Nelson Regional Weekly News week ending 20 Dec
Peter Lowish
past week.
Issue 45/98.. Week ending 20 December 1998.
Monday
Airport appeal set for tomorrow
The various parties to the Nelson Airport sale saga have won their
wish for an early hearing of the latest court action over the proposed
deal.
The Court of Appeal will sit tomorrow to consider an Iwi appeal of the
High Court's refusal to issue an injunction blocking the Crown from
selling it's half share in the airport business to the Nelson City and
Tasman district councils. The High Court declined the injunction
application about two weeks ago and the appeal was lodged last
Wednesday. Nelson Mayor Paul Matheson and the council's solicitors in
Wellington had said the appeal court expected to issue it's decision
on the Iwi request straight after tomorrow's hearing.
Recognition after only 50 years for Boyhood discovery
In geological terms it has been the merest blink of an eye, but former
Nelsonian Malcolm Simpson has had to wait 50 years to be honoured for
making an amazing discovery. In 1948 Mr Simpson chipped a hunk of
rock in the Cobb Valley and found one of N.Z.'s oldest fossils. It was
a marine organism, a Trilobite, and a tramper's hut nearby has since
been named after it. Last week Mr Simpson was awarded the Harold
Wellman prize in recognition of his 1948 find. A geological turning
point which made scientists revise their timescales for New Zealand's
oldest rocks.
Mr Simpson made the find when he was a 14 year old school boy, and
part of a geological field team. In presenting the award the
President of the Geological Society of New Zealand apologised for the
50 year delay, and added that geologist tended to think in terms of
millions of years.
Tuesday
Forestry Exports rebound
Nelson's log and forest product exports, which the Asian economic
crisis has hit hard, are growing again. Port Nelson General Manager,
Stewart Hughes said that forest product volumes had increased since
July and had exceeded what the port company had been predicting.
Mr Hughes said 364,000 tonnes of forest products had passed through
Port Nelson since July, 18% higher than predicted. However prices are
down Korea was paying about half what it used to for logs, while the
Japanese market was paying about two thirds of the previous price.
Mr Hughes said that in other areas the port had also done well.
Container numbers peaked at 8779 for the period between July and
December last year, whereas this year there had been a 17.5% increase
to 10,316.
Other products has also increased 12%. "It's looking pretty good" Mr
Hughes said.
Gas Leak call out confusion
A Nelson man is angry he had to convince a Christchurch fire
communications operator that Bishopdale is a Nelson suburb when
reporting a gas leak at Caltex Bishopdale on Sunday. The owner of the
Bishopdale Arms, Tony Strange said that, he phoned the 111 service on
Sunday at about 4pm to report, LPG gas leaking from the neighbouring
Caltex Service station. He said, the operator told him Caltex
Bishopdale was on the Harewood road, Bishopdale in Christchurch. He
said, he repeated three times that there was one in Nelson, "then I
got angry and hung up". However the fire fighters did arrive later.
Mr Strange said he was concerned about the safety of people in
Bishopdale if there was a fire. He complained to the chief fire
officer of Nelson, Kevin Smith about the incident. However Mr Smith
said the confusion took less than 1 minute to sort out and he was
confident it did not indicate a safety risk.
Sunday's hot weather combined with a faulty valve on an LPG tank were
blamed for the gas leak at Caltex Bishopdale.
Wednesday
Historic Building destroyed
A historic wooden building housing four shops in Bridge Street was
gutted by fire early this morning. The building contained Flanagan's
Bag Shop, Chatanooga's Restaurant, The Heath Shop and Sounds Music
Store .
The fire was reported at about 1 am by a call to the 111 service. It
took Nelson firefighters more than two hours to control the blaze.
Station Officer Geoff Shearer said firefighters could see smoke and
the glow from flames as they turned into Trafalgar Street. "and they
knew it was already going fairly well". Mr Shearer said that they
were forced to fight the fire from out side the building, when the
intense heat inside forced them out after only a few minutes. A total
of seven fire engines from Nelson, Stoke and Richmond attended the
blaze. Guests at the neighbouring "Boots Back Packers" were given the
alarm at 1.30 am. Boots manager Kelvin Morrisey said it took the 26
guests less than five minutes to evacuate the building. They huddled
outside for four hours, and watched as windows burst in the heat and
showered broken glass over the street. Mr Morrisey said that the
concrete wall of the hostel had prevented the fire spreading to the
back packers hostel. Fire safety officer Paul Wigzell said the fire
had started at the rear of The Health Food Shop, but he was uncertain
as to what caused it or whether is was suspicious or not. It is
likely that the 100 year old building will be demolished, given the
extent of the damage.
