The Press back issues from March 2006:
'Bribery' scandal deepens
Mar 01, 2006; ... Today The Press can reveal more details about school contracts"bribery" which has allegedly lined the pockets of individuals at thecost of schools and taxpayers. The schools' kickbacks scandal, which was revealed first in ThePress on Saturday, deepened yesterday with questions in ...
'Serial casualty' in costly sea rescue
Mar 01, 2006; ... A "serial casualty" tied up the Canterbury Coastguard during a 12-hour sea rescue north of Christchurch yesterday. Marine controller Jim Lilley said a Russian-born New Zealandskipper, rescued off Wellington nine days ago, was towed intoLyttelton Harbour after making a mayday call ...
Minister apologises to some students; Benson-Pope running out of rope; Losing portfolios: what does it take; BENSON-POPE ALLEGATIONS
Mar 01, 2006; ... Social Development Minister David Benson-Pope has said sorry tosome of his former students but says he has no recollection ofcomplaints against him during his days as a teacher. Yesterday, Benson-Pope survived another Opposition attempt toforce his resignation over claims he ...
Man survives being hit by coastal train
Mar 01, 2006; ... A man who was struck by a passenger train near Kaikoura yesterdayis being described by rescuers as a "very, very lucky boy." The 19-year-old Wanaka man was last night in Christchurch Hospitalwith serious chest and shoulder injuries and broken ribs after beinghit by the south-bound ...
Bus fire put out
Mar 01, 2006 ... A bus fire on a busy Christchurch road was brought under controlby fire crews yesterday. The bus was travelling down ...
Clarification
Mar 01, 2006 ... An article about the international firearm safety seminarpublished in The Press on Thursday, February 23, mentioned UNofficial Tsutomu ...
Westport water supply dries up
Mar 01, 2006; ... Westport residents are going without showers as their councilurges them to redouble efforts to conserve water in the face ofcritical shortages. Council officials fear the town could run dry within a day or two. Even as local authorities put out a fresh plea for more ...
Senior academic sacked
Mar 01, 2006; ... Canterbury University has sacked a well-known senior academic forserious misconduct, but is refusing to say what prompted the action. Dr Bruce Waldman, who is renowned for his research on frogs, wasdismissed on February 17 after more than a decade as a lecturer atthe School of ...
Land costs drive house-price surge
Mar 01, 2006; ... House prices more than doubled in real terms over 25 years, newresearch shows. Inflation-adjusted figures show the average New Zealand houseprice rose 105 per cent and the average section 286% between 1981 and2004, according to the study from the Centre for Housing ...
Family to join search
Mar 01, 2006 ... The family of missing English tourist Elizabeth Thomson will joinrescuers scouring Mount Aicken in Arthurs Pass after an extensivesearch yesterday found no further trace of her. Fears are growing for Thomson, 55, who has been missing sinceSaturday. Thomson's husband told ...
Murder suspect, 17, granted bail
Mar 01, 2006; ... High school prefect and 1st XV rugby player Daniel KerisianoSenelale has been granted bail on a charge of murdering Timaru manMark Anthony Smith, 30. Senelale, 17, was hugged by his mother and well-wishers as he satwith his head in his hands before a bail hearing in the ...
Anger over call-girl TV episode
Mar 01, 2006; ... Christchurch's image is being damaged by publicity about itsprostitution problems, city councillors say. A 60 Minutes television item on Monday night entitled Sex and theCity looked at prostitution in Christchurch and included an interviewwith Councillor Gail Sheriff. The ...
Jail for arson
Mar 01, 2006 ... INVERCARGILL -- Two men responsible for an arson that razed akohanga reo in Invercargill last year were sent to jail afterappearing in the Invercargill District Court yesterday. Quintin AllanPearsey, 25, and Bevan Jade Kerr, 18, received jail terms of threeyears and 2 1/2 years, ...
