Two a penny

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Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia says a decision on Foreshore and Seabed legislation will be revealed in the next two weeks.

The Maori Party wants the legislation repealed and its party president Whatarangi Winiata yesterday said the government had agreed.The controversial Act followed a 2003 Court of Appeal ruling in the Ngati Apa case that made it possible, in some instances, for Maori customary title to convert into freehold title.The previous government was not prepared to accept that position and legislated against the ruling, resulting in widespread unrest among Maori and the resignation from the Labour Party of Mrs Turia, who went on to form the Maori Party.That raised the possibility of parts of the foreshore and seabed coming under Maori control, and fears that public access to beaches could be restricted. It recommended its repeal and said interim legislation should be put in place until the politicians worked out a way to recognise Maori rights to coastal areas.The National government appointed a panel to review the Act.Mrs Turia told TV One political show Q and A today that progress was being made..”We’ll see within the next fortnight, but certainly it has progressed really really well. the public will know in two weeks whether that has happened..”I am really satisfied with the progress that we have made, and of course then we get down to the level of detail of what will be in any new piece of legislation, and the important thing about that is that the rights of all New Zealanders are protected including Maori. .”Asked if Maori’s right to take cases to court would be reinstated Mrs Turia said that had not been determined yet.”Asked if Maori’s right to take cases to court would be reinstated Mrs Turia said that had not been determined yet.”

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All Blacks coach Graham Henry has named four new caps and the return of three 2008 All Blacks in the 33-strong squad for their northern tour.

The All Blacks squad features 18 forwards and 15 backs and will again be captained by Richie McCaw. The versatile Ben Smith makes the All Blacks after just his third season of Air New Zealand Cup rugby. The new caps in the squad are 27-year-old Bay of Plenty first five-eighth Mike Delany, 20-year-old Hawke’s Bay winger Zac Guildford, 23-year-old Otago fullback/wing Ben Smith and 26-year-old Wellington utility back Tamati Ellison, who was assembled with the All Blacks during this year’s Tri-Nations, but has been officially selected in an All Blacks squad for the first time. The experienced Mike Delany, who also plays fullback, made his provincial debut in 2005 and his Rebel Sport Super 14 debut last year. He made his debut for the Highlanders this year and also played alongside fellow All Black Owen Franks in the 2007 New Zealand Under 21 side. Young Zac Guildford has had a stellar season this year, playing for the Hurricanes, the world champion New Zealand Under 20 team and Hawke’s Bay, and is the leading try scorer in this year’s Air New Zealand Cup, with 13 tries. He has played 52 matches for Bay of Plenty and is the leading points scorer in this year’s Air New Zealand Cup. The All Blacks squad also features the return of Canterbury hooker Corey Flynn, who fractured his arm on last year’s Grand Slam tour, his Canterbury teammate, halfback Andy Ellis, who suffered a rib injury on the same tour, and North Harbour lock Anthony Boric, who returned to rugby this year after a toe injury. The skilled Tamati Ellison is well-known to the All Blacks coaches, impressing during his time with the squad this year, and his ability to cover several positions has made him invaluable for his Wellington and Hurricanes teams. . Players not considered for selection due to injury include: Piri Weepu (ankle); Isaia Toeava (pelvis), Lelia Masaga (shoulder), Keven Mealamu (chest), Bryn Evans (back), Richard Kahui (shoulder) and Ali Williams (Achilles).” Henry said the All Blacks had two objectives for the tour. “The selectors were impressed by the high standard of play in the Air New Zealand Cup and that is reflected in the selection of players who have been stand-outs in the competition.” The All Blacks squad will assemble in Auckland for a training camp this week before flying out to Tokyo next Sunday 25 October. “We want to play quality rugby that we are proud of, the tour is also the opportunity for players to put their hand up when it comes to selection for the All Blacks for the future.00am. A public training and autograph session to raise funds for the Tsunami Relief Fund will be held at Trusts Stadium, Waitakere, on Wednesday at 11. All Blacks Northern Tour Saturday 31 October, All Blacks vs Australia, National Olympic Stadium, Tokyo Saturday 7 November, All Blacks vs Wales, Millennium Stadium, Cardiff Saturday 14 November, All Blacks vs Italy, San Siro Stadium, Milan Saturday 21 November, All Blacks vs England, Twickenham, London Saturday 28 November, All Blacks vs France, Stade Velodrome, Marseille Saturday 5 December, All Blacks vs Barbarians, Twickenham, London

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South Canterbury Finance is to make a material announcement to the market, likely within the next 24 hours.

