Author: Press Room

A retail lobby group says Easter trading rules preventing stores from opening on Easter Sunday are outdated and in need of a revamp.Under the Shop Trading Hours Act 1990, most stores have to shut their doors on Easter Sunday — along with Good Friday, Christmas Day, and half of Anzac Day — with the exception of some tourist resorts and in areas where local councils have sought an exemption.Retail NZ chief executive Carolyn Young said the inconsistency under the current rules created confusion and it was time the legislation changed.”The rules are set from a more traditional, old-school perspective, but…

Kerry Tong says his Category 3 land in Eskdale is a thorn in his side.He claims agents handling the buyout of his cyclone-destroyed property told him his best bet would be to take the relocation offer and keep the land.”They said my rates would be minimal,” Tong said.But he says they weren’t.However, a spokesperson for Hastings District Council says The Property Group acted as agents for the council and was unaware of any advice given regarding ongoing rates obligations.”The Voluntary Buyout policy developed and approved by council and jointly funded by both the government and council, set out a process…

One Auckland church is conducting a year’s worth of baptisms in one day.Religion expert Emeritus Professor Peter Lineham said St Patrick’s Cathedral in central Auckland was expecting 350 people to be baptised on Easter Sunday.”The whole Anglican church last year had approximately that number of people baptised over the whole year, so that tells you something is happening.”It’s an astonishing figure.”Several churches he had spoken to were seeing their congregations increase this Easter, he said.”Good Friday numbers, for example, appear to be significantly up in a lot of churches.”I don’t want to call anything significant at the moment but it…

A police officer has created a new nationwide interactive map of the last known location of people who have gone missing in the last 50 years.Nearly 500 people are missing and presumed dead, and police have hailed the new map as a “game changer”.Senior Constable Paul “Carlos” Spencer said he came up with the idea for his map after hearing about shrinking glaciers.”As the ice melts, human remains and property could be uncovered. If that happens, how will we start our investigation to know who it belongs to?”If that happens, the map could help provide clues to their identity.There are…

The whānau of a man who vanished from Auckland Airport on Friday morning say there have been multiple reports of possible sightings, and they’re holding out hope he’ll be found safe.Kory-Dean Wirihana checked in for his flight to Christchurch and cleared security but never boarded his plane.A family member posted on social media they last heard from the 36-year-old at 4am on Friday, and his phone and had been handed into lost property at the airport.On Sunday morning, they wrote there had been “some new developments”, but Wirihana was still missing.”We’ve seen the comments about possible sightings and want to…

A homicide investigation has been launched after a man was fatally assaulted at a bus stop in the Auckland suburb of St Johns last night. Detective Senior Sergeant Mark Greaves said emergency services were called to reports a person had been assaulted by more than one person on St Johns Rd about 10pm on Saturday. The 33-year-old victim was transported to hospital in a critical condition, where he died from his injuries. Emergency services were called to St Johns Rd about 10pm on Saturday. (Source: 1News)”The offenders are believed to have left the area in a vehicle, travelling towards Remuera…

MetService has issued a new severe thunderstorm watch for Northland, Auckland, Waikato, Waitomo and Taumarunui this morning, following days of wild weather across parts of the North Island. Ex-tropical Cyclone Tam and its associated troughs are expected to affect the country during Sunday and Monday, bringing heavy rain to parts of New Zealand.In an update shortly after 8am, the forecaster warned a line of thunderstorms was expected to develop over southern Northland and Auckland this afternoon, and move slowly eastwards across the region. It said the thunderstorms could produce localised heavy rain between midday and 8pm on Sunday, and some…

Police are appealing for information after the driver of a vehicle that struck a pedestrian in Wellington left the scene yesterday. Senior Constable Brett Main said the crash happened at the intersection of Tory and Tennyson Streets in the city around 6.30pm on Saturday. “The pedestrian was carried a short distance on the bonnet of the vehicle before falling onto the road on Tory St.He said they suffered minor injuries. Main said the vehicle did not stop, and left the area. “It is described as a light blue hatchback, which would have damaged windscreen wipers as a result of the…

ADVERTISEMENTRussian President Vladimir Putin has announced a temporary Easter ceasefire in Ukraine, the Kremlin said on Saturday. According to the Kremlin, the ceasefire will last from 6 p.m. Moscow time (1500 GMT) on Saturday to midnight (2100 GMT) following Easter Sunday. “Guided by humanitarian considerations, today from 18:00 to 00:00 from Sunday to Monday, the Russian side declares an Easter truce. I order that all military actions be stopped for this period,” Putin said at a meeting with Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, the Kremlin’s Press Service quoted him as saying. “We assume that the Ukrainian side will…

When the devastating Christchurch earthquakes struck in 2010 and 2011, hundreds of students from Lincoln University stepped up to lend a helping hand. Sam Johnson was instrumental in establishing the Student Volunteer Army in the quake-ravaged city, which still operates today as a network of volunteers responding to crisis events. Reflecting on that time in his life, Johnson told 1News the instruction to “stay at home and do nothing just seemed so counter intuitive to what was needed”. “I really remember that emotion of that… going ‘well, this is the time we should be doing something, what should we do?'”…