160 people packed into the church hall in Stewart St on Saturday for the book launch and korero of Dr Oliver McLeod’s geological Survey of Karioi. As he said in his opening remarks it’s highly unusual for large crowds to turn up for a lecture on geology but the combination of crowd-funding campaign and use of Matauranga Maori had generated considerable interest within the community.
While $15,000 was raised from the crowd funding campaign, the project was also a labour of love for Oliver McLeod who spent many hours on the slopes of Karioi gathering data. His use of Matauranga Maori also meant in-depth consultation with local hapu leaders as he gathered together original place names and the Whakapapa of the area.
Kaumatua Sean Ellison and Angeline Greensill were also on hand for a panel discussion about Matauranga Mauri and modern science before questions from the crowd to end the presentation.
Stormwater works began at Papahua Reserve last week with temporary fencing in the Reserve, by the football fields. The aim of the project is to solve flooding problems at the camp ground and football fields. Originally the project was to include some roading work but after tenders were returned it was cut back to just stormwater works and a pump station. GM Civil has been awarded the contract and the aim is to do most of the work in September with the pump being installed in December.
This is not the first time the council has tried to fix this problem with the football club being told in 2018 that council was going to investigate the situation properly and “make good long term solutions” before completing a project that left a campground pump diverting water to the football fields where it then seeped back to the campground. Hopefully this project will get the job done.
Good news in local sport as the Whaingaroa Whai Wahine have bought some silverware back to Raglan at the end of the winter sports season.
Like the men, they're in their second season in the Waikato League. Having been placed in the Championship division they had been comfortably beating most of the teams except for Taniwharau who finished the league round undefeated. Carrying their form from the league rounds through the semi’s it was no surprise the two teams met in the final but then Whaingaroa Whai threw the form book out the window with a relatively comfortable 26-16 win yesterday at Resthills Park in Hamilton.