Packed funeral for Jim Nicholls

St Georges Anglican Church in Thames was packed today for the funeral of Hauraki elder and New Zealand Maori Council deputy chair Jim Nicholls, who died on Sunday at the age of 70.

Dale Husband from Ngati Maru and Radio Waatea says Jim Nicholls is a man who touched many, both Maori and Pakeha, certainly in the Hauraki region where he is from.

The service in the Anglican Church in Thames were filled to overflowing, and the tributes paid to him were about the generosity of his contribution to Maori affairs, bth in the Hauraki rohe and also in the wider Maori community.

The pallbearers reflected his time at St Stephen’s Maori Boys College. Hone Kaa officiated the services, Hone Harawira was there, Te Ururoa Flavell, both ex-students, Waihoroi Shortland, Toby Curtis, and all spoke of a man who after being very successful in his own right in business, devoted the latter stages of his life to Hauraki tribal life and the wider Maori community.

A teacher by profession, a man who was very much respected by both the Maori and Pakeha communities, he was laid to rest the Whai Apu urupa just opposite the famed Totara Pa, the home of the Hauraki people.

REEVES INVOKES TAIAROA SPIRIT IN CONSTITUTION REVIEW

Former governor - general Sir Paul Reeves says the late Sir Archie Taiaroa epitomised the spirit that needs to go into the upcoming constitutional review.

Sir Archie Taiaroa died on Tuesday aged 73, and his tangi is drawing hundreds of people to Taumarunui.

Sir Paul says Sir Archie, Sir Mason Durie and himself were trustees of a fund set to promote constitutional change.


“A person like Archie seemed to me to be someone who expressed the very heart of what it means to be a Maori and yet people at large saw him as one who was a great New Zealander. That’s what the constitutional review should produce, that sense of what it means to be a New Zealander, both Maori and Pakeha,” Sir Paul says.

ONLINE RESOURCE TO TRAIN ANTI-SMOKING WORKERS

Te Hotu Manawa Maori is using online learning to produce more Maori smoking cessation advisors.

Moana Tane, the Maori heart lobby's chief executive, says participants can pick up enough in an hour's training to help people through nicotine replacement therapy.

She says it was an effective use of the organisation's scarce resources.

“Many of our workers around the country live in very isolated areas and it’s hard to get to training, especially to kaupapa Maori training which is what we deliver so our intention in going into an e-environment was to open up access for smokers, for people who are working with Maori communities to help people quit smoking, but also for anyone who has an interest in helping our people get off tobacco,” Ms Tane says.

She spoke on the programme to this week's Public Health Association conference at Turangawaewae marae.

TE HAPUA STUDENTS HELP IN WHALE STRANDING

A class of nine students from Te Hapua school found themselves in the middle of the huge whale stranding at Spirits Bay.

Teacher Te Aroha Wihapi says the 13 and 14 year olds were expecting to find a few pilot whales, but as they came over the crest of the hill at Kapowairua there were stranded whales as far as the eye could see.

She says the first reaction of many was shock and sadness.

“Straight away a couple of my other students just went into action mode and went out to help a baby whale head back out to sea, and I had a few of them just touching and patting and hugging the whales. Just seeing the state they were in, they were very upset and very taken by it,” Mrs Wihapi says.

She is extremely proud of the way her students coped.

INCORPORATIONS LOOK TO BIGGER DAIRY CHEQUES

The general manager of the second largest Maori dairy farmer says Fonterra's projected $7 a kilo payout will help it recover from previous adversities.

Paraninihi ki Waitotara Incorporation runs 7000 cows on 13 dairy units, producing about 2.3 million kilos of milk solids a year.

Dion Tuuta says production was down last year because of low forecast meant budgets were cut, but things are looking positive, climate willing.

“Our year this year started very well. We’re ahead of our production budgets. But of course we’ve just been hit by some massive rain here in Taranaki as well, the whole country has, yet to see what effect that will have on our production but we’re looking forward to a positive year. As long as Fonterra can keep it up, it’s good news,” Mr Tuuta says.

Paraninihi ki Waitotara Incorporation only farms 10 percent of its land because of the historic reserve land system, and the high payouts mean its lessees will be unlikely to put their farms up for sale at affordable prices any time soon.

DOC CHALLENGED TO BRING LAND TO SETTLEMENTS

The chair of far north iwi Te Rarawa says it's time for the Department of Conservation to help rather than hinder treaty settlements.

An independent report of the department's performance says it's focus on risks and problems means it's getting in the way of the government's target to complete historical settlements by 2014.

Haami Piripi says while staff in the far north conservancy work well with Muriwhenua iwi, those in head office have been unhelpful and often obstructive.
He says conservation groups who promote a split between iwi and kiwi seem to have undue influence on the department's attitude.

“A lot of conservation groups see land coming back to Maori as being a form of privatisation but nothing could be further from the truth. As history reveals, we are Maori people and Maori communities, we have probably given the most resources to the common good, the public interest,” Mr Piripi says.