Official documents show the Government did not consider the environment when awarding an East Cape off shore oil exploration permit.

Jessica and Damon Ward today appealed for people to take five minutes to check all around their properties in case their "curious little boy" had got lost and taken shelter.

A police dive squad is again scouring the Waimata River as the search for missing four-year-old Gisborne boy Lucas Ward enters its third day.

The frantic mother of a Gisborne preschooler was last night clinging to the hope her boy is alive, more than 40 hours after he vanished.

Gisborne residents are being urged to search their properties for Lucas Ward, 4.

The police dive squad is searching a Gisborne river close to the home where a four-year-old boy disappeared yesterday.

Respected Ngati Porou kaumatua and historian, Dr Te Kapunga Matemoana Dewes, known as 'Koro', has died.

Lucas Ward's family 'just turned around and he wasn't there', police say. Photo / NZPA

A man arrested during a major police drugs operation offended from his home and should forfeit it, the Crown says.

The debate over Moko's final resting place has been settled with the friendly bottlenose dolphin to be buried...

A massive slip that has cut off road access to 18 houses north of Gisborne has been described as "nature at its best".