Kapiti Locals get cold shoulder at Motorway splurge

Elaine Engman of Wellington’s ‘Scoop’ gives a different perspective to the PR splurge on the sod-turning for the controversial new Kapiti Expressway.

Elaine (who’s Waikanae resident) says the Transport Agency’s ‘sod-breaking ceremony’ for the Mackays Crossing to Peka Peka Expressway seemed to be a secretive affair, instead of being a community celebration.

Ms Engman says: ‘Details of the location and time were available only to those who had been invited – mainly politicians, members of the Alliance and of course employees of the Transport Agency.

‘We heard the details from a politician who was too saddened to attend and thought members of the community should know about it. Now read the full story in Scoop —

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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.

Kāpiti and Coast Independent

Expressway Secrets

Kapiti Locals get cold shoulder at Motorway splurge