Mata Rd upgrades completedContractors have finished repairs to a large section of Mata Rd and resident and Mangatarata Station fencer Haz McClutchie thinks they are the “the best yet”.Fulton Hogan and Blackbee Contracting have completed works on the lower section of the coast road, stabilising over 36,000 square metres of the worst affected areas and improving roadside drainage. More than 420 truck and trailer loads of metal (11,500 tonnes) have been used so far on the upgrade.Mr McClutchie has lived and worked on Mata Road since 2014.“From someone who drives this road multiple times every day, it's great to finally see investment and quality work being done here,” he said.“It's hard to believe that only two months ago, we couldn't even get to work after the flooding and huge dropouts.“I applaud the awesome mahi contractors have done up here so far. It's the best I've seen.“It makes the road so much safer for all road users, especially the Mata School bus.”Ernslaw One regional manager Iain McInnes also welcomed the upgrade and said the damage to Mata Road during the July floods significantly impacted forestry operations.“Mata Road is the main access route to Ernslaw forests. Having the road in good condition is essential to connect our product to market, and is vital for the safety of our staff, contractors and all road users,” he said.A total of $3m of work will be completed on Mata Road, part of the $40m Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) and Tairawhiti Reployment Package (TRP) programme of works being managed by Gisborne District Council and set to be finished before the end of the year. Both investment programmes have recruited and redeployed over 250 people into new jobs so far this year.Work will now continue on the upper section of the road for another two weeks with a further 9000 tonnes of metal and 34,000 square metres of stabilising works to be done, a council statement said.Major culvert repairs will then take place closer to the state highway, before seal repairs are completed in December.None
It starts hereSite blessed and first sod turned.The redevelopment of the Gisborne Olympic Pool complex began this morning with a site blessing and sod-turning ceremony on site.The major $45 million project has been planned for many years, with $40 million of the cost coming by way of a Government grant.Work will start next month and the first phase will be building the complex's new changing block.“It's almost too good to believe that ground has finally been broken and work is starting,” said Gisborne District Council chief executive Nedine Thatcher Swann.“The community is grateful to central Government for its generous package of funding which made the redevelopment possible.”Local iwi Ngai Tawhiri said they were thrilled that the long-awaited redevelopment of the Olympic pool would soon be under way.“The months spent by mana whenua in mutual negotiation with the council on the pool redevelopment have added value to the relationship,” said Thelma Karaitiana of Ngai Tawhiri.“Ngai Tawhiri acknowledges the courteous and enduring efforts of the pool redevelopment project team.”The project was deemed to be “shovel ready” and was funded through the Government's Provincial Growth Fund.“We offered a persuasive case for investment,” Ms Thatcher Swann said.“The council had also been through an extensive consultation process with the community and had an agreed concept plan ready to go.Council representatives and others heard Wirangi Pera, Pou Tikanga for the Hahi Ringatu, and Morehu Pewhairangi, open the morning with karakia about the spiritual connection of the people to the land.None
Kiri Allan ahead in Labour poll National candidate Tania Tapsell says result hard to take seriously.A Labour-commissioned poll says Kiri Allan leads National's Tania Tapsell by 40.5 percent to 35 percent as Labour attempts to turn East Coast red for the first time since the 2002 election.The East Coast Survey, conducted by Auckland-based public opinion research company Community Engagement between September 22 and 24, shows Labour would take out the party vote in East Coast by a larger margin of 46.9 percent to National's 28.6 percent with the Greens on 4.4 percent, New Zealand First on 4.2 percent, "another party" (covering the 13 other parties contesting the 2020 election) receiving 9.1 percent collectively, and undecideds on 6.9 percent.In the electorate poll where respondents were asked which candidate were they most likely to vote for, Green candidate Meredith Akuhata-Brown polled at 4.9 percent, “another (unspecified) party” polled 9.6 percent and undecideds were 9.9 percent.Ms Tapsell said it was hard to take seriously a poll paid for by Labour Party activists.“That Labour are attempting this tactic is an admission that their campaign is falling back as we have seen in the wider national trend.“This does not reflect what I'm hearing on the ground which is great frustration that all Labour has delivered is announcing how much taxpayers' money they will spend on pet projects.”Ms Tapsell said East Coast had huge housing and methamphetamine issues which had got worse under Labour.“I've had really positive feedback from locals about National's economic recovery plan, particularly our plan to cut taxes.According to the poll, List MP Kiri Allan enjoys strong support among female voters, 45 percent compared to 29 percent for Ms Tapsell.The national candidate won male voters by 42 percent to 36 percent.Ms Allan won the over 50s by 45 percent to 39 percent, and the under 50s.Prime Minister Ardern's leadership appeals to manyThe poll indicates the leadership of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and the Government's response to handling of Covid-19 appeals to many voters.Asked if Ms Ardern's leadership “makes you more or less likely to vote for Labour candidate Kiri Allan”, 42.5 percent said much more likely, 9.8 percent said more likely and 19 percent said they were neutral.A total of 9.3 percent said they were less likely and 19.4 said they were much less likely to vote for Ms Allan.A similar question on Judith Collins' leadership resulted in 24.1 percent saying they