, I guess if you were consistent and had been
getting stuck into the shadow Minister of Trade in the
National Party and now a government, that would be fair enough.
I guess you know, it's damnutes possible. It could be
Minister of Trade in the next government. For these guys
to maintain relationships, it's no bad thing. But yeah, if
(04:13):
it's someone with a really low rank portfolio, it's some
backbencher in the Greens or something like that, I'd agree
with the entirely.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Okay, I was going to talk to you earlier this morning.
I did catch up with farmer Tom Martin. He was
holiday and believe it or not, in Turkey in the Stanbull.
I know that you've been there. Did you use the
stan Bull as your gateway to get to Gyllipoli?
Speaker 2 (04:37):
We got to Istanbul and we're running out of time
and money and we just loved this Tembul so much
we decided not to do that. It's a big day,
eighteen hours on a bus down and he spent about
six or seven hours at Gallipoli. We loved this Tembul
so much. We said, right, you know, if we have
to come back to Europe again, because we've got a
son lives we've been there for a son's wedding recently.
(04:57):
If we have to come back here in the next
two or three years, we're definitely coming back. To Stambul
and Turkey because the Turks are fantastic, and we'll do
it properly, go down to Glipoy properly rather than do
a rush trip. But yeah, we were just very taken
with a Stambul and got on a fairy. Don't don't
do one of those expensive cruises up the Bosorus. Just
get on the on the commercial fairy and we went
all the way up to the Bosphorus and climbed up a
(05:17):
big hill to ruined cars and looked at the at
the Black Sea and it was just fantastic, great city,
favorite city.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Why doesn't surprise me? It took the cheap option. Steve Well,
join the stage to your life and we're going to
talk farm succession with Lawrence Field shortly. You should be
treating the long suffering Jane.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Yeah, I mean we were away for seven weeks. You've
got to make the pennies last. I booked two star
hotels just above the hostels to try and keep the
wife happy. But you know, if you're going to do
a long trip like that, you can't. You can't swan
around a four or five star hotels for very long, Jamie.
So yeah, I'm more generous with other people than myself.
I should say, well.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
That doesn't say much. Hey, do you know the story
of the last official death of World War One? A
man who sought redemption? Have you heard the story, Steve?
Speaker 2 (06:06):
I think it's vaguely familiar. I wouldn't be surprised if
you've already told it to your audience.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
But now I haven't told it to my audience. I
wanted to tell it to hear the last night, but
she cut me off. A guy by the name you
know what it's like in radio Steve. Yah, Yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Thought you were interviewing me and not telling your stories.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
I just want to get the story out, and you're
the only opportunity in the show because all the other
guests are really interesting. So I'm thinking, how can I
just up Steve's spot? Awe, But I could tell my
story about the last man who died in World War II.
So he was a twenty three year old private by
the name of Henry Gunther. He had a fance fiancee
(06:50):
should I say, kind of read my own writing. And
he had a comfortable desk job at a Baltimore bank. Okay,
he was an American, a handsome mustachio grandson of German immigrants.
So he got shipped off to France at near the
end of the war July nineteen eighteen, and he became
his company's supply sergeant. But when military censores, you know, Steve,
(07:13):
how they used to read the letters. Yeah, so they
read his and he'd written a letter back to a
friend complaining about life in the trenches as you would,
and urging his mate to avoid serving his country. So
the army census read this and they demoted him to private. Now,
the old fiance, she didn't show much loyalty A but
(07:34):
like our wives when we're on the radio, Steve, as
soon as he got promoted or demoted to a private,
she broke off the engagement. So it's ten forty four
am I quarter to eleven on November the eleventh, remembering
that the armistice was signed at five o'clock, but hostilities
(07:55):
were to end at eleven o'clock. Eleven o'clock a runner
came to towards the Americans and saying hold your lines,
neither advance nor give way to the rear. So that's
sixteen minutes to go. Guntha might have believed he'd had
to regain his honor and prove his allegiance to the
(08:16):
United States. Two German machine gun squads manning a roadblock
counted down the war's remaining minutes. So they were sitting
up the road in there with their machine guns counting
them down, and Private Henry Gunther decided that he would
salvage his reputation in the last few minutes of the war,
(08:36):
so he suddenly charged towards the machine gun nest with
his fixed bayonet. His comrades yelled at him to stop,
as did the bewildered Germans in their broken English. But
he didn't know. Didn't he know? Should I say the
war was minutes from its end? Of course he did.