Lower Mortgage interest rates help house sales
Lower mortgage interest rates have contributed to the Nelson real
estate market enjoying it's best month of the year. Real Estate
Institute figures for November show the number of homes sold in Nelson
was up significantly on the corresponding time last year. Last month
171 homes were sold in the Nelson region, 35 more than the previous
month and 43 more than November last year. The median price for the 95
homes sold in the Nelson City area was $130,000, down on last month's
median price of $147,500, and last November's median of $139,000.
Nationally the numbers of sales in November (7381), was the highest
since October 1997 when 7444 homes were sold.
Thursday
Former Honda staff find work in India
Three former Nelson Honda plant workers have found work in India,
teaching spray painting techniques to car factory employees.
The three former paint shop workers leave for India on 27th December
for the start of a six month contract which will see them train
painters in car factories in Chinnai, near Madras, and Indore. None
of the men have travelled to India before. The men said they would be
supplied with housing and have all expenses paid, " "though the salary
package was not great". former Honda paint shop worker Jason Miller
said," I think the hardest decision for us all was to leave our
families,".
Nelson heritage buildings at risk
Nelson risks losing more heritage building to fire unless they have
alarms and sprinkler systems fitted, says Nelson's Fire Safety
Officer Paul Wigzell. He said it appears to be "normal" for historic
and heritage buildings that often held historical and spiritual
significance, as well as fine architectural features, to have no
alarms or sprinkler systems. The historic 100 year old wooden building
gutted by fire in the early hours of yesterday morning was without
alarms or sprinklers. Mr Wigzell said old buildings "succumb very
quickly to fire if they do not have alarms or sprinklers. "The Fire
service with the best will in the world, won't be able to save them
without an early call," he said. Nelson City council environmental
policy manager Sarah Holman said there were about 330 historic and
heritage buildings in Nelson.
Friday
Maori fail in Airport bid.
Nelson Maori groups have failed in their legal challenge to block the
Nelson airport deal. The court of Appeal today rejected an Iwi
consortium's bid for an injunction to stop the Crown selling it's 50%
share to it's two local body partners, Tasman District Council and
Nelson City council, for 2.4 million dollars. The long awaited deal
is now expected to be settled next week, just meeting the councils
target of having full ownership and a new company structure in place
by 1st January 1999.
In dismissing the case the appeal court criticised Transport Minister
Maurice Williamson for going back on the word of the previous minister
Jenny Shipley, who had undertaken to meet with Iwi representatives to
discuss their concerns with the deal. "The trouble and expense of
this litigation might have been avoided altogether if there had been
the courtesy of a meeting" Justice Blanchard said in delivering the
court's judgement.
Saturday
Polytech and University sign agreement
Nelson Polytechnic has signed a new co-operation agreement with
Victoria University (Wellington) to allow the polytechnic to teach
Victoria courses and set up a joint summer school, share staff and
facilities and let students cross credit study.
Polytechnic CEO John Cretney has described the move to such
collaboration as "the way of the future", and said it would
significantly increase opportunities for nelson students and the
polytechnic.
Victoria university vice-chancellor Michael Irving who signed the
three year agreement her in Nelson yesterday said "the arrangement
formalised the confidence" the university had in the teaching and
courses offered through nelson Polytechnic. The arrangement meant
Victoria would recognise qualifications from the polytechnic as
credits towards it's own courses.
This would provide pathways for people who might not otherwise have
thought of attending university" Professor Irving said. He said that
facilities including the new polytechnic library learning centre and
computer support, had played a significant part in Victoria
university's decision to enter the agreement.
Fishing Companies fined over Oil spills
The Nelson City council had just taken it's fifth and sixth marine oil
spill prosecution this year to the Nelson district court.
In court yesterday two north island fishing companies, admitted owning
vessels which spilt oil in to Nelson harbour. In both cases the
accidental spillages occurred during re-fuelling operations at the
Nelson wharf, and in both cases the crew were found to be negligent.
The fishing vessels involved were overseas registered, and chartered
to the north island fishing companies. Council divisional manager
planning and consents Rod Witte said the council began taking a hard
line on oil spills three years ago. He said it had a code of
standards which fishing companies had to follow when refuelling. The
council prosecuted companies only when they were negligent , he said.
"We don't take pleasure from it, but if we don't take it seriously
people won't learn from it.
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for any errors or omissions.
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region" visit http://nelson.net.nz/events.html
Copyright © 1998 - Peter Lowish. Reproduction in any web site,
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