Waimea Weekly
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Wednesday 13 January 2016
Lets learn something new...
New support group for Mums
Rain doesn’t halt races
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Racing club in $140k hole Simon Bloomberg
The Nelson Harness Racing Club is facing one of its biggest challenges in its 125 year history after an accounting oversight has left the club in a desperate financial position facing a $140,000 tax bill.
The club should have been celebrating its 125th anniversary at its two-day summer meeting on Friday and Sunday. Instead, there was a sombre mood among club officials who will somehow have to find $140,000 to pay the Inland Revenue Department after over-claiming GST on stakes payments for the last four years.
Club president John McKenzie says he was devastated when he was informed about the accounting error in midOctober. The club had been claiming all the GST on stakes paid to winning owners and trainers instead of just those who are GST registered for the last four years, resulting in over-claiming by an
estimated $140,000. John says the club informed the IRD about the error “immediately” and although he has not yet had a response he expects to get a tax bill for the full amount. There is also a possibility that
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Man saves girls off Rabbit Island Andrew Board
A Christchurch man is being hailed as a hero after saving two Nelson girls off Rabbit Island on Saturday afternoon. Wattie Mortimer, 42, was at Rabbit Island with his wife and two young daughters on the final day of their summer holiday when he heard the cry of help. Two Stoke girls, said to be aged 10 and 11 by members of the Nelson Coastguard, were onboard a $75 inflatable boat when strong winds and an outgoing tide took them away from their mother, who was sitting on the shore with a toddler. Wattie’s wife, Christine, said she asked the lady if she’d like her husband to go after them as they realised they could be in real trouble. Wattie was already in his wetsuit and was swimming in the surf with his daughters when he heard
Wattie Mortimer at the Nelson Rescue Centre with his two daughters after he helped save two other girls who got into trouble off Rabbit Island on Saturday afternoon. Wattie was swimming with his girls with the ordeal began. Photo: Andrew Board. ing out that those kids are out in wading out.” the cries. “People were screaming and yell- the boat and drifting, so I started Another woman, only known as
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Kirsty, was in the ocean teaching her young daughter how to surf and starting paddling out after them on her surfboard. After a few minutes of swimming “Kirsty” gave the board to Wattie. “You looked like a big guy who could get out there, I’m only 45kg and didn’t think I’d be able to hold them,” she told Wattie in the Nelson Coastguard building after the incident. Wattie took the board and continued to paddle out to the girls. He says it felt like he was swimming for ten minutes and he was “exhausted” when he got to them. “I got to them and I knew I couldn’t go back. The wind was just dragging us out and down the beach as well. So I said, ‘right, we’re staying here until someone comes and gets us.’” Wattie tied the surfboard to the inflatable and waited as they
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