Crashes, missing persons and a mystery inside a statue: The big stories of May 2024

Te Kuiti's iconic sheep shearing statue. Photo / Brett Phibbs

As the year draws to a close, Waikato Herald is taking stock of 2024. What moved readers most? As part of a 12-day series, Waikato Herald reporter Danielle Zollickhofer looks at the top stories each month. Welcome to day 5: May.

Nationally, May 2024 was a very busy month with several big stories.

The Wairoa Star announced it would close after 103 years of publication, while the Employment Relations Authority ordered TVNZ to enter into mediation with the union over staff redundancies.

Te Pāti Māori and the Toitu Te Tiriti movement held a nationwide day of protest to unify against “the Government’s assault on tangata whenua and Te Tiriti o Waitangi”.

Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter was referred to the privileges committee following complaints that she intimidated National MP Matt Doocey, while former Labour Party MP and Cabinet minister Kiri Allan was convicted of careless driving and failing to accompany a police officer.

Dairy company Fonterra announced plans to sell its iconic brand Anchor and 17 manufacturing sites in New Zealand and overseas as part of a shift towards becoming a global business-to-business supplier of dairy nutrition products.

And the first results for the 2023 New Zealand census were released.

In the Waikato, the month’s road toll reached 11 after a two-car crash killed five people on the outskirts of Hamilton.

The victim of another crash that happened earlier that month was named as former Waipā councillor James Parlane.

Parlane was remembered as a “colourful character” who had an opinion about a lot of things, be it justice, council business, corrections, mental health, housing, the list goes on, and who wasn’t shy to express it.

James Parlane lawyer, 2003.

Meanwhile, data obtained under the Official Information Act has revealed that Waikato police received 1532 missing persons reports in 15 months, which averages to about 3.4 people reported missing each day in the region during that time.

Tattooist of Auschwitz author Heather Morris talked about her best-selling novel’s journey to the miniseries and a special treasure inside Te Kūiti’s shearing statue saw the light of day.

In 1994, shortly after the statue was unveiled, the community came together to create three time capsules that were placed inside it.

At the end of May, the first capsule was opened, with the other two set to follow in 2054 and 2084.

Danielle Zollickhofer is a multimedia journalist based in Hamilton. She joined NZME in 2021 and is writing for the Waikato Herald.

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