Whatever became of accuracy

During my dear old English lessons at school in the early'60s we were taught the art of writing letters.

It is an art which I fear is sadly close to extinction these days, as the immediacy of electronic messaging continues to evolve at great pace.

We were told how to lay out our own address, and where to position the address of the receiver. And on the envelope we had to be very clear and concise about laying down those addresses again.

The address of the recipient on the front and the sender's address on the back.

We had to be doubly sure that all details were correct. "If you are sending a 10 shilling postal order to someone and the address is wrong, then that is completely unsatisfactory," the teacher barked. "Accuracy, accuracy, accuracy," he continued.

"Check to ensure everything is correct."

He was a very good teacher and, while I accept that my skills of using words and general grammar are not exactly smoothly honed, when I send something away, or order something, I get the details right.

Unfortunately, not all teachers appear to have driven that message home firmly enough to others of my era, or who came after me.

The simple act of providing the correct names, using the correct words, has led to two completely unnecessary hits on New Zealand exporters over the past fortnight.

International trade requires certification in accordance with contracts and agreements which have been forged.

Accurate certification. If a label or names on a document or shipment don't match what's essentially been laid out in a contract, then the stop sign comes out.

As it did when a huge shipment of lamb to China arrived in Shanghai. Basically, the paperwork was flawed as there had been an unaccounted for name change on the export documentation. So it sat on the docks and not in the shops.

The same thing happened with a shipment of apples (100 containers' worth from Hawke's Bay), which arrived in Russia back in March. They were held up for 11 days because of a name change of the export certification. Someone, in a government ministry somewhere, got it wrong.

"Check to ensure everything is correct," that teacher once said. I did to ensure I didn't jeopardise 10 shillings.

Seems when millions of dollars are involved, it's not so important any more.