Author: Press Room

A member of a committee that ran Roxburgh’s historic cinema says the community is “devastated” after a Waitangi Day fire gutted the building.A total of eight crews of firefighters responded to the blaze in the middle of the central Otago town, which destroyed the Roxburgh Town Hall, including its 128-year-old cinema.The fire, which has now been extinguished, broke out shortly before midday forcing neighbouring properties to evacuate. A crew remained at the scene overnight with a fire investigator to check for a possible cause on Friday.The facility on Scotland Street included the town hall, supper room and 258-seat auditorium and…

A search is continuing for a man who fell into a river in Mt Aspiring National Park yesterday. Emergency services were alerted shortly before 5pm after reports the man had fallen from a rock into a river and failed to resurface.”A search team immediately deployed to the area however he was unable to be located,” police said in a statement. Police search and rescue resumed their search at 8am today.

Two people have died on the Auckland motorway network overnight, with delays continuing on SH1 after a crash halted northbound traffic for several hours.Police said the fatalities occurred in two separate “fatal incidents”.State Highway 1 was earlier closed to northbound traffic between the Manukau and the East Tamaki Rd on-ramp, near Ōtara. Lanes re-opened at 6.40am. Traffic being diverted on State Highway 1 earlier. (Source: Supplied)Emergency services were called to the single-vehicle SH1 crash at about 2.20am. One person died at the scene and four others were injured, two in critical condition and two others in serious condition, according to…

Contact Energy is undeterred by a negative report from the Commerce Commission about its $1.9 billion takeover of Manawa Energy.The competition watchdog released a statement late on Wednesday detailing its concerns about the deal and its potential to reduce competition in the electricity sector.The Commission said it had four areas of concern about the market power the merged company could wield:The supply of hedging contracts for retailers needing electricity during times of tight supplyThe ability to effect spot electricity pricesThe merged company could lead to higher spot electricity pricesThe current electricity market has too little competitionContact is one of the…

Funeral directors are warning of an alarming increase in funeral livestream scams on social media platforms.The scams circulated for funerals of high profile people, such as the late Green Party MP Efeso Collins in March 2024, and Dame Tariana Turia’s tangi in January.But criminals are targeting people’s funerals throughout the country.Nelson funeral director Alastair Hebberd said his clients were first targeted a year ago.Scammers created a fake page for the event, sending friend requests then asking family and friends for money to watch the stream.”About ten minutes before the service started, I had the family come to me very upset…

Fertiliser co-operative Ravensdown believes making often tough calls has put the business in a better position to ride out curbed spending by farmers. As a result of lower fertiliser sales across the industry as cash-strapped farmers reacted to low farmgate prices and higher costs, the co-op closed fertiliser manufacturing at its Dunedin site. The port store and distribution centre will continue at Ravensbourne, but manufacturing operations will be restricted to Napier and Christchurch. This follows an earlier restructuring and the co-op taking on more technology to match farmers’ fertiliser needs and tighter management of import shipping and product distribution. Chief…

The Cook Islands has put a controversial proposal to create its own passport on the “back burner”, Prime Minister Mark Brown has told local media.It comes after a standoff with New Zealand amid fears the plans would fracture the relationship between the two countries.1News’ Barbara Dreaver revealed in December the Cook Islands was pushing for its own passport despite New Zealand arguing it would be constitutionally impossible to do so as a realm country.New Zealand’s view was that any Cook Islanders who applied for a Cook Islands passport would have been seen as renouncing their New Zealand passport, 1News understands.…

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze told Euronews that the country is still confident of obtaining European Union membership by 2030. ADVERTISEMENTIn his first interview after the South Caucasus country hit pause on its EU accession talks, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze told Euronews that the ball was in Brussels’ court, and that the bloc needed to be more flexible in its approach to new members.Kobakhidze said Georgia was facing “some significant challenges with the European bureaucracy” but emphasised that he was still “very optimistic” that his country would obtain EU membership by 2030. “(We) will be consistent in following this…

Taranaki gardeners say growing a tonne-and-a-half of potatoes for Te Matatini was inspired by their forbears feeding war refugees who flocked to Parihaka 150 years ago.Organisers of Te Matatini o Te Kāhui Maunga expect 40,000 visitors over the five days of the national kapa haka championships.Te Matatini is in Ngāmotu at Pukekura Park’s Bowl of Brooklands from February 25 and the throngs will be staying all over Taranaki, including at Parihaka Pā.Parihaka gardener Jasmine Koroheke said the idea to plant potatoes came naturally.”I think it’s a little bit in Parihaka’s blood to feed the masses. Quite used to it.”This was…

Thousands of attendees and dignitaries gathered at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds and around the country today to celebrate 185 years since the signing of New Zealand’s founding document.Prime Minister Christopher Luxon did not attend the Treaty Grounds as previously signalled in December, choosing to accept an invitation to spend the day with Ngāi Tahu at Akaroa’s Ōnuku Marae alongside Governor-General Dame Cindy Kiro.Luxon spoke about the importance of economic growth, partnerships between Maori and the Government and empowering iwi to lead initiatives that benefit both Maori and New Zealand as a whole.”We’ve demonstrated time and time again that we can…