Ratepayers’ money spent on sister cities, an unnecessary yearly expense of $15,000, can be used for our much needed sort-out of sewer and stormwater problems, or food and housing for our homeless. There’s talk of a budget surplus of $3.7 million...
Tairawhiti Roads has urged drivers using the Gladstone Road Bridge to stick to the 30kmh speed restriction in place on the bridge until the walkway and cycleway project is completed. Changes have been made to traffic management in place on the...
A SECOND accident in nine years has left an East Coast family asking the community for help to find a place to live. Fire burnt Matt Sidney’s Tolaga Bay home to the ground on November 15 and left the 48-year-old with serious burns to his hands and...
Five-year resource consents for waste overflow into rivers ‘counter-productive’
A private investigator is appealing for photos of the 2019 Tuia 250 event at Tolaga Bay as his inquiries ramp up into the mystery disappearance of local woman Jamie Kaiwai. Hamish Kerr, who acts for Jamie's family, says the community holds the key to...
Pink Shirt Day a fun day, but with a very serious and important message
THE furore in Parliament and some other major national and international issues should not be allowed to disguise the great question of the moment: who stole our Gisborne summer?Seldom has a summer been so eagerly awaited in the district after...
GISBORNE Dog Training Club has only a dozen or so competing members but hosted more than 10 times that at its annual dog obedience and agility event. Held over Queen’s Birthday Weekend, the two-day New Zealand Kennel Club-affiliated event is one of...
It was good to see the Mayor and Matt Todd at the fascinating talk on lines companies organised by the Chamber of Commerce. It was amazing to see so few in attendance for an impartial analysis of a hot topic, as if those at the heart of the...
BEFRIENDED by an undercover fisheries officer, Elgin Fish Shop owner Dan Chen bought two hauls of illegal paua during an MPI crackdown on black market paua racketeering, Gisborne District Court has heard. Chen claimed it was entrapment; that the...
May I quote from the Newshub article in yesterday's paper, “Perfect storm: Cost of living in on the rise in NZ”.“Over the quarter, the average household spent 10.26 percent of their income on rent and almost 19 percent on food.”What a load...
My recent suggestion that Housing NZ and WINZ should embark on opening up yearly leases on rental properties to provide relief for the housing shortage drew little local response. There was only one or two responses declaring such a scheme to be...
More than 25 White Ribbon Riders (WRR) rolled into Gisborne this week to spread awareness on domestic violence against woman. The riders are more than half way through their 13hour trip that started in Hamilton and will end in Rotorua. The group spoke...
AMONG the 150,000 secondary school students around the country to log in to the New Zealand Qualifications Authority website this morning and check their NCEA results was Gisborne Girls’ High School leaver Brooke Armstrong. Her final Year 13...
Would the gentleman who witnessed a collision between a grey Nissan Navara and a blue Mazda CX3 in the Countdown carpark at about 11am on Thursday, February 15, and who provided information to the driver of the Mazda, please contact me on 027 223...
Tairawhiti's vaccination rates are increasing, with the region expected to hit the 90 percent double-jabbed milestone in mid-January. Latest data shows 84.3 percent of the eligible population now double-jabbed. Of the general eligible population, 90.6...
A COMBINED open day at a fire-damaged house in Ruatoria on Thursday drew a sizeable crowd and the fire service and Housing New Zealand have hailed the exercise a success. The day demonstrated the impact of a house fire and the importance of keeping...
Te Araroa residents want a cattle-stop installed by Karakatuwhero Bridge to help prevent a problem with wandering stock. That was the main outcome of a “full and frank” meeting in the township this week, said Gisborne District Council Waiapu ward...
Katy Kilvington is a colourful nurse. She is based at the War Memorial Theatre Covid-19 testing station, where she has used her nursing and sewing skills — the latter the reason for why the staff are wearing colourful cloth scrub caps. Doctors and...
TOLAGA Bay community volunteers combined forces with school students to protect a native reserve from a harmful weed. The 18-hectare block of rare kahikatea forest called Parker's Bush was infested with Japanese honeysuckle. Weedbusters and QE11...
Four occupants of a van suffered multiple injuries on Saturday night when their vehicle and a New Zealand Army light armoured vehicle (LAV) collided on the Tahaenui Bridge between Nuhaka and Whakaki. The crash happened at about 7pm that night and...
MOST voters in this week's Herald webpoll have been glad of the extensive coverage following the death of Queen Elizabeth II. The question was “Do you appreciate the outpouring and extensive coverage of the life and times of the Queen following her...
Our U3A discussion group focused on “Climate Tipping Points” this month. One tipping point, which seems even more serious than sea level rise, is deforestation. According to the World Resources Institute, if “Tropical Forest Deforestation”...
NEWS that the Government will investigate the feasibility of creating a cycleway between Gisborne and Napier does not mean Hawke’s Bay Regional Council will stop negotiations to lease a section of the rail line between the two cities. The...
GISBORNE radio communications company Colvins Ltd has won a worldwide competition run by Tait Communications for the company that puts its radios to the toughest tests. Tait is a multinational company based in Christchurch that exports 95 percent of...
A wet day has caused me to reflect, and I think it is a good time to share more in the paper about the council's recent activities for the benefit of the community. I wonder how many readers have experienced the frustration of large and long Zoom...
THE finalists have been announced in the Beef + Lamb New Zealand Awards and one of them hails from Gisborne. Rere farmer Sandra Matthews from Te Kopae Station, who was involved in the creation and development of Farming Women Tairāwhiti, has been...
As some may know, I do regular analysis of weather data provided by our weather agencies. Farmers and gardeners may be interested to know where we are at heading towards summer. The latest figures show Gisborne has now had five months in a row of...
TWO new employment initiatives will help create job opportunities for more than 100 people at Tolaga Bay. The projects were announced by Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones and Employment Minister Willie Jackson yesterday. They will be...
A Gisborne business has come up with a way to make contact tracing for other businesses simple. It's an app you can use from your smartphone or laptop. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced last week businesses would have to keep track of other...
A PLAN to restore the Raukumara Forest Park by eradicating pests through different methods such as 1080, traps, ground culls and bait stations is proposed by the people who are directly connected to the area. The Raukumara Pae Maunga Restoration...
Gisborne policewoman Juanita Whitiaera (Whiti) Timutimu says her Queen’s Birthday honour is one that “belongs to many others in the community”.Ms Timutimu has been awarded a Queen’s Service Medal for services to criminal justice programmes...
Despite being at the heart of Covid-19 economic impacts, the operator of Gisborne's airport, port and regional lines company owner, Eastland Group, says it is “well-positioned” to weather the storm — with no need for displays of...
If you have not yet seen Rocket Lab’s Humanity Star, you have missed it. It came out of orbit at 2.15am on Friday. It burned up completely on re-entry, leaving no trace said Rocket Lab’s communications manager Morgan Bailey. It re-entered...