If he heard the pleas, he ignored them. So a
(08:58):
five round burst from the German gun struck Gunther in
the left temple. Steve, he died instantly, his body collapsed
in the mud. The time was ten fifty nine am.
How about that for a story?
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Well, but what surprises me, Jamie is that you were
intent on telling that story rather than listening me to
tell you about Romania.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
No, I'm not interested. This is about This is my show,
not yours, Steve. You've got your show on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Right,
this is my show.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Well it was a good story, Jamie, if you want
me to you.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Probably poorly told, But isn't it amazing that you would
do that to try and salvage your reputation in the
last sixteen minutes of the war. So he Private Henry
Gunther was the last man to officially die on Armistice Day.
Apparently Steve has another fact for you. About two thy
seven hundred and fifty people died on Armistice Day in
(09:56):
Europe between five am effectively or sunlight, no doubt and
eleven o'clock. What a waste of life?
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Well it's yes, Well it's a sell a tree story
and some details that you've given us all Jamie, and
will be wiser for it.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Well, I think your slot's all the better for the story, Steve.
Great to chat mate, and I do seriously hope you
get some rain and not only Central Hawks Bay but
on all of the Hawk's Bay.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Good. No, I'm hoping to. We've got our fingers crossed.
And just like to point it, I'm your only long
serving correspondent that quit and wasn't guessed. So I've got something.
I've got something.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Now, well, you're not my longest serving correspondent. He's up
at the end of the hour. Chris rus I did.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
It for over twenty years and all for a Dixie
Chuck CD.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
I think you were overpaid. Steve, love you like a brother.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Setting Jamie Byke.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Here we go it, Steve Wan Harris. You can listen
to Steve if you're in Central Hawk's Bay on the cock.
He's our on Central FM Tuesdays and Thursdays. The other
three days of the week, you get the country.
But sitting in for the Prime Minister Christopher Luxen, who
normally kicks off the show. He'll be on the show
on Friday from christ Church is Steve wyn Harris, who
vicariously claims he could have been Prime minister. Hello Steve,
if you'd accepted the offer to stand for Parliament many
years ago.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Yeah, by both National and by Labor and I tea
them both down, Jamie.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Well, that smartest move you ever made, other than marrying Jane,
I think. But Steve, you let let's face it, you
used to be on the show. You used to be
a regular because I needed a bit of a wet
liberal on the show and you filled that void nicely.
Are you a Labor Party apologist?
Speaker 2 (00:39):
No, I'm just I'm in the center.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
You know.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
It was a bit of pooled to see the previous
government going, you know, as left wing as it did
with all their dogmas and probably but the same at
the moment with the two big tails on the dog
and that's probably one to be more right wing governments.
I just want to be in the center. I want
us to be in the middle, Jamie.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
While the middles are safe. Z Well, come we might
come back to politics. I've got a great story about
the last man who died in World War One. Remind
me to squeeze that one out before the end of
our our chat, Steve. But I want to talk to
you about the I guess the big is Shue in
Hawks Bay. You're based in central Hawk's Bay at the moment,
and that is the dry You are standing out like
(01:19):
a sore thumb on the Kneewa or Earth Science as
en Z Drought Indicator MAPE.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yeah, very dry. Many of us have only had half
of an annual rainfall bequeathed a nice easy winter and
a fantastic lambing and carving through the spring because it
was so dry. But those winds kicked in and no
late spring rains have come. Although there has been a
bit of a change the last couple of days, but
just a bit overcast. There's a bit of drizzle around.
