Harrod’s boss, New Zealander James McArthur is profiled on the DomPost’s front page this morning.

His mother, Thorndon artist Piera McArthur, is proud of him. "He’s had some amazing jobs" she says..

I’m sure she would not have been thinking of the job I recall.

James was a superb student navvy helping me excavate a basement under our first house. He turned up from Student Job Search and was blistered by the end of the first day. Over the next several months he was the one constant as a succession of his friends came, couldn’t take the pace, and did not come again.

I thought of him at a recent election meeting when a worried parent complained that her children did not bother to work when they could, because their interest free student loans did not worry them as they did her.

[Disclaimer – James’ sister Brigid, a partner at my firm – Chapman Tripp, had no prior knowledge of this praise for her brother]