were much more likely to vote for Ms Tapsell, 9.8 percent more likely, 27.2 percent neutral, 12.7 less likely and 31.2 percent much less likely.The question on Covid-19 resulted in 44.6 percent saying they were much more likely to vote for Labour and/or Ms Allan, 10.6 were more likely, 20.2 percent were neutral, 9 percent were less likely and 15.6 percent were much less likely.The most important issue was cost of living named by 17.6 percent, followed by recovery from Covid-19, 16.6 percent, jobs and employment 15.5 percent and health 13.7 percent.Community Engagement Ltd said 831 people, contacted by either landline or cellphone, took part in the survey and the margin of error is plus or minus 3.39 percent. Retiring National MP Anne Tolley has held the East Coast seat since 2005 and three years ago won with a majority of 4807 and 46.7 percent of the electorate votes, compared to 33.88 percent for Ms Allan.National won the party vote in East Coast by 44.2 percent compared with Labour's 36.6 percent.Advanced voting begins on Saturday. Election day is October 17.None
The Crucible - the backstoryThe audience will be so close to the action of Unity Theatre's production of The Crucible, they will become caught up in it, says director Norman Maclean. As with Unity's production of Romeo and Juliet last year, the intimate setting of Unity's Ormond Road theatre means the audience is almost inside the action. “It almost gives a sense of participating in the climactic trial scene, for example.”Arthur Miller's 1953 drama takes as its theme the witchcraft mania that swept Massachusetts in 1692. “Although the madness extended as far as Boston, Salem village is the focus here since that was where the delusion began and where 19 innocent people were executed for supposedly trafficking with demons,” says Maclean.“Malice, superstition, petty rivalries and hysteria accounted for both accusations and condemnations in a society that was haunted by both sin and satanic influences.” In a 1996 New Yorker article, Miller reflects on how he wrote the work nearly 50 years earlier, “in an America almost nobody I know seems to remember clearly”.Miller had since lost the “dead weight of fear” prevalent under Senator Joseph McCarthy who exploited widespread fear about the spread of Communism. The practice of making accusations of subversion or treason without proper regard for evidence meant the Red hunt targeted certain State Department employees, homosexuals, and the “Hollywood Ten”, filmmakers called before the House Un-American Activities Committee and asked: “Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?”The Red hunt“This unleashed a veritable holy terror among actors, directors, and others, from Party members to those who had had the merest brush with a front organisation,” says Miller in The New Yorker. The Red hunt was becoming the dominant fixation of the American psyche.“In those years, our thought processes were becoming so magical, so paranoid, that to imagine writing a play about this environment was like trying to pick one's teeth with a ball of wool,” says Miller.He visited Salem in 1952 and in the gloomy courthouse read transcripts from the 1692 witchcraft trials. In a report by Reverend Samuel Parris (played by Simon Marino in the Unity production), a chief instigator of the witch-hunt, Miller saw the seeds of his play. He sensed in the report a troubled triangle between farmer John Proctor (Lawrence Mulligan), young Abigail (Bo Jarratt) and Proctor's wife, Elizabeth (Belinda Campbell). “The more I read into the Salem panic, the more it touched off corresponding images of common experiences in the fifties: the old friend of a blacklisted person crossing the street to avoid being seen talking to him; the overnight conversions of former leftists into born-again patriots; and so on,” says Miller. Writing the play also presented Miller with an opportunity to create an echo of 17th century New England English he describes as “plain, craggy...liberating in a strangely sensuous way”.The Crucible's debutSome of Miller's previous plays had been subjected to political nastiness and by the time The Crucible was to make its debut, Miller knew of two actors who had killed themselves because of upcoming Red hunt investigations while many more people in the entertainment industry exiled themselves to Europe. On the of opening night in New York in 1953 Miller's expectation of a hostile reaction was underlined by a newspaper headline that announced “ALL THIRTEEN REDS GUILTY”. Opening night was reviewed unkindly but when younger, less accomplished actors performed the work about a year later The Crucible became a hit.“It is only a slight exaggeration to say that, especially in Latin America, The Crucible starts getting produced wherever a political coup appears imminent, or a dictatorial regime has just been overthrown,” says Miller. “I am not sure what The Crucible is telling people now, but I know that its paranoid centre is still pumping out the same darkly attractive warning that it did in the fifties. The play has strong relevance for contemporary audiences, says Maclean.“The power of fundamentalist religious belief frequently warps the ability to reason and to exercise compassion and ludicrous concepts create conspiracy theories supported by minimal evidence - a feature of this year's elections.”The Crucible by Arthur Miller, directed by Norman Maclean, Unity Theatre, October 2-10. Tickets $25+bf from i-SITE or eventfinda.ENDSNone
NEW Zealand's commercial summerfruit growers welcome Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi's decision on key policy changes that will help the sector employ a broad ...
THE vast majority of urban New Zealanders can get on the information superhighway at speed but the latest connectivity survey by Federated Farmers shows too man...
Myrtle rust has arrived in Gisborne City, with the recent discovery of the disease on ramarama hedges at two properties in Kaiti.
“The trees are not smothered ...
Freshwater anglers are eagerly anticipating the start of the new trout and salmon fishing season, which begins on October 1.
Early reports indicate there is som...