(01:48):
A few places got a thunderstorm, not many, and most
people have had two or three mills, so you know,
barely enough other than make you feel better. So people,
the hills have gone off brownd off quite fast, and
the crops are struggling. Any dry land crops, including you know,
schoot and beef farmers brescas hours have struck, direct drilled
(02:09):
and to sprayed out paddocks. They've struck and just a
few meals ie and they desperately needed. Only ten or
twenty meals would be good. So we keep our fingers crossed.
But the good news is I had to look at
the saw and anomaly from last year, and we're as
dry as we were last year. We were really worried,
and then we got a bit of rain in early December,
and then of course it rained right during Christmas New
Year and bequeathed this a really good late summer and autumn.
(02:33):
So you know, it's not too late, but it's getting close.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Well, there is talk of a La Nina, which would
play into your hands, wouldn't it if it did turn
around that way? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:43):
I spec in eighty two eighty three when we discovered
El Nino and I started writing a bit about it.
At that stage, I thought, you know, l Dino good,
I mean El Nino bad, Lar Nina good. Because at
eighty two eighty three drought it started blowing as like
it did a couple of weeks ago, a few weeks ago,
blowing in September, and it never stopped until May. It
was incessant gale force winds and the fair paut transporation
(03:06):
was horrendous and it drove me in and be mad.
But subsequently, you know, we've had probably as many Lamina droughts.
They tend to be autumn droughts tend to be a
nicer drought, it's not as windy. But and then of
course there's the years where Lanina brings a cyclone. So
you know that only having half our average rainfall at
the moment, they could be rectified at Christmas with a
(03:26):
cyclone and we could get through a four hundred MILLI
who knows you.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Sent me a text during or after yesterday's show accusing
me of being a bit tough on Damien O'Connor. For
the life of me, I can't see why we're sending
him or any backbench MP opposition MP to the other
side of the world. I mean, the government's trying to
preach austerity when it comes to spending. They're not leading
(03:49):
by example there.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Well, I guess if you were consistent and had been
getting stuck into the shadow Minister of Trade in the
National Party and now a government, that would be fair enough.
I guess you know, it's damnutes possible. It could be
Minister of Trade in the next government. For these guys
to maintain relationships, it's no bad thing. But yeah, if
(04:13):
it's someone with a really low rank portfolio, it's some
backbencher in the Greens or something like that, I'd agree
with the entirely.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Okay, I was going to talk to you earlier this morning.
I did catch up with farmer Tom Martin. He was
holiday and believe it or not, in Turkey in the Stanbull.
I know that you've been there. Did you use the
stan Bull as your gateway to get to Gyllipoli?
Speaker 2 (04:37):
We got to Istanbul and we're running out of time
and money and we just loved this Tembul so much
we decided not to do that. It's a big day,
eighteen hours on a bus down and he spent about
six or seven hours at Gallipoli. We loved this Tembul
so much. We said, right, you know, if we have
to come back to Europe again, because we've got a
son lives we've been there for a son's wedding recently.
(04:57):
If we have to come back here in the next
two or three years, we're definitely coming back. To Stambul
and Turkey because the Turks are fantastic, and we'll do
it properly, go down to Glipoy properly rather than do
a rush trip. But yeah, we were just very taken
with a Stambul and got on a fairy. Don't don't
do one of those expensive cruises up the Bosorus. Just
get on the on the commercial fairy and we went
all the way up to the Bosphorus and climbed up a
(05:17):
big hill to ruined cars and looked at the at
the Black Sea and it was just fantastic, great city,
favorite city.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Why doesn't surprise me? It took the cheap option. Steve Well,
join the stage to your life and we're going to
talk farm succession with Lawrence Field shortly. You should be
treating the long suffering Jane.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Yeah, I mean we were away for seven weeks. You've
got to make the pennies last. I booked two star
hotels just above the hostels to try and keep the
wife happy. But you know, if you're going to do
a long trip like that, you can't. You can't swan
around a four or five star hotels for very long, Jamie.
So yeah, I'm more generous with other people than myself.
I should say, well.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
That doesn't say much. Hey, do you know the story
of the last official death of World War One? A
man who sought redemption? Have you heard the story, Steve?
