Killer Fire - Hawkesby - Gauguin - Americas Cup - Dining Out - Movie Rating Row - Tonga - Kelly Browne - Tainui -
Warriors - Editorial: Tainui
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KILLER FIRE: Two preschool boys died in a house fire in a Whangarei suburb yesterday.
Their bodies were found under a bed and it is likely they hid there to get away from the flames.
Their grandfather was mowing the lawn behind the Housing New Zealand house in Heretaunga St, Tikipunga, when the fire
broke out about 3.45 pm.
HAWKESBY: TVNZ directors will lose their seats as the Government calls the board to account over the Hawkesby fiasco.
Fallout will hit the company swiftly, with the board called to meet Broadcasting Minister Marian Hobbs next week. She
will set down a new direction for the state-owned broadcaster and give board members the chance to jump before they are
pushed.
IS IT A GAUGUIN? Has a New Zealand art dealer found long-lost works by Paul Gauguin worth millions? Or has notorious art
forger Karl Sim, alias C.F. Goldie, struck again? A dealer is selling one painting, four drawings and a carving
described as "attributed" to the famous post-impressionist.
AMERICAS CUP: Every day Team New Zealand take their Black Boats out to sea, there is at least one voice in the crowd who
calls out: "Don't be like the All Blacks." The pressure on the crew to successfully defend the America's Cup from the
powerful Prada challenge is ominous.
DINING OUT: Dining out at your local restaurant will soon cost more - because foreigners want our meat and fish and can
pay more for it. Record export prices for prime beef, fish and other seafood have caused a market shortage, says the
Restaurant Association, so menu prices are set to jump.
MOVIE RATING ROW: A new New Zealand movie has been slapped with an R18 rating by censors concerned that its characters
drink too much and alarmed by a scene in which a gas cylinder is placed on a bonfire. The decision has stunned the
film's makers, who have appealed against the rating. They say it is out of step with public opinion.
TONGAN LEGAL ROW: A top New Zealand lawyer who sued Tonga's Attorney-General for legal fees is himself facing jail in
Nuku'alofa for publicising details about the outstanding debt. Auckland barrister Nalesoni Tupou will today appear
before Tonga's Supreme Court. He could be jailed for contempt of court for speaking to a radio journalist about his
efforts to recover $10,000 in court costs awarded to a lawyer colleague three years ago.
KELLY BROWNE: When a party got out of control at Dave Biddiss' flat it was like a nightmare version of the party at
"Kelly Browne Tainui kingpin Sir Robert Mahuta faces a serious leadership challenge over the tribe's financial crisis.
TAINUI: Factions of Tainui's new governing council, Te Kauhanganui, have been rallying support among beneficiary marae
to oust the 60-year-old knight after a series of investment blunders. 's." Mimicking the television ad in which a party
spins out of control when everyone in town hears about it, the farewell party at Wharf Rd, Albany, on Saturday night
went awry and ended with police having to disperse hundreds of revellers.
WARRIORS: Warriors partners Graham Lowe and Malcolm Boyle are keeping out of fellow shareholder Tainui's investment
troubles but say they will exercise their option to buy the club outright if the tribe wants to sell. Club chairman Mr
Lowe said yesterday that he was disappointed with conflicting statements from tribal factions over the structure of the
original Warriors deal, subsequent investment and the tribe's future intentions.
HAURAKI: The Hauraki Gulf Marine Park Bill, delayed twice last year, will be debated and almost certainly passed by
Parliament next week, paving the way for the America's Cup to be fought out in a marine park. Debate on the bill will
also decide the fate of 11ha of prime coastal defence land at Takapuna that is the subject of competing claims by the
North Shore City Council, the Defence Ministry and the Department of Conservation.
EDITORIAL - TAINUI: Careful business management needed to be balanced with the welfare of tribal members if Tainui was
to derive maximum benefit from its $170 million settlement with the Crown. The extent of its failure on both scores is
now clear. A total of $40 million has been slashed off its balance sheet in the wake of a series of misguided and
extravagant investments. The upshot is a radical restructuring that will see many of the tribe's 100-plus staff lose
their jobs. There could hardly be a more dismal outcome for a treaty process designed to generate widespread wealth for
tribal beneficiaries.