Author: Press Room

South Dunedin’s Hillside Workshop has produced 500 rail wagons in just over a year. KiwiRail chief metro and capital programme officer David Gordon visited the Hillside Rd workshops yesterday and congratulated its team on reaching the major milestone. The workshop marked the production of its 500th rail wagon since production began in March 2024. He said the goal was to assemble a total of 1500 wagons before the workshop would transition to focus on wagon maintenance and refurbishment. The Hillside Workshops were KiwiRail’s main heavy maintenance facility in the South Island where it maintained locomotives and wagons and built brand-new…

A Christchurch man has been sentenced to 18 months jail for poaching 1432 sea cucumbers. Jason Murray Nix, 55, learned his fate in the Christchurch District Court yesterday for two charges under the Fisheries Act. He was also banned from all fishing for three years. Nix received a total sentence of 30 months’ imprisonment as he was also sentenced on separate police charges. His equipment, including two boats and a car, was forfeited to the Crown. In November 2023, Nix and another man were stopped by police on other issues, and his vehicle was impounded due to other legal matters.…

Two men have been arrested after allegedly “scrambling” to hide guns, drugs and cash in the engine bay of a car in rural Auckland. Police – including the armed offenders squad – yesterday carried out a search at a property in Patumāhoe following a report of a person acting in a threatening manner. Officers arrivede to find a man in the garage area attempting to hide items, Inspector Matt Hoyes said. “This person was quickly taken into custody without incident.” A second man was then seen “also scrambling to hide a number of items”.“He failed to follow police instructions and…

Seven of those who participated in the Government’s military style boot camp for young offenders reoffended to a threshold that required their return to a residence during the 12-month pilot, Oranga Tamariki (OT) revealed today. And currently, two of them are in a youth justice facility and one in prison.Today marks the end of the 12-month pilot, introduced by the Government after the 2023 election as an attempt to reduce youth offending and turn the lives of young offenders around. It involved a group of young men participating in physical education and drills during a three-month residency phase, followed by…

An investigation is underway after human remains were discovered at a beach, east of Ōpōtiki earlier today.Police said they were called to Waihau Bay around 11.50am. The bay is about 100km to the east of Ōpōtiki, near Cape Runaway.”The remains have been identified as human, and enquiries will determine how old these remains are,” police said. “This will be followed by a formal identification process, which may take some time.”Anyone with information was asked to contact police via 105.

Sir Michael Hill, one of New Zealand’s most successful businessmen and most generous philanthropists, left an indelible mark on the South. Mike Houlahan and Philip Chandler look back on his eventful and colourful life.   As catchphrases go, it isn’t much. “Michael Hill. Jeweller” did little more than accurately describe the man who first said it in the early ’80s in a stilted debut television commercial inspired by the awkward but effective personal advertisements fronted by Wellington appliance store owner Alan Martin. Michael Hill kept on saying the phrase, over and over again — “it was all in the pausing” he once said, in an attempt to…

The Education Ministry has canned a reader for junior children because it has too many Māori words, infuriating Te Akatea, the Māori Principals’ Association.The association’s president Bruce Jepsen said the decision not to reprint At the Marae was racist and white supremacist.The ministry told schools At the Marae, did not fit the sequence that young children were now taught to decode words using the structured literacy approach.However, it had been re-sized into a “big book format” that teachers could use to read with pupils.”The decision was guided by phonics sequencing and decoding suitability, rather than a defined word-count threshold,” the…

Selwyn Smith grew up on a Riversdale sheep and beef farm. Heavily influenced by the 1980s era, “which probably dissuaded everyone my age to go and do something different from farming”, he chose a career off the land. But his parents remained on the farm, which was now leased out, and it was that ongoing tenure which gave him an understanding of challenges farmers faced, including compliance, regulation, succession and exit, which was to prove very beneficial when dealing with many rural clients, Mr Smith said. Plus there was the hands-on knowledge of farming practices that came with being a…

The money you’re putting aside for your Lotto ticket could give you an almost certain $100,000 windfall.Lotto’s Powerball is rolling over for a $20 million prize on Saturday and statistics show we spend a combined more than $700 million a year on Lotto products.Investment experts say people might be missing out on a prize that they are much more likely to achieve.The odds of winning Lotto First Division are about one-in-3.84 million per line. Powerball is even less likely — at about one-in-38 million.On the other hand, if you put money away each week, fortnight or month, the power of…

It was Jonathan Binns (JB) Were who founded stockbroking business Were Brothers & Co (later JBWere & Co) in 1840, after arriving in Melbourne from England a year earlier. In 1989, JBWere purchased 50% of Jordan Sandman Smythe and then acquired the remaining 50% in 1994, establishing JBWere New Zealand. All Black great Ron Jarden, who played 37 times for the All Blacks including 16 tests, founded his stockbroking business RA Jarden & Co in 1961. In 1988, the firm merged with Deak Morgan to create Jarden Morgan, expanding into fixed income sales and trading, corporate finance and research activities.…