Kapa Haka
The annual Te Taitūperepere Kapa Haka Festival in Te Awamutu, hosted by Ōhaupō School at theTe Awamutu Events Centre, runs today and tomorrow.
Minister in town
Minister of Tertiary Education Penny Simmonds was at Wintec in Hamilton last week to introduce members of the Establishment Advisory Group (EAG). The meeting included the Executive Leadership Team, mayor Paula Southgate and other local body politicians.
Consents issued
Waipā District Council issued 118 building and 46 resource consents – two of which went over the 20 working days deadline In July. The time breach for the building consent is thought to be a consequence of a software issue while the resource consent application was processed by an external consultant who submitted the report with an unacceptable layout. The council also processed 38 Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act (LGOIMA) requests.
Best event
Fieldays Business Development manager Maclain Swanson at the top of the hill near Gate 1 with last minute preparations underway for the agricultural expo which was first held at Te Rapa Racecourse in 1969. Photo: Mary Anne Gill.
Fieldays 2024 took out the business event of the year at the New Zealand Event Awards in Hamilton last week. Cambridge Middle School principal Daryl Gibbs, a trustee of the Aims Games which held in Tauranga last week, was on hand to receive the best non-profit or community event for the 2024 games. The awards comprised 17 categories and Fieldays was the only Waipā winner.
Funding boost
Shelley Blair, pictured at Waterworld, Hamilton, during the Special Olympics National Summer Games. Photo: Roy Pilott.
Special Olympics Te Awamutu has received funding from the Freemasons to assist with costs for attending the Christchurch-based 2025 National Summer Games in December. Twelve swimmers and three volunteers from the small club have their sights set on the travel south. Cambridge’s Keziah Clark and Jarrod Gilbert will join nine Te Awamutu athletes and Hamilton’s Deshan Walallavita on the journey south. Longtime Ōtorohanga resident Jennifer Clark, Peter Crawford, Sarah Griffin, Sarah-Jane Hudson, David Smith, Matthew Smith, Caitlin Thomas, Robert van der Wee and Ella Yarndley make up the rest of the cohort.
Puzzles solved
Puzzle fans will have spotted last week that our puzzles page was from two weeks earlier. The grid and answers which should have run will be posted online for puzzle fans – and a new grid appears this week, giving readers two sets to make up for last week’s miss. We apologise for the error.
Mayoral fund
Mayor Susan O’Regan opening the Cambridge Menzshed ceremony cutting a chain with bolt cutters rather than the traditional ribbon
Mayor Susan O’Regan funded five organisations a total of $7647.09 from her mayoral discretionary fund in the financial year to June 30. They were Menzshed Cambridge ($6521 for roof repairs), Operation Christmas Hamper ($300), Christmas hamper ($173.91 for chicken gravy sachets), All World Mission NZ Trust ($521.74) and Friends of Resthaven Foundation Trust ($130.44).
Fluoride poll
Lobby group Fluoride Free New Zealand, whose Waipā committee member is Te Awamutu-Kihikihi Community Board chair Kane Titchener, has polled local body election candidates on whether they would push for the government to bring forward New Zealand First’s member’s bill seeking to return the decision on whether or not add fluoride to council. In Waipā 12 of the 16 who responded said yes.
Matuku Muster
A check in the form of a “muster” is returning for a second year as the Department of Conervation seeks to check on numbers of one of New Zealand’s most elusive wetland birds – the critically threatened bittern – the matuku-hūrepo or kautuku. Matuku Muster calls for volunteers and community groups to count and observe the birds – thought to number less than 1000 – in wetlands across New Zealand. DOC Science Advisor Harry Caley said 500 volunteers involved in the first muster provided valuable data