Superstar Steve Adams Drops By – Kāpiti and Coast Independent

He’s got a dry New Zealand sense of humor and a willingness to yuck it up with the media, telling entertaining anecdotes and using unique mannerisms.” Anthony Slater NewsOK.com

The surprise guest at the age group basketball academy

By Angelo Robinson

The players heading off to Las Vegas in July with the New Zealand Basketball Academy Age Group Representative teams were treated to a surprise visit at the camp on Sunday 8 June. NBA player Steve Adams turned up at the players trainings and helped out with skills and drills and spent time helping players and assisting coaches.

He spoke to players telling them that this is where it all started for him and how lucky they are as well to have these opportunities.

Preparing for Las Vegas

The countdown now begins for these players as they do their final preparations for the tournaments in Las Vegas in July. The heat is going to be the biggest challenge for them and keeping well hydrated will be crucial.

They will also need to get use to the fast pace of the game in the USA and the different refereeing styles.

These tournaments in Vegas are the same ones Steve Adams went to when he was 16. In fact he should be there at the same time as our teams, playing in the NBA Pro Summer League in Las Vegas.

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STORY OF THE WEEK

Kāpiti Coast councillors have toured of one of Aotearoa's unique buildings, the heritage - listed Rotunda at the former Otaki Health Camp, the country’s first.

Jeremy Smith reports that the 105-year-old, eight-sided rotunda predates the Health Camp.

It wasn't actually built in Otaki, but was one of two built in Rotorua in 1915 as part of a military hospital, on the site of Rotorua’s present public hospital.

Later they were taken to Otaki for the opening of the health camp in 1931.

Full story in the main column (December 19).

100 Years Ago — and the Maori Long March begins

Māori politics was dominated by the influential MPs (and sometime Cabinet ministers) Māui Pōmare ( Waitara statue photo above) and Apirana Ngata.

The 1920's also saw the rise of Tahupōtiki Wiremu Rātana’s religious movement, and the emergence of Te Puea Hērangi in Waikato.

Ngata worked hard to foster Māori scholarship and education and preserve traditional arts and culture.

He convinced the government to establish a Board of Maori Ethnological Research (1923), a Maori Purposes Fund Control Board (1924) and a School of Maori Arts and Crafts in Rotorua (1927).

The Reform government also took the first, tentative steps towards settling longstanding Māori grievances.

Agreements with Te Arawa in 1922 and Ngāti Tūwharetoa in 1926 recognised their respective rights over the Rotorua lakes and Lake Taupō, and led to the establishment of trust boards with some government funding.

Commissions of inquiry which examined Ngāi Tahu grievances (1920–21) and the Waikato and Taranaki confiscations (1926–27) recommended that modest compensation be paid.