Trading in the finance company’s listed debt securities has been halted pending an announcement.

In August South Canterbury Finance’s credit rating was downgraded by Standard & Poor’s to BB+ and on September 19 this was placed on creditwatch negative meaning a one-in-two chance of a further lowering of its credit rating in the next three months.

The company is due to renew its prospectus, and the market has been awaiting details of a restructuring and a succession plan for backer and NBR Rich List member Allan Hubbard. .

Around the same time SCF withdrew its prospectus due to a delay in the June 2009 audited accounts, with the company has suspended the acceptance of investor subscriptions, instead being placed in a trust.

Southbury Group has appointed Forsyth Barr and Harmos Horton Lusk as advisers to assist in the restructuring and recapitalisation of the group.

The market has speculated that SCF owner, the Southbury Group could float part of its business perhaps Dairy Holdings.

South Canterbury Finance was registered as a company in 1926 and in recent decades has been in the guiding hands of NBR Rich Lister Allan Hubbard (credited as being worth $550 million in the publication).

The market thinks the group including SCF needs in the order of $150-250 million of new capital or perhaps significantly more.

The trading halt will remain in place until the announcement is released.

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A Hastings police officer is in intensive care after he was assaulted while trying to break up a fight in the early hours of Sunday morning. .

Mr De Lange said the off-duty officer was driving through the area at the time and had stopped to intervene when he became concerned about a fight taking place on the street.

The officer was assaulted and received serious head injuries, Mr De Lange said.

“It appears that people attending a party at a house became involved in an altercation which developed into a series of assaults on the street,” he said.

Police are speaking with a number of people who were at the scene. He is currently in a serious condition in Hawke’s Bay Hospital.

Police have seized a number of items including a wooden stake that may have been used as a weapon during the assault, police said.

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A 17-year-old Hastings youth is due to appear in Hastings Court today charged with wounding with intent to cause grevious bodily harm

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This is the first picture of Alfie Cunliffe, the two-year-old boy from Nelson who was swept out to sea by the Samoan tsunami.

Alfie was on the beach with his parents Gill and Garywhen the first wave hit at the Taufua Lodge in Lalomanu, the tourist resort on the island’s southeast coast that was worst affected by the disaster.

Alfie’s mother, Gill, hoped he was with his father, Gary, but discovered he was not when her husband was brought in alone for medical attention. . He was swept back into shore when a second wave struck and taken to hospital in Lalomanu suffering from internal injuries.

Gary Cunliffe had been swept out to sea by the first wave but survived by clinging on to the coral reef.

Ulrich Moritz, the neighbour, told the Daily Telegraph the Cunliffes arrived at different times at the hospital and it was only when they met up there that they realised Alfie was missing.

The family, who had emigrated from Lancashire in Englandto New Zealand, happened to be staying at the same resort as neighbours from the same street in Nelson. She started crying ‘I’ve lost Alfie’,” Moritz said.

”At first only Gill was there. But then they pulled Gary in and he was in quite bad shape. ”So we thought he could be with Gary.”

After arriving back at his home yesterday, Moritz told The Sunday Telegraph that the scene at the hospital in Lalomanu was chaotic and he had not seen the Cunliffes since then. That’s when she realised that no one had Alfie.

Moritz told the Telegraph the families were on the beach after the earthquake when a young couple shouted that the outlying coral reef had gone dry, a sign that a tsunami might be incoming.

The Cunliffes flew back to New Zealand over the weekend. We all yelled ‘The reef is dry, run, run, run.

”I looked out and all the water was gone, sucked out. We ran to a hill, scrambled and scrambled.’

”Everyone just started to run.

”If we had been any slower, we would have been washed out. We could hear it coming,” Moritz added.”

”We couldn’t believe it. We were seconds from death. It dragged everything out like a giant vacuum cleaner,” he said. It dragged everything out like a giant vacuum cleaner,” he said.

Nelson’s Samoan community say they would like to send representatives to any service held for Alfie.

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The army is tonight rescuing hundreds of motorists trapped in their vehicles after heavy snow closed roads across the central North Island.

Up to 200 vehicles were trapped on Stage Highway 2 between Napier and Taupo, with most cars believed to have stopped because of snow and ice at Waipunga, at about the halfway point. .About 150 people had made their way to the Te Pohue Hotel and a further 60 were at the Te Pohue Hall, Hastings Civil Defence controller Mike Maguire said.”People need to stay where they are and stay as warm as possible,” Mr Maguire said.He advised those waiting to stay put.”A welfare centre has been set up at Hukerere Girls College at Eskdale, and Red Cross and the Salvation Army workers were gathering there to make sure evacuees were warm and feed.”When they hear or see army vehicles approaching they need to flash their lights so they can be seen.Police central communications Inspector Kirsty Henson said about 120 cars had been stuck on State Highway 1 between Waiouru and the Three Sisters.The army also rescued motorists from SH1 near Waiouru.Snow had also closed SH49 between Ohakune and Waiouru, and SH47 at Turangi, she said.Those rescued would be returned to their vehicles tomorrow, she told .”Snow is expected down to 400m, with heavy falls through to (tomorrow) morning, especially above 600m,” forecaster Andy Downs said.The MetService issued heavy snow warnings for the central North Island high country, from the Tongariro National Park and the hills and ranges of Hawkes Bay.East of Whakatane, rain should ease early tomorrow, with 50-70mm of rain expected to fall until then, he said.A heavy rain warning was also in place for the Eastern Bay of Plenty, Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay.

.Heavy rain was expected in Gisborne until tomorrow morning, easing by evening

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Shane Cameron’s tendency to cut and bleed was clearly at the heart of referee Bruce McTavish explaining the rules for stopping tonight’s fight with David Tua on medical grounds.

McTavish was handed the microphone at Friday’s weigh-in in Hamilton and asked what he’d like to make clear ahead of the all-Kiwi heavyweight affair.

Stay with for full coverage of the fight tonight.

He verified that:

– If the fight finishes before the start of the fifth round on medical grounds it will be a technical draw.

McTavish, a New Zealander who lives in the Philippines and has handled more than 150 world title fights, was only interested in clearing up any confusion over an early stoppage to the fight.

McTavish said if he considered a cut to be bad he would have it examined by a ringside doctor who would rule if the fight should halt or proceed.

– If the finishes in rounds six to 12 on medical grounds, the fight goes to the scorecards. .

“I haven’t had any major problems since the surgery has been done.

Cameron was hopeful it wouldn’t be an issue in this fight, saying that since he had the surgery he had only been cut twice in four fights.”

The cuts ruling will mean Tua will need to keep busy on the scorecards of the three judges. Heck, I’ve been cut five times in one fight prior to that (surgery).

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He wouldn’t want proceedings to be terminated mid-fight and leave him vulnerable to the jabbing points that will come with Cameron’s reach advantage

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LATEST:
Iconic New Zealand entertainer Sir Howard Morrison has died, according to reports.

Sir Howard, 74, who had a history of heart problems, died at his home in Rotorua. He had just returned from a holiday in Rarotonga.

He was awarded an OBE in 1976, and knighted in 1990 for his services to entertainment, becoming Sir Howard.

He had a singing career for more than 50 years, gaining fame as his Howard Morrison Quartet ran up a string of hits in the late 1950s and 1960s.

He married Rangiwhata Ann Manahi in 1957.

Of mixed Maori and Pakeha ancestry, Sir Howard was born in 1935 into a Rotorua family renowned for its entertainment skills. They had two sons and a daughter.

He said Sir Howard had made an immense contribution to New Zealand music over more than 50 years.

Prime Minister paid tribute to Sir Howard from New York, where he is at the United Nations, calling him “a real gentleman”. From humble beginnings he became an international success, first with the Howard Morrison Quartet, and then in an illustrious solo career.

“Sir Howard was a New Zealand success story.

Sir Howard received his knighthood in 1990 for services to entertainment.