No charges
Mar 01, 2006 ... LAKE WAKATIPU -- A woman whose car plunged down a cliff into LakeWakatipu in September last year, killing two of her children, wouldnot be charged, police said yesterday. Seven- year-old Thomas JohnPoplawski and his sister, Georgia Rose Poplawski, five, were buckledin the back seat of ...
Fire suspicious
Mar 01, 2006 ... QUEENSTOWN -- Investigators have found a fire that destroyed 50haof scrubland on Waitiri Station, between Queenstown and Cromwell, wassuspicious. Queenstown Lakes ...
Biker injured
Mar 01, 2006 ... WANAKA -- An American woman is in hospital after crashing herHarley Davidson into her husband's motorbike as they were touringbetween Wanaka and Haast yesterday. The 53-year-old was taken byhelicopter to ...
Hang-gliding firm back in business
Mar 01, 2006; ... Hang-gliding and paragliding company Extreme Air is operatingagain after a tandem hang-gliding crash last week that left a pilotin hospital with serious head injuries. The pilot, James Rooney, who is in his 30s and from the UnitedStates, is in a high dependency unit at Dunedin ...
Five-year-old killed cycling onto road
Mar 01, 2006; ... A five-year-old boy was killed just metres from his neighbour'shouse yesterday after colliding with a car in Wakefield, near Nelson. Detective Sergeant Kevin Tiernan, of the Nelson police, said CodyStevens was cycling out of a neighbour's driveway heading towards hisschool bus stop ...
Man threatened to kill sister and her children
Mar 01, 2006 ... A Christchurch mother thought she and her children were going todie when her enraged brother held a sawn-off shotgun to her head andthreatened to "take them all out". Rachel Stevenson had the double-barrelled shotgun held 7cm fromher face by her brother, Michael, during the ...
The way to a thinking caveman's heart
Mar 01, 2006; ... The secret of why gentlemen prefer blondes stretches back to theIce Age, new research suggests. As women resort to the bottle to lighten their locks, researchshows that they could be doing so to appeal to the caveman lurking inmen's hearts. The research at a Scottish ...
Zimbabwe cup side 'welcome'
Mar 01, 2006; ... The Government says the Zimbabwe cricket team will be welcome inNew Zealand if a bid to host the 2011 World Cup is successful. But Immigration Minister David Cunliffe denied there had been apolicy change and said the Labour- led Government still regarded theZimbabwe regime of ...
Loyalty schemes popular; How schools property contracts system works
Mar 01, 2006 ... The "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours philosophy" isendemic in the building industry, contractors tell The Press as itinvestigates allegations that school contracts have lined the pocketsof individuals at the cost of schools and taxpayers. Cementing business ...
Man survives being hit by train
Mar 01, 2006 ... A man who was struck by a passenger train near Kaikoura yesterdayis being described by rescuers as a "very, very lucky boy." The 19-year-old Wanaka man was last night in Christchurch Hospitalwith serious chest and shoulder injuries and broken ribs after beinghit by the south-bound ...
'Serial casualty' rescued
Mar 01, 2006; ... A "serial casualty" tied up Canterbury Coastguard during a 12-hour rescue north of Christchurch yesterday. Marine controller Jim Lilley said Russian-born Christchurchskipper Gennady Shcherbanovsky was rescued off Wellington nine daysago, and yesterday was towed into Lyttelton ...
Rangiora sewage piped to Kaiapoi
Mar 01, 2006; ... Some of Rangiora's sewage is being piped to Kaiapoi in a bid bythe Waimakariri District Council to prevent consent breaches at itsRangiora plant. In another move to meet consent conditions and avoid possiblecourt action, the council yesterday filed a variation applicationwith ...
Gap to Maori, Islanders a worry
Mar 01, 2006; ... Maori and Pacific Island New Zealanders are still facing socialand economic inequalities , according to a report from the HumanRights Commission. Race Relations Commissioner Joris de Bres said the gap betweenMaori and Pacific Islanders and the rest of New Zealand wasunacceptably ...
