Moutoa Gardens – Cable Dispute – Fire – Foot and Mouth UK & NZ Reaction

MOUTOA GARDENS: The PM is at Moutoa Gardens for the signing of an agreement settling the long running dispute over ownership of the park in the city between the council and Whanganui Iwi.

CABLE DISPUTE: Meanwhile Telecom is running into problems with the Maori over plans to install a cable across a beach. They say they have already consulted Iwi but not everybody appears to have been consulted.

FIRE: Fire fighters are fighting a large fire near Wellington today. A pine plantation between Makara and Crofton Downs is alight and smoke has been drifting across most of the city today.

FOOT AND MOUTH UK: Britain’s foot and mouth crisis is now having an impact far wider than simply in agriculture. The main effects of foot and mouth disease are production related. Stock movements have been banned. A rugby international between Ireland and Wales has been cancelled as have all race meetings for a week. Butchers are short of meat.

FOOT AND MOUTH NZ: The government is being accused of doing too little to protect NZ from foot and mouth disease. National MP Eric Roy said some passengers from UK had not been checked. MAF says they are checking carefully, as they have always done.

© Scoop Media

Alastair Thompson

Scoop Publisher

Alastair Thompson is the co-founder of Scoop. He is of Scottish and Irish extraction and from Wellington, New Zealand. Alastair has 24 years experience in the media, at the Dominion, National Business Review, North & South magazine, Straight Furrow newspