Two a penny

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Southland celebrated a “once in a lifetime” Ranfurly Shield win in style in Invercargill on Tuesday with thousands turning out for the traditional tickertape parade.

The Stags players were rapturously received as fans crowded both sides of the main street.

A weekend of partying flowed into the formalities as the heroes were feted in the deep south.

Southland won the famous Log o’ Wood for the first time in 50 years last Thursday night when they upset holders Canterbury 9-3 in Christchurch. There are a lot of people here, it’s great for the community,” Southland co-coach Dave Henderson told Radio Sport from the back of one of the floats involved in the parade.

“She’s pretty exciting. Once you do these sorts of things .

“There are 50 years of players that have gone through before us – 30 or 40 challenges have come up with nothing…. this might only happen once in a lifetime . you have to celebrate them in a bit of style which we are doing today..Then to see them turn up at the airport the next day and now to see thousands here cheering us on, it’s quite emotional for some of the guys.

“It was such a thrill to see the faces of the fans at the game with the support we got up there in Christchurch.

The challenge for Southland now is to stay on track in the Air New Zealand Cup where last week’s win had taken them into the semfinals.”

Henderson admitted it had been a long weekend full of partying.

Henderson said the team had trained well on Monday and would face a big hitout on Wednesday. . We have focused on celebrating the Ranfurly Shield but we have also focused on the next Saturday in Wellington because we want to go the next step,” said Henderson.

“I don’t think some of the boys remember arriving back at the airport.

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Relief looks in sight for motorists whose cars remain stuck on the snow-covered Napier – Taupo Road, with police saying it should re-open by 3pm this afternoon.

Around 100 cars remained stuck on the snow-covered Napier – Taupo Road and several hundred people have spent a second night in makeshift accommodation after a heavy snowfall cut off State Highway 5.

Police said they expected the Naiper – taupo Road to re-open at 3pm.

A further 30 centimetres of snow was expected to fall in parts of the central North Island last night and today.

State Highway 1 was closed last night between Turangi and Taihape because of the bad weather, however authorities have re-opened a section of the road south of Waiouru this morning.

MetService had issued warnings of heavy snow down to 600 metres in Tongariro National Park and on the Napier – Taupo Road as early as Saturday morning.

But the road closures came too late for more than 600 motorists who took to the roads only to become stuck in the snow.

Taupo Mayor Rick Cooper, who drove a bus to ferry motorists back to Taupo, said roads should have been closed a lot earlier, preventing the mass strandings of vehicles.

“People were very scared and frightened, many, including the elderly, had a horrific night.

“Rescuing 600 people on a horrendous night in blizzard conditions should not have had to have happened,” he said.

“It was a freak occurrence which was significantly worse than we anticipated for this time of year,” he said.”

New Zealand Transport Agency national state highways manager David Bates said road crews had been aware of the forecast but were caught out by the large amount of snow which fell in a short time.

“We are very sorry many motorists became trapped.

“We had the equipment and crews to keep the road open as long as we could but a massive temperature drop around 2pm swamped our trucks and equipment. It would have been a scary experience for all. . The forecast is for more snow, which could delay the road being opened.

The road may not be fully cleared till late today.

Emergency services sprang into action when a civil defence emergency was issued late on Sunday after 668 motorists became stranded.

About 130 cars remained on the Napier – Taupo Road overnight.

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A further 56 people were rescued on the Desert Road by the army and taken to Waiouru

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After he had stabbed and disfigured Sophie Elliott in a bedroom attack, Clayton Weatherston told a police officer: “I killed her” in a calm, normal tone, a court has been told.

“It appeared that he was in normal control … he was just standing with his hands either side of himself,” Constable John Cunningham has told the Christchurch High Court.

Weatherston is on trial for Elliott’s murder at Dunedin on January 9 last year.

Cunningham was the first person at Elliott’s Ravensbourne home the day she was killed. The defence says he was provoked to kill her.”

Cunningham said he went upstairs to Elliott’s bedroom.

He described talking to Elliott’s mother, Lesley Elliott, on the driveway who told him “that her daughter was dead.

“I tried the door handle but it was locked.

“I then heard the door being unlocked so I opened the door and walked in to a small bedroom.

I voice appealed to open the door or I would kick it in,” he said.

“I was confronted by a body, lying face up.

I saw in front of me on the floor a young female caucasian … I then saw a male standing a the end of the bed.

He asked Weatherston to lie prone on the floor, which he complied with, straight away.”

Cunningham said he asked the man, who was Weatherston, what he had done and he said: “I killed her” in a calm, normal tone. He said his name was “Clayt”. He said his name was “Clayt”.

“I then asked him, why did you kill her.

“I asked him if he understood these rights and he replied that he did,” Cunningham said.”

He asked what he had killed her with, and Weatherston said a knife. He replied, the emotional pain she has caused me over the past year.” Cunningham also asked him about a pair of scissors he found between Elliott’s legs. .

“All this time, the defendant Clay was lying face down in the room.

“He replied, I used them at the end,” Cunningham said.

“I could clearly see the stab wounds to the right side of her throat,” he said.” Cunningham said he put gloves on and checked Elliott’s carotid artery, finding no pulse. … Her legs were spread wide. … Her legs were spread wide. … She had multiple cut and stab wounds to the left side of the throat with a large amount of blood around the throat area.”

Cunningham said he took Weatherston downstairs and told him was under arrest for assault – “he replied he understood.”

Weatherston was on the ground outside the house and continued answering questions. “He was very forthcoming and just answered my questions.”

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It doesn’t pay to be female, report shows

– Saturday, 27 December 2008

Women in public-sector jobs continue to lag behind the pay of their male equals by up to 35 per cent, a government report reveals.
The Human Rights Commission says the evidence of workplace gender inequality is now indisputable, and it calls on public organisations to take action.
"We want people to start fixing the problem, not just identifying it," equal employment opportunities commissioner Judy McGregor said.
The taskforce found:
Every organisation found a gender pay gap, ranging from 3% to 35%.
A progress report of the five-year pay and employment equity taskforce shows a gender pay gap persists across all 27 public-sector organisations surveyed.
Gender pay gaps widen after appointment, and men move more rapidly through the pay scale.
Starting pay rates between men and women differed within the same occupation.
All reviews except one found under-representation of women in a range of senior management.
Women were more likely to believe that performance appraisal systems were unfair.
Over half of staff said their organisations were not actively addressing or preventing harassment and bullying. "It seems to be almost unbridgeable for some reason.
McGregor said the gender pay gap had been a problem for some time.
"We still have a long way to go in relation to pay equity."
The average gender pay gap was about 12%. What these results show is that we need to move more quickly on the remedial work that follows," McGregor said. What these results show is that we need to move more quickly on the remedial work that follows," McGregor said.
Women got lower starting salaries in the same jobs in some occupational groups. Among the most common reasons were:
Female-dominated occupations were lower paid. .
Women had fewer promotion opportunities and/or progressed more slowly through pay scales.
Organisations got complacent after reviewing their gender pay gap.
"We want to see proper targets set and whether people regard that as positive discrimination, affirmative action or just redressing a natural balance doesn't matter; it's got to be done," she said.
"People commit to the review and they do the review and they think the job's done, but what we want now is more action around implementing the action plans.
"We have found that the implementation (of changes) is too slow," McGregor said.
The private sector was "pretty resistant to challenges" on how it paid and employed people."
Council of Trade Unions president Helen Kelly said the same issues identified in the public sector were also present in the private sector.
"It is often presumed that the man's job is more important than the woman's, so we give them the bonuses.
"It is often presumed that the man's job is more important than the woman's, so we give them the bonuses."
The report was the third from the taskforce, which is about three years into its five-year term.

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Searchers recover sixth body from Air NZ wreckage

Sunday, 21 December 2008

Divershave now recovered the bodies of six of the seven people who died in the previous month's Air New Zealand plane crash off the southern coast of France.
The most recent body was recovered last week from wreckage, situated in 40m of water, 7km off the coast of the resort town Canet-en-Roussillon. Identification has been proving difficult due to the impact of the crash.
French authorities say they hope to identify the remains, which have been taken to the Institute of Forensic Research at Montpellier, by mid-January. The dead New Zealanders were senior pilot Captain Brian Horrell, 52, engineers Murray White, 37, Michael Gyles, 49, Noel Marsh, 35, and Civil Aviation Authority inspector Jeremy Cook, 58. .
A team of 12 divers will continue searching the wreckage for the remaining body this week, assisted by an observation robot being brought from Marseille. The two German pilots, who have not been named, worked for XL Airways, a German company which had leased the aircraft for two years.
German media have speculated the plane's de-icing gear might have failed resulting in it to nosedive into the sea, but the official investigation has yet to establish why the four-year-old aircraft crashed on what should have been a routine "acceptance" flight. Authorities plan to lift parts of the cockpit out of the water. The plane's black boxes have been sent to their US manufacturer for analysis, but it's unknown whether the flight data can be retrieved.

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Shakespeare gets school reprieve

Tuesday, 16 December 2008

Amajor education review that some principals fear will spell an end to Shakespeare in schools is being held back a year by the new education minister.
Anne Tolley said yesterday that a review of NCEA standards papers used to assess pupils against the curriculum would be pushed back by 12 months to ensure greater consultation with worried principals and teachers.
"The timeline was so short at a very busy time of year," Mrs Tolley said.
It means changes due to be implemented from 2010 affecting thousands of high school pupils would not come into force till 2011."
Her decision follows a meeting on Friday with the Auckland Secondary Schools Principals Association, which represents a quarter of the country's high schools. "I think it was too ambitious. .
Some members had called for a moratorium on the proposed changes, saying they would "dumb down" the education system. She had instructed officials that wider consultation was required with principals and teachers, who were responsible for implementing changes in schools.
Mrs Tolley said she would meet Education Ministry chief executive Karen Sewell today.
"They're already struggling with what they've got, so the thought of putting more assessment on them is a real concern.
Proposed increases to internal assessment had huge potential effects on teachers' workloads, Mrs Tolley said."

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Vaccination did not save youth

The Timaru Herald Thursday, 20 November 2008

Canterbury University student Bowen Holgate, 19, of Timaru, woke up with a severe headache on Sunday. Two days later meningococcal disease claimed his life.
Ross Holgate drove to Christchurch on Saturday to pick up his son, who had just finished his second year.
A Timaru family are grieving the loss of a son and brother who died from a disease that he was immunised against a few years ago. When he woke he vomited from a severe headache.
Bowen Holgate went straight to bed because he was to start his summer job on Sunday. He got worse a few hours later and was transferred to the intensive care unit where he died on Tuesday.
His parents took him to Timaru Hospital Emergency Department where he was diagnosed with meningococcal disease.
Ross Holgate is unsure how Bowen picked up the disease.
He was immunised during the nationwide school-based campaign.
South Canterbury Medical Officer of Health, Dr Daniel Williams, said it was unknown from which strain of the disease Bowen died. .
Treatment with antibiotics is often successful.
Williams said people should seek urgent medical attention if they suspect they or someone in their household have meningococcal disease.

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A day for all, especially the sea creatures

Monday, 08 September 2008

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SAY GIDDAY: Victor Anderlini, of the Marine Education Centre, welcomes Samantha Graham, 7, of Houghton Bay, who got to shake `hands’ with an octopus. `It wasn’t scary but it was very squishy,’ she said.
Thousands of people flocked to a day of talks and activities on a sun-drenched Island Bay beach yesterday as Rongotai MP Annette King opened the reserve.

Conservation week started in style with the opening of the Taputeranga Marine Reserve on Wellington's south coast. Anyone breaching the prohibition can be fined $2500 and jailed for up to three months.
It is illegal to remove or disturb any living or non-living marine item from the reserve, which includes the foreshore up to the average water mark.
Conservation Department marine ranger Hawea Tomoana said protection of marine species would allow the area to revert to its original state.
Despite the penalties, conservationists fear the waters of the 854 hectare (2000-acre) reserve – from Houghton Bay to Owhiro Bay – could eventually be targeted by paua poaching rings as stocks begin to regenerate. But later on as the stock of paua becomes obviously more abundant then we are going to start getting hit by organised illegal activity.
"What people will notice in about 10 years' time is a greater abundance of paua, kina, crayfish.
Marine rangers would initially focus on spreading the word about the reserve's no-fishing status."
He said that issue would be tackled in a coordinated effort with the Fisheries Ministry. A ranger had to go and tell them that they could no longer fish from there.
"Yesterday morning there were two people fishing on the western side of Island Bay.
Marine Education Centre spokesperson Victor Anderlini also held concerns about paua poaching once the reserve started to regenerate."
At least six fishermen had been warned since the area was legally made a reserve on August 28.
"You have to instil a reason for people to respect the environment and to do that you've got to get straight to the kids of the poachers to stop it. He said children's programmes run at the Bait House in Island Bay touched on the subject.

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But those problems were far from the minds of hundreds of people who enjoyed yesterday's open day at the education centre