Whare Kai’s roof completed

By Frank Neill

Wainuiomata Marae’s Whare Kai’s has a new roof.

Work on the new roof, which cost just over $300,000, was completed last Friday, 14 April.

The new roof is thanks to help from local people – in particular John Lucas of GNS Roofing Ltd – and successful applications for funding, the Wainuiomata Marae Chairman Star Olsen says.

“When you reach out into the community for help, they respond.”

In fact that was how the marae was built in the first place, thanks to the response from the Wainuiomata community, Mr Olsen says.

The project began on 23 February and when the “Wainuiomata News” visited the marae on 14 April, in the mid afternoon, the scaffolding was being removed.

“The next job on the list is upgrading the heating [in the Whare Kai].”

The windows of the Whare Kai are also in need of attention, Mr Olsen says.

The roof of the Whare Nui at the marae is about to get a new coat of paint, thanks to

Dulux delivered paint for the Whare Nui roof on 14 August.

“We’re here to help this community,” Dulux manager Roscoe Hatton says.

“The Wainuiomata Marae does a lot for the community and Dulux is only too happy to help out.”

Community Board meets tonight

By Frank Neill

The Wainuiomata Community Board will meet at 6:30pm tonight, 19 April, at the Wainuiomata Library.

Following public comment, there will be two presentations, one by Wellington Regional Councillor Quentin Duthie and the other by Hutt City Council’s Placemaking Advisor on the Streets for People wayfinding signage.

The community board will also look at naming five streets in new subdivisions.

There are two new streets in each of two subdivisions. One subdivision is at 2A Gawler Grove and the other is at 11

The Strand. There is also a new street at a subdivision at 76 Antrim Crescent. Hutt City Council is proposing to create a “No stopping at all times” parking restriction at Te Ara Raukura, and the community board will look at providing input into this decision.

The board will also look to provide input into two council proposals to provide more mobility parking – one at the Wainuiomta Bowling Club and the other at the Wainuiomata Community Hall. The council’s Parks Planner will provide the board with an update on the council’s Indigenous Biodiversity Strategy.

We are inviting volunteers to take part in a clinical trial of a new investigational vaccine aimed at providing a broader protection against pneumococcal disease.

To be eligible for inclusion in the study participants must be 18-64 years and have one of the following chronic health conditions: Diabetes, COPD, Asthma, Chronic Kidney Disease, Chronic Heart Disease, or Chronic Liver Disease. Participants must not have received any prior pneumococcal vaccine since childhood and not have had pneumococcal disease within the last 3 years.

For more information and to apply online visit: www.p3research.co.nz or phone on to speak with a member of the study team.

The importance of potassium and magnesium (Fruit + Flower Power): By Wally Richards

Potassium often referred to as Potash because the ash from wood burn containers a good amount of potassium and magnesium sulphate is often referred to as Epsom Salts are two important elements in gardening.

A long time ago I realised the importance of these two and so I created a product which combined them, in a prill form, 55% potassium and 45% magnesium and called it Wallys Fruit and Flower Power which is one of the many uses of these two elements.

Plants like us, if they do not get sufficient minerals in their diet, they will be adversely affected and do poorly.

Potassium deficiency will show as soft limp plant growth, poor flowering, taste decline in fruit, and general loss of vigor.

I am often asked what is wrong with plants which, don’t seem as good as they could be, even though they are fed well and watered right.

Often the reason is insufficient

Potassium.

Then there is fruit, especially citrus which are lacking in juice and flavor.

Tomatoes and cucumbers that don’t have that home grown flavor that one would hope to have.

Plants that have poor flowering or don’t flower at all. Once again the problem can be insufficient

Potassium.

Magnesium is involved in chlorophyll production, which converts sunlight into sugars and is involved in activating enzymes.

Because of its role in chlorophyll,