MP Proactive On Expressway Noise – Kāpiti and Coast Independent

Kris Faafoi’s meeting tonight

By Roger Childs

The Kapiti Council (KCDC) has been surprisingly quiet on a problem which affects hundreds, if not thousands, of ratepayers. Few would question the value of the Kapiti Expressway, but the noise of traffic passing through the area is a major concern.

A great benefit for traffic but rather noisy

The problem is greatest at night when big trucks are heading for the capital and in the morning when commuters start driving to work further south.There is also the double sound of vehicles passing over the metal sections of bridges.

With KCDC seemingly disinterested, MP for Mana, Kris Faafoi, has called a public meeting.

Tonight, Monday 17 July at 7.00pm
Kapiti Uniting Church, opposite Weka Park in Raumati Beach.

(KIN will have a full report on proceedings tomorrow.)

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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.