Flip, that's no regular running race
Mar 01, 2006 ... Ben Stewart, of the Christ's College team, races towards thefinish line in yesterday's annual Shrove Tuesday pancake races inCathedral Square. A ring of spectators looked on as competitors inthe relay race flipped their pancake ...
Cataract operations to begin
Mar 01, 2006; ... Four patients will have eye surgery at Canterbury's CharityHospital today -- the first volunteer cataract operations to beperformed in New Zealand. The two men and two women, who declined to speak to the media,would have hour-long operations to restore their eyesight in ...
Census 2006 helpline probed
Mar 01, 2006; ... Census 2006 has launched an internal investigation after ahelpline worker told a Christchurch woman the census internet formwas causing major problems and should not have gone live. Registered nurse Stephanie Nye contacted The Press with herconcerns yesterday. "It's just ...
Girls' abuser claimed it did no harm
Mar 01, 2006; ... A man jailed for subjecting two young girls to sustained sexualabuse claimed he did not think he was hurting them. Brett James Hayward, 33, a computer worker, was sentenced to sixyears jail by Christchurch District Court Judge Stephen Erber, whosaid there was clear and ...
Desecrator says he was molested
Mar 01, 2006; ... A man with a string of convictions for attacking churches is oneof 17 boys who claim they were sexually molested by Catholic brotherBernard Kevin McGrath in the 1970s. The man, now 44, said he ended up serving several jail terms forthe attacks because going past churches ...
At-risk teens urged to get shots
Mar 01, 2006; ... Prizes and posters warning of the disease-spreading risks ofkissing and yelling over loud music are being used to reach mostlocal youths yet to be vaccinated against meningococcal B. Only 42 per cent of 18 and 19-year-olds in Canterbury havecompleted the three-injection course of ...
Minister defends envoys' chef bills
Mar 01, 2006; ... Foreign Minister Winston Peters has found himself defending topNew Zealand diplomats in four foreign capitals for spending more than$300,000 a year on live-in chefs. The revelation of the cost of the full-time professional chefscame in Peters' written response to a question in ...
Waipara Wine Village in limbo
Mar 01, 2006; ... Building consents for a $20 million complex to showcase Waiparawines are still waiting to be taken from the Hurunui District Councilby the developer 10 months after the project was unveiled. Calls to the chairman of directors of Waipara Wine Village RichardHunter and fellow ...
Bipolar disorder study
Mar 01, 2006; ... Researchers at the Christchurch School of Medicine have beenawarded a $1 million grant to study the mental health condition,bipolar disorder. As many as one in 100 people are thought to be affected by theillness, which is also known as manic depression, and ischaracterised by ...
Careless driver escapes jail
Mar 01, 2006 ... A Chinese student whose car crashed off the Summit Road inChristchurch last year -- killing one of his friends and injuringthree others -- has escaped jail. Christchurch District Court judge David Saunders told GuoshuoYang, 20, a long term of community work would be more punitive ...
Fake-suicide threats end in a jail sentence
Mar 01, 2006 ... A man's repeated fake suicide threats have landed him in jail. Wayne Nicholas Pepperell, 42, was yesterday jailed for four monthsby Christchurch District Court Judge David Saunders after admittingtwo counts of wasting police time by making false statements. The court was told ...
SI bottle heap grows; Call to reintroduce 'bottle deposit' system
Mar 01, 2006; ... The South Island is facing a glass recycling crisis as mountainsof bottles pile up. In December last year, Auckland company, O-I, the only large-scale bottle manufacturer and recycler of glass in New Zealand,introduced a quota system, reducing the amount of glass they ...
Govt urged to support workplace fitness
Mar 01, 2006; ... A national fitness body says if the Government is so concernedabout obesity it should support companies that provide employees withgym memberships rather than penalising them with high fringe benefittaxes (FBT). Fitness New Zealand chief executive Richard Beddie said the ...
