Police have paused their search for the man who went missing off the coast of Raglan on Tuesday 23 April but are still asking for anyone who was fishing that morning in the Raglan area to get in touch with them.
Police, with the assistance of the National Police Dive Squad, The New Zealand Navy, Coastguard and a fixed-wing aircraft have searched the area but the man was not located, and the search has now been paused pending any information that may lead to an area of interest for further searching.
The matter has been reported to the Coroner and Police remain in contact with family.
Waikato District Council has declared its strong opposition to any legislation that has the potential to remove Maaori Wards from its governance model.
Although other council’s came out with their opposition two weeks ago, with Waipa Mayor Susan O’Regan describing the government as “arrogant” and “heavy-handed” it’s understood that our Mayor Jacqui Church was not as keen to come out with guns blazing to defend our council’s two Maaori wards.
Nonetheless she has now stated; “We value our current governance model highly” and that “the introduction of Maaori wards in 2022 injected additional important fresh perspectives into the district’s governance.” before emphasizing how important it was to have diverse voices around the council table.
Billy Stairmand is in the national news again after his official naming as a member of the New Zealand Olympic Team at Manu Bay earlier this week . Surrounded by friends, family and teachers from the local surf academy Billy said that it meant a lot to represent New Zealand and that he would be spending some time at the Olympic venue in Tahiti to prepare for the competition at the end of July.
In more council news there will be a delay in the release of the latest rating revaluation data from QV for every property in the Waikato district. The Office of the Valuer General has asked for more work to be done as part of the independent audit process.
Council hopes that the new rating valuation data will be available from 5 June 2024 but the release date is up to the Auditor General. Normally valuations are used to determine the rating value for each property but this information won’t be arriving in time for the new council budget and rate rise due 1st July.
In local sports news, over 1000 people are descending on Raglan this Saturday for the 28th annual Whaingaroa Hoe. Three local waka ama teams are racing but most of the club will be busy organising the event to make sure it goes off without a hitch. For those wanting to see the races start the times are 8am, 10:30am and 1pm.
Whaingaroa Whai League team started their run of away games with a victory against the Whatawhata Wolves 34-24 in the battle of the divi, last weekend. Also known as the battle of the Ngati Mahanga teams, Mark Heta, Justin Brown and Potiki Tupaea were announced as the players of the day.
This Saturday they’re up against Ngaruawahia Panthers at Resthills park at 1pm.
Meanwhile the Roosters football team had a topsy-turvy game last weekend with fellow table toppers Deezciples. Locked at 1-1 with 15 minutes to go the wheels fell off completely as a further 4 goals were put into the back of the Roosters net. They lost 5-1 and have slipped from the top spot of division 1 of the Waikato Football Sunday League. This weekend they have a bye so it will be another week before they can get onto the park to make amends.
Our local netball teams hit the courts in Hamilton on a cold Thursday night last night. Whai won their game 27 - 18, Karioi lost 22-35 and Ngaranui lost 18 -30. Bessy Wilson, Queeny Cleveland and Lily Rickard were the players of the day for those teams.,
Meanwhile at the ISA World Junior Surfing Championships Alani Morse has bowed out in the heats but her New Zealand teammates are still having some success with most of the team having made it through to round 3.