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Friday, December 7, 2012
FIRST PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 27, 1879
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Mid Canterbury schools are not ruling out strike action with their Christchurch counterparts to fight a ministry shake up of the city’s schools. At a New Zealand Educational Institute union conference on Wednesday, more than 500 Christchurch teachers agreed to take part in strike action against the Ministry of Education which has proposed to close and merge schools following the earthquakes. The strike, scheduled for February 19, would mean most Christchurch schools would be affected by teacher absentees, with 520 of the 846 voting teachers at the meeting, wanting strike action. Mid Canterbury Principals’ Association president and Longbeach School principal Neil Simons said it was still early days, and Mid Canterbury schools had not made a decision as to whether they would join in on the stand against an overhaul of the city’s education landscape. “It hasn’t been discussed here and I don’t know if it will be something we pursue, I guess it’s becoming a union matter now,” Mr Simons said. “We can’t count it out ... but for now it would be pretty unlikely. “If it became a national matter, we would support our colleagues.” The move could technically be illegal because strike action can only be undertaken if workers refuse to work due to collective agreement disputes.
However, Mr Simons said he had sympathy for fellow teachers in Christchurch, who had the bombshell dropped on them in September, being told 13 schools would close with 26 planned to merge. “We absolutely sympathise with them, the lines of communication have not been clear between the ministry and schools and no one likes to hear of school closures,” he said. Hampstead principal Peter Melrose said Mid Canterbury schools would take action “if called upon”, and he felt for his Christchurch colleagues who were dumped into a situation that was spurred by the earthquakes. “It’s one that hasn’t come about because of one person’s actions, it’s an act of God.” Mr Melrose said he had supported principals in Christchurch and would continue to do so. “Many of us know principals up there and we give them a ring to ask how they are going. There’s nothing we can do as such, we can just make contact and give them a sounding board but we certainly feel for them,” Mr Melrose said. NZEI union president Ian Leckie said the Government proposals were based on “wrong or poor quality information”. He applauded Christchurch teachers for making a stand against the unnecessary disruption and radical reform that has been put before them Mr Leckie said it was now up to the ministry to try and stop the strike.
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Tornado kills 3 in Auckland
Photo supplied 061212-supplied-001
Rakaia River angler Isaac Eaton with a 19 pound salmon he caught this week below the State Highway One bridge on the south side.
Salmon season ‘a record breaker’ By Susan Sandys Mid Canterbury salmon anglers are buzzing as catch numbers and fish sizes this season hark back to the 1990s. Just a few weeks into the 2012/2013 season dozens of salmon have been caught at the main river mouths of Canterbury, in good condition and a good size. Central South Island Fish and Game officer Mark Webb said the season was proving to be a “record breaker” along the South Island’s east coast. November had seen 80 salmon caught on the south side of the Rangitata River mouth, the most since 1999, with a top weight landed of 24.5 pound or 11 kilo-
grams. And so far for this month there had already been 81 caught at the same location. “This has been the best start to a season in years,” Mr Webb said. From the Rangitata River to the Waimakariri, all coastal river mouths had reported an early run of salmon. North Canterbury Fish and Game officer Steve Terry, who himself landed two salmon of 16 and 19 pounds on Wednesday, said many caught by anglers this season had been over 20 pound “which indicates they have had a good food source in the open ocean”. Salmon numbers significantly dropped in the 1999 to 2000 year and never recovered, making some people point to irreversible
factors such as climate change. But Mr Webb said it was impossible to choose one reason behind fluctuations in salmon populations, although marine environment variations were probably a large factor. Releases from hatcheries and salmon spawning stream enhancement projects carried out by Fish and Game most likely positively influenced populations, but it was difficult to judge to what extent. He said hatchery fish were among those being caught currently, although most of those tended to come back later in the season. “It’s certainly a bumper season compared to the last 12 years. We don’t know if it will continue (throughout the season), we hope
it does. If so that’s great and we hope it will be the same next season and the year after,” he said. A nor’-west weather flow over the region in the last two days had put a temporary halt on angling and it would potentially be late next week before the rivers were fishable again. Among anglers who have fared well this season is Isaac Eaton of Christchurch, who landed a 19 pound salmon at the Rakaia River, just below the State Highway One bridge on the south side, on Monday. It was “probably” the biggest fish he had ever caught. He had not seen many anglers down the river, but expected more would be there as news of the boomer season travelled.