Trust to ready iwi for fish in a year
Mar 01, 2006; ... The Maori Fisheries Trust plans to ensure all iwi are properlystructured to receive their share of the national fisheriesallocation by this time next year. Te Ohu Kaimoana (TOKM), the Maori Fisheries Trust, held its firstannual meeting at the weekend and chairman Shane Jones said ...
Fire-rule breaches to be prosecuted
Mar 01, 2006; ... Farmers caught flouting fire rules will be prosecuted and actionis likely against some in Mid- Canterbury. Ashburton principal rural fire officer Don Geddes said somefarmers were not checking weather forecasts, or taking notice ofthem, before lighting fires. Geddes said ...
Burglaries at cancer fundraiser
Mar 01, 2006; ... Drug addict Lyndon Greg Kuru burgled the tents of supportersgathered for a cancer fundraiser. Judge Michael Green described the crimes as "contemptible". Kuru, 34, pleaded guilty in the Ashburton District Court to sixcharges of burglary, entering tents at a cancer fundraiser ...
Scottish GP claims to beat Tapanui flu
Mar 01, 2006; ... A Scottish GP has brought a specialised "talk therapy" to NewZealand that he claims can help people overcome the debilitatingchronic fatigue syndrome. The syndrome, also known in New Zealand as Tapanui flu after theWest Otago town where it was first identified, causes symptoms ...
POLICE CRIME STOP
Mar 01, 2006 ... Are these photos yours? Property was seized by police last August which may be stolen. It included a Canon Powershot A80 digital camera containingholiday photographs (above) taken in Port Douglas, Australia,featuring a young couple. Can anyone identify the persons in ...
It's true: NZ is the land of the rip-off
Mar 01, 2006 ... Since 1998 I have been spending a considerable portion of myretirement as a summer tourist in New Zealand, originating andfinishing a round-the- world journey here in your beautiful countrywith my annual big spend for round-the-world flight tickets,accommodation, food, rentals, petrol, ...
Overall impression
Mar 01, 2006 ... Having just returned to Sydney from my first visit toChristchurch, I thought I'd share the good, bad and ugly of myexperience. The good -- the unfailing good humour and helpfulness of all thepeople we met. The bad -- ...
Not dumping
Mar 01, 2006 ... Gareth Morgan asserted that Singapore Airlines relies ongovernment funding, enabling our airline to dump surplus capacity onNew Zealand routes (Feb 18). This is incorrect. Singapore Airlines is a public company and has been listed on theSingapore Stock Exchange for the past 20 ...
Help for us?
Mar 01, 2006 ... Ahead of the meeting about Air New Zealand engineering services,Christchurch Mayor Garry Moore indicated that he would have beenprepared to help bail out the business, and he would look towards thecouncil injecting money into the airline's engineering operations inChristchurch (Feb 24) ....
At public's expense
Mar 01, 2006 ... It is ironic that it takes a visiting American at LincolnUniversity to do a major analysis on the best real estate deal forfarmers since Samuel Butler arrived in 1860 (Feb 23). Unfortunately, there is public ignorance nationally about tenurereview of the high country, a massive ...
Overly simplistic
Mar 01, 2006 ... It is fortunate that the pessimism of James Lovelock is not sharedby anything more than a mouthy minority (Feb 24). His original contention, published in 1970, that the planet is a"physiological" system adjusting itself over time to homeostaticnorms, was received by the scientific ...
Ruapuna an asset
Mar 01, 2006 ... Ruapuna is immensely important to the ratepayers of Christchurchbecause of the visitor wealth it brings to the city. Race days make asimilar noise intrusion to the public as does an Addington trottingrace day. Ruapuna was deliberately built on the extreme noise flight path ofthe ...
Who uses Ruapuna?
Mar 01, 2006 ... Perhaps clarification is needed regarding the users of RuapunaPark. The speedway is run by the Christchurch Speedway Association, andis under the direction this summer of Springs Promotions. Thespeedway operates 16 nights a year (generally Saturdays) and theprogramme is ...
