Whāingaroa Talent Factory is back for 2025 and calling all musicians, DJs and MCs aged 13–18 to apply for their chance to be part of the annual youth music showcase.
Applicants will be mentored by industry professionals at the beginning of the September school holidays before performing live in the Raglan Town Hall on Saturday October 4th.
Entries close 11th September and can be made via social media @whaingroatalentfactory
Raglan Naturally and Toitu Whaingaroa will premiere a 90 minute documentary about the Karioi Maunga called Tirohia Karioi – Behold Karioi with a premiere on Saturday 6th September at the Church Hall on Stewart St. Described as sharing stories of people and place the film will also be shown twice the next day at the same venue with entry by koha.
The date of the planned Wainui Road bridge closure has changed and will now be overnight from 9pm on Wednesday 27th August 2025.
The work is to install a new high voltage power cable duct.
The bridge will be closed from 9pm – 5am, there will be staged openings to let traffic through for a few minutes every hour on the hour during this time.
If needed, priority will be given to emergency services who will be allowed through at any time – although it will take a few minutes to clear equipment off the bridge.
VMPs boards with advance notification are up now on both sides of the bridge.
Raglan man acquitted of murder, deemed insane at time of fatal shooting
Warning: Distressing content
A Raglan man who shot and killed his uncle has been found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity.
Thirty-year-old Saul Yalma Maniapoto-Bernsten was due to stand trial in the High Court at Hamilton recently over the shooting of his uncle, Cedric Maniapoto, last March. Instead, Justice Timothy Brewer ruled Maniapoto-Bernsten was suffering from schizophrenia and could not tell right from wrong at the time.
He has been ordered into compulsory psychiatric care as a special patient, where he’ll remain until the Minister of Health approves any release, a process that usually takes years.
Justice Brewer described the case as a tragedy for the family and said Maniapoto-Bernsten’s future depends on treatment that protects both him and the wider community.
In seabed mining news; Fast Track Approvals associate panel convener Jennifer Caldwell has accused Trans Tasman resources of taking a “cynical” approach to their application that meant the process would take longer.
She stated, “The Applicant’s responses to some of my directions have provided little, if any assistance, and have in fact led to my taking a more conservative approach to timeframe,” she said.
The panel will start work in a week’s time and, sit for 130 working days, much longer than the 76 suggested by TTR
Alan Eggers who heads TTR, told fast-track officials there is “little room for real debate” on their proposal and that opponents would raise any and every issue to impede the project, regardless of merit’,
This is in sharp contrast to the evidence presented to the EPA by TTR’s opponents which has lead to them being repeatedly turned down in previous applications to mine the South Taranaki Bight.
Jennifer Caldwell was also critical of their engagement with iwi, not surprisingly TTR claimed they had taken iwi concerns into account “as best we understand them”.