Three people have been killed and seven injured during a storm, including a tornado, that hit Auckland yesterday. Police have confirmed the deaths and injuries. Those affected were believed to be involved in the construction of a school at Hobsonville Point and/or were hit by a tree. About 150 homes were damaged at Whenuapai and many were deemed uninhabitable or were without power. About 300 residents had been evacuated to Whenuapai Air Force Base and Auckland Council welfare staff were assisting them. Electricity was off in numerous parts of Auckland including Henderson, Greenhithe, Hobsonville, Riverhead, Meadowbank and St Johns. There was widespread surface flooding on roads and motorways throughout Auckland and motorists are urged to take care or stay off the roads if possible. Andy Gummer of St John said at least seven people had been taken to Auckland and North Shore hospitals. A tornado hit Hobsonville during the storm, tearing down trees and ripping panels from the motorway. Fire, police and ambulance raced to multiple call-outs in Hobsonville and Upper Harbour. Emergency services were kept busy trying to clear blocked roads. At 1.52pm MetService weather radar detected thunderstorms near Auckland, Orewa, Albany, the inner Hauraki Gulf, Daily Flat, Whangaparaoa and Silverdale. Fire Service area manager Murray Binning said appliances were responding to damage more widespread than the 1km zone at a construction site. “There are houses with roofs off scattered all over west Auckland, so we’re dealing with those too,” he said. More, P6
Irrigation storage ponds cover 300 football fields By Linda Clarke
Photo Tetsuro Mitomo 061212-tm-075
Mayfield Hinds Irrigation Scheme general manager Hamish Tait at the site of the storage ponds under construction at Carew.
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Work on three new $14.9 million storage ponds for the Mayfield Hinds Irrigation Scheme is progressing, with contractors now starting to install plastic liner in the ponds, which have a combined surface area of about 300 football fields. The project will provide much needed storage for the 150 farmershareholders on the scheme, especially when the Rangitata River which provides their water is on restrictions in summer. Rooney Earthmoving has designed and is building the ponds, which have a combined capacity of 6.1 million cubic metres of water and a surface area of about 150ha. Scheme general manager Hamish Tait said water would be diverted into the storage ponds from the
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Investigations were continuing into a proposal to pipe the scheme. We are looking to tender the project early next year to identify a contractor and get more accurate costings
existing main supply race, then gravity fed back into the network during restrictions. The ponds are located at Carew, north of the Arundel bridge on the left bank of the Rangitata. Work started last October and the ponds should be ready for action by the start of the next irrigation season in September. Improved water use efficiency and consistent quality and quantity of farm produce requires reliable irrigation water. About 80 per cent of the MHIS farmers have converted from border-dyke to spray irrigation in recent years. Over half the 32,000 hectares
under irrigation within the scheme is in dairying, with the remainder in dairy support, mixed livestock and cropping. Around 70 per cent of farmers already have on-farm storage to better manage their individual watertakes (totalling nearly 7 million cubic metres), but the Carew ponds will be a scheme asset for improving reliability. Project progress to date includes installation of intake and outlet pipes, construction of all three pond embankments (1,150,000m3 material cut/fill), installation of interconnecting pipes within the ponds, construction of two weirs in the
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main race, and diversion of stock water races. An impermeable pond liner is part of the design. The pond embankments are currently being lined and when this is completed the pond bases will follow. The liner will prevent the stored water seeping out. Inflow to the ponds will be controlled by automated hydraulic gates at the inlet structure. Inter pond culverts are also controlled by automated gates as is the outlet structure used to pass stored water back into the main race. The control system will operate in tandem with the existing MHIL irrigation management system.
Mr Tait said investigations were also continuing into a proposal to pipe the Mayfield Hinds scheme. “We are looking to tender the project early next year to identify a contractor and get more accurate costs to shareholders.” Only after careful consideration of the cost-benefit of the project would shareholders be asked to vote on the proposal. Mr Tait said that the key advantages of piping were reducing the energy cost of irrigation and with a more efficient delivery network, water saved could be used to irrigate new farmland. This would allow Mid Canterbury to further increase its agricultural production. However the project must be affordable. The pipe project would have a three-year construction phase if it gets the green light.
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