Lamb by any other name
Mar 01, 2006 ... I have just dined on two chops bought from my local supermarketand described as lamb rib loin chops. They were tough, tasteless; I was not surprised that they had beendiscounted. A lamb is a lamb; ie, up to 12 months old. Anything over that usedto be advertised as hogget or ...
Where's the evidence?
Mar 01, 2006 ... Your articles on suicide appear to give flawed presentations ofboth views (Feb 22). Beautrais offers some subjective evidence forrestricted reporting but suggests that this view is questioned bymedia representatives. Neither she nor the media representativesrefer to any evidence or ...
In a few words
Mar 01, 2006 ... Fonterra rationalises its Mainland investment by consigning manyworkers to the dole. Then the Commerce Commission allows Fonterra tobuy Kapiti after considering whether that would reduce competition.What a farce! JOHN WALDRON It is nice and novel that students can download ...
In a few words
Mar 01, 2006 ... If Rodney Hyde were to take some of his paid time dealing withmatters that affected New Zealand, like crime, rather than worryabout Benson-Pope, he would earn his keep. The average person doesnot care if Benson-Pope saw some schoolgirls in their nighties eightyears ago. PAT ...
Please explain
Mar 01, 2006 ... As a signatory to the agreement between Christchurch City HoldingsLtd and Hutchison Port Holdings Ltd, Bob Lineham (Feb 27) must beaware of conditions attaching to the agreement. Inter alia, one ofthe conditions is that the Minister of Conservation is required towaive the Crown's rights ...
Closed adoption needed
Mar 01, 2006 ... The article headed Foster Children Disturbed explained thepsychological damage caused by interrupted fostering relationships(Feb 27). If the well-being of the child is paramount, then closed adoptionis the only option that gives these unfortunate children a permanentmum and dad ...
That's not old
Mar 01, 2006 ... The primary purpose of journalism is to convey information.Therefore, having given someone's age precisely, why categorise theminto an arbitrary age group? It adds nothing to the information. Thisis a frequent, irritating practice. In the latest example (Feb 25) you give the ...
Heights to depths
Mar 01, 2006 ... What I saw on TV One of the Winter Olympics' closing ceremony wasmagnificent, with a children's choir singing the Slaves Chorus as theOlympic flag was taken down and paraded -- then TV One ads. First anad for TV One's own programme on cleaning toilets, then ones on howto solve your ...
Fails to understand
Mar 01, 2006 ... Philip Temple's unwarranted cultural aggression of Feb 25 cannotgo without riposte. His accusation of an imperfect understanding ofdemocracy regarding the Maori seats reveals a failure to understandimperfect democracy. Originally the seats were an act of prejudice. Today ...
If the cap fits
Mar 01, 2006 ... Sunday afternoon, nice day for a walk. Great day for you low-lifeto break the lock on Granddad's car door and pinch Nana's knittingbag. In ...
Time to get top acts for Christchurch
Mar 01, 2006 ... What is the purpose of having Jade Stadium, the Westpac Centre andQEII Stadium if we cannot attract top acts to Christchurch? With the announcement of the Rolling Stones playing Auckland andWellington and U2 playing only Auckland, I am beginning to wonder ifpromoters think of us ...
Diversionary tactics?
Mar 01, 2006 ... Helen Clark has jumped to the defence of one of her ministersfaced with a potentially career-ending allegation of impropriety on aschool camp. I wonder whether Lianne Dalziel (or John Tamihere) wouldhave appreciated the same support when faced with what might beconsidered lesser ...
Broadcast unstoppable
Mar 01, 2006 ... The public has no way of preventing free-to-air broadcasters fromscreening material that is considered objectionable, unsuitable andlikely to contravene the Broadcasting Standards. C4 ran an episode ofSouth Park that was definitely in this category. The broadcastertotally ignored ...