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Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Maori Party candidate Monte Ohia dies

Rereamoamo Monte Ohia is being remembered for his contribution to education, and for the contribution he could have made to politics.

The Maori Party's Te Tai Tonga candidate died suddenly in Christchurch this morning.

He had a long career as a teacher and education official, and has been Kaiarahi for Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology since 2005.

Kaumatua Napi Waaka, who worked with Mr Ohia at Te Wananga o Aotearoa, says he made affected thousands of lives.

“Monte grew up as a humble person in a wonderful family. He grew up to be a fine totara, a totara whose leaves sheltered not just Maori but Pakeha and all peoples of the world. He was a man who looked for avenues to enable his Maori people, his friends, to enter into the world of education, because for him, that was the key to success to live in this revolving world,” Mr Waaka says.

Monte Ohia has been taken back to his home in Christchurch, and is expected at Waikawa marae in Picton on Saturday.

HARD QUESTIONS NEEDED ON DRUG SELLERS IN MIDST

A Ngati Hine leader says people in Moerewa and Kawakawa need to ask themselves some hard questions about why drugs have been allowed to flourish in their communities.

The mid-north towns are in an uproar after a Moerewa dairy owner was found selling a common solvent used in the manufacture of illegal drugs.

Peter Tipene from the Ngati Hine Runanga says a working group is looking for long term solutions to the problem, rather than at a quick fix as some in the community are seeking.

“Here we are talking about kicking the Indian shopkeeper out of town. He is a very easy target when people selling the stuff and peddling it on our streets are known to all of us, so why aren’t we doing it to them. These are the sorts of hard questions we have to ask ourselves,” Mr Tipene says.

Any solution is likely to involve work in schools, so young people don't turn to drugs and gangs for a sense of involvement.

IMAGES AVAILABLE ONLINE AT TE PAPA

The national museum making its collections available online.

Images of Te Papa's humanities and art collections, including almost 700 taonga Maori, have been added to the museum's website.

Claudia Orange, the director of history and Pacific cultures, says new technology offers new ways to approach Te Papa's collections.

She says the museum plans to have its images of all items in its collections online within ten years.

FORESHORE TALKS FOR 90 MILE BEACH

The Crown has opened talks over the southern part of Ninety Mile Beach.

It today signed terms of negotiation under the Foreshore and Seabed Act with Te Rarawa, which claims the coast from the Hokianga Harbour to Hukerere, about a third of the way up the beach known as Te Oneroa a Tohe.

Haami Piripi, the chair of Te Runanga o Te Rarawa, says the iwi wants to have a greater say in coastal and fisheries management.

He says it has felt what little influence it had slipping away.

“We're in a situation where we have a lot of other New Zealanders who have been buoyed by the passing of the Foreshore and Seabed Act into the belief that we have no interest and that therefore the interest lies wit other communities and therefore we need to be able to reestablish our place in the fabric of our society in the far north,” Mr Piripi says.

He says current coastal management policies turn Maori into poachers rather than the gamekeepers they should be.

TREATY PROGRESS SECURE AFTER ELECTION

John Key is denying Labour claims the treaty settlement process will stall under National.

Ministers say the current rapid progress would be threatened by a change in government.

But National's leader says he has a plan to accelerate the process, starting with more resources for the Waitangi Tribunal.

“Secondly it's about the kind of quality of minister you have and almost certainly that will be Chris Finlayson who is well known to people and is a great barrister, represented Ngai Tahu for their settlement so knows this sort of space very well, but it will also include people of very high caliber that can ghave the confidence of Cabinet and also the confidence of Maori and one of those without doubt is Wira Gardiner,” Mr Key says.

In principal National will support the central North Island forestry settlement, which Mr Gardiner has been working on as a Crown facilitator.

HYDRO POWER COULD BE ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY

A King Country land trust is looking at how to generate power while preserving environmental values.

Clearwater Hydro is considering building a one megawatt station on the Kokakotaia Stream in the Pureoroa forest.

It's on land belonging to Maraeroa C, whose spokesperson Glen Katu says modern technology means the full width of the stream doesn't need to be dammed.

“That means we can put in a weir that only gathers the water from half of the flow and channels that water into a penstock and then the power generated at the bottom and so one of the things we’re really conscious of environmentally is that we don’t ruin the habitat for our eels and other fish,” Mr Katu says.

Maraeroa C needs better power supply in the region for its timber processing business and for a planned papakainga housing development for shareholders.

1 Comments:

Blogger Dr. Antonio Cordero said...

Hello Adam, I was a friend of Rihari Monte Ohia, whom I believe was Monte Ohia's son. We served together as missionaries in the US in 1999 but I lost track of him years ago. do you know anyway to reach their family.
Antonio Cordero Venezuela

4:16 am  

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