“But more than that, Sir Howard was one of New Zealand’s best loved entertainers, his appeal spanning every age group.

“My thoughts are with his whanau at this time.

“My thoughts are with his whanau at this time. .”

RISE TO FAME

The boy from Ruatahuna, via Ohinemutu, son of a Maori All Black, the boy who was never going to follow in his father’s footsteps because, while he thought he was “crash hot”, never made the school First XV or even Second XV, who had won a Christmas talent quest fronting the Ohinemutu Quartet, as it was known then, was smoking.

A year later, the foursome were on the road, their first national tour ending in a sellout gig at the Auckland Town Hall, where The Battle of the Waikato, Merito’s parody of the Lonnie Donnegan hit The Battle of New Orleans, was premiered. Hoki Mai, a Maori version of There’s a Goldmine in the Sky, Pokarekare Ana, Hare Ra E Hine and Marie followed in quick succession.

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The rellies moved on, replaced by on-again-off-again vocalist Wi Wharekura and Noel Kingi, who was straight out of school

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Signs the economy may have stopped shrinking do not signal the end of hard times, Finance Minister Bill English said today.

Figures released by Statistics New Zealand today show the economy grew less than 0.1 percent in the June quarter, according to Gross Domestic Production (GDP) figures released today, following five quarters of contraction.”For the economy the worst is behind us, there are still some people who are going to find themselves out of work,” Mr English said.Most economists had picked the data to show further economic contraction and Mr English welcomed the news but repeated his caution about the country’s recovery.SNZ warned the growth was so small it could not be seen as a sign of economic recovery and Mr English said even if it was the recession’s effects on the economy would be felt for years to come.Unemployment generally runs behind the economy and Mr English said it would take another 12 months before those figures showed some improvement. .”

From 1992 it had taken 16 years to get high levels of Government debt down to where they were in 2008 and it would be the same this time around.”I believe the impact of this recession will continue to be felt on the Government’s books for 30 years.The economy would in 2012 be $50 billion lower than it would have been had the global financial crisis not taken place and this meant collecting $16 billion less tax revenue.The Government was currently doubling its debt by 2014 by borrowing $40 billion.”Lifting the performance of the public sector while reducing the rate of spending increases, is one of the Government’s six policy drivers for the next three to five years.Borrowing at that level could not continue and spending had to be brought under control.”This meant no or little new money for pay rises over that period.”This meant no or little new money for pay rises over that period.In the speech Mr English said there were more than 600 government websites and numerous 0800 lines with at least two agencies having about 20 toll free lines.Mr English called for the reduction of duplicated services and more sharing of resources in the public sector.

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Progressive Enterprises is to phase out its Foodtown and Woolworths brands during the next five years, replacing them with a “new generation” Countdown branding. .

Foodtown was mostly restricted to Auckland, and Woolworths was basically the South Island and lower North Island, while Countdown stores were across the country, he said.

Australian parent company Woolworths planned to invest up to $1 billion in New Zealand during the next five years.

The new Countdown branding would be applied as stores were refurbished and new stores were built.

The new branding was unveiled today at Progressive’s Countdown Westgate store in West Auckland, where refurbishment was nearly finished.

“We plan to open up to five new generation Countdown supermarkets and transform around 20 Woolworths, Foodtown and older Countdown stores to the new brand and format each year for the next five years,” Mr Smith said.

Mr Smith said a new logo, which also replaced the current Countdown identity, represented fresh produce and the company’s commitment to fresh food.”

The new brand linked Progressive to Woolworths in Australia, where stores had also been gradually receiving new symbols.

“It also represents a new beginning and direction of our business. It employed more than 18,000 people now.

Through its investment, Progressive would create 2000 to 3000 permanent new jobs. In some cases quadrupling the fresh produce area, Mr Smith said.

The chain had increased the space for fresh food, particularly produce.

“That’s what customers were asking for.

“That’s what customers were asking for.

Factors such as range, value, service, and convenience as well as price all worked together, he said.”

Price was also a significant issue, but customers did not just shop on price alone.

“But we’re certainly not planning to close any stores, and we’re certainly not planning to downsize any of them either.

In three or four places where two group supermarkets were close to each other, the issue would be dealt with on a store by store basis.”