Local Opinion

Celebrations, courts cases and hotels…

A Welcome Home social at Pirongia for the seventh contingent of men returning from the South African Boer War was an eminently successful one. The public hall had not for many a day contained so…

Scary speed of fire

Last night (as I write this) there was a live burning of a house in Levin aired on Seven Sharp to show the realities of such an event. My household watched the fire quickly grow…

Search adds to week’s workload

This past week was particularly busy for Te Awamutu police with staff assisting enquiries at Marokopa. The enquiries follow sightings of Tom Phillips who has been missing with his three children. One thing I would…

China – should we be worried?

For 20 years or more, we have been impressed and surprised by the positive economic data that has been coming out of China. Growth has been between 7 and 10 per cent a year over…

The world around us

Did you know that the rock that makes up the top of Mount Everest is limestone that formed below the ocean? Enormous tectonic forces slowly pushed the rocks upwards to make a mountain range that…

A life derailed

John Gough had been at work in the Poro-O-Tarao tunnel for about half an hour on a Saturday morning at the end of July in 1888 when one of the bricklayers asked him to make…

A warm blessing

The logs are crackling and splitting in the wood burner. The door is wide open to draft the flames. My three dogs sleep contentedly while I tidy up the mayhem in the kitchen, caused the…

Pomp and ceremony

The turning of the first sod of the new section of the North Island Main Trunk Railway, from Te Awamutu to Wellington, brought hundreds of passengers on the excursion train from Auckland. On reaching Te Awamutu the Volunteer Cavalry…

Louisa Nabbs – a first lady

The claimant for being the first European girl born in Auckland regularly caused controversy but when Louisa Nabbs of Pirongia died in 1911 she was top contender. It had been a life of firsts for…

Concern over park plan

The Te Awamutu War Memorial Park Concept Plan is still high on the community board’s agenda. Any updates from staff are followed with keen interest and comments from the community are carefully considered. We have…

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