A side effect would be a massive over supply of lumberjacks allied to the need for dozens of economics professors to study a dead economy with 90% unemployment. But as Dr Mike points out: no pain, no gain.
A second revelation comes from Cawthron Institute scientist Dr John Hayes whose research shows that taking too much water from rivers is bad for fish.
Regional councils may need to increase minimum flows and reduce water extraction .This research is internationally recognised and will have global implications.
Many of us who have lived on the banks of the Tukituki for years have noticed the same thing: In years of extreme drought the river becomes de oxygenated and fish start to die. Regretfully, few of us have been offered jobs as professors of fresh water ecology.
More news you already knew comes from Professor Paul Spoonley, also of Massey University. He has worked out that the regions are in decline and the government could do more to arrest stagnation. He is right on both counts and it is gratifying to see that once again a university professor has noticed what most of us have known for years.
Porangahau and Te Pohue are dying by degrees and the government could do a lot to arrest the decline by investing as much in the countryside as it does in the cities.
Professor Paul states that 33% of our population lives in Auckland and that number will rise to 40 % by 2027.
As more votes are concentrated in cities, government expenditure follows, to the detriment of the provinces. The government could do a lot to rejuvenate the provinces, but why would they bother?
As Lawrence Yule or Anna Lorck will soon find out when one of them troops down to the capital to plead for resources for Hawke's Bay, the is limited enthusiasm and even less incentive in Wellington for supporting the provinces when there are many more votes to be harvested in the big cities.
$60 million on the Kapiti expressway, a billion for the Transmission Gully bypass. Put the kybosh on electrifying the railways, a project that would benefit the whole country and not just the metropolitans.
Give Auckland several billion for roading and tens of millions for housing and infrastructure.
The Film Commission gave Peter Jackson $95 million to make ""The Hobbit ""in Wellington. The rest of the film industry was gifted $200 million.
The Cities get investment handouts. The Provinces get social welfare payments.
There are plenty of ways of helping the provinces and shrinking Auckland. One obvious option is to move the Navy out of Devonport and send it to New Plymouth or Timaru or both.
The navy doesn't exist as a fighting force. Its entire firepower is equivalent to less than one fully kitted out RAF Tornado, so it makes sense to free up thousands of houses on the North Shore and expand a provincial centre while reducing pressure on Auckland housing and infrastructure. The same goes for any number of other government institutions. But nothing that obvious will ever happen under any of the current regimes.
The quickest way to arrest the decline of the provinces is to start a political party based on rural New Zealand and grab a dozen or so seats off the major and moribund existing players.
The Greens, the Maoris, Winston Peters and Peter Dunne have shown how the noisy wheels get the grease, whether they need it or not. Professor Spoonley is stating the blindingly obvious.
Scattered and divided with no coherent political representation, the provinces are progressively doomed by lack of numbers compared to the cities .We are to become at best marginalised and at worst plantation afforested.
It is a stirring call to action or failing that, a stirring call to build tree huts. Or perhaps, accept the harsh reality, leave for the city and get a job as a professor.
Tim Gilbertson is a farmer, former mayor of Central Hawke's Bay and former Hawke's Bay regional councillor. His column appears every fortnight on a Saturday. All opinions are his and not those of Hawke's Bay Today.