Speaker 2 (06:06):
I think it's vaguely familiar. I wouldn't be surprised if
you've already told it to your audience.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
But now I haven't told it to my audience. I
wanted to tell it to hear the last night, but
she cut me off. A guy by the name you
know what it's like in radio Steve. Yah, Yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Thought you were interviewing me and not telling your stories.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
I just want to get the story out, and you're
the only opportunity in the show because all the other
guests are really interesting. So I'm thinking, how can I
just up Steve's spot? Awe, But I could tell my
story about the last man who died in World War II.
So he was a twenty three year old private by
the name of Henry Gunther. He had a fance fiancee
(06:50):
should I say, kind of read my own writing. And
he had a comfortable desk job at a Baltimore bank. Okay,
he was an American, a handsome mustachio grandson of German immigrants.
So he got shipped off to France at near the
end of the war July nineteen eighteen, and he became
his company's supply sergeant. But when military censores, you know, Steve,
(07:13):
how they used to read the letters. Yeah, so they
read his and he'd written a letter back to a
friend complaining about life in the trenches as you would,
and urging his mate to avoid serving his country. So
the army census read this and they demoted him to private. Now,
the old fiance, she didn't show much loyalty A but
(07:34):
like our wives when we're on the radio, Steve, as
soon as he got promoted or demoted to a private,
she broke off the engagement. So it's ten forty four
am I quarter to eleven on November the eleventh, remembering
that the armistice was signed at five o'clock, but hostilities
(07:55):
were to end at eleven o'clock. Eleven o'clock a runner
came to towards the Americans and saying hold your lines,
neither advance nor give way to the rear. So that's
sixteen minutes to go. Guntha might have believed he'd had
to regain his honor and prove his allegiance to the
(08:16):
United States. Two German machine gun squads manning a roadblock
counted down the war's remaining minutes. So they were sitting
up the road in there with their machine guns counting
them down, and Private Henry Gunther decided that he would
salvage his reputation in the last few minutes of the war,
(08:36):
so he suddenly charged towards the machine gun nest with
his fixed bayonet. His comrades yelled at him to stop,
as did the bewildered Germans in their broken English. But
he didn't know. Didn't he know? Should I say the
war was minutes from its end? Of course he did.
If he heard the pleas, he ignored them. So a
(08:58):
five round burst from the German gun struck Gunther in
the left temple. Steve, he died instantly, his body collapsed
in the mud. The time was ten fifty nine am.
How about that for a story?
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Well, but what surprises me, Jamie is that you were
intent on telling that story rather than listening me to
tell you about Romania.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
No, I'm not interested. This is about This is my show,
not yours, Steve. You've got your show on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Right,
this is my show.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Well it was a good story, Jamie, if you want
me to you.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Probably poorly told, But isn't it amazing that you would
do that to try and salvage your reputation in the
last sixteen minutes of the war. So he Private Henry
Gunther was the last man to officially die on Armistice Day.
Apparently Steve has another fact for you. About two thy
seven hundred and fifty people died on Armistice Day in
(09:56):
Europe between five am effectively or sunlight, no doubt and
eleven o'clock. What a waste of life?
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Well it's yes, Well it's a sell a tree story
and some details that you've given us all Jamie, and
will be wiser for it.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Well, I think your slot's all the better for the story, Steve.
Great to chat mate, and I do seriously hope you
get some rain and not only Central Hawks Bay but
on all of the Hawk's Bay.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Good. No, I'm hoping to. We've got our fingers crossed.
And just like to point it, I'm your only long
serving correspondent that quit and wasn't guessed. So I've got something.
I've got something.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Now, well, you're not my longest serving correspondent. He's up
at the end of the hour. Chris rus I did.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
It for over twenty years and all for a Dixie
Chuck CD.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
I think you were overpaid. Steve, love you like a brother.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Setting Jamie Byke.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Here we go it, Steve Wan Harris. You can listen
to Steve if you're in Central Hawk's Bay on the cock.
He's our on Central FM Tuesdays and Thursdays. The other
three days of the week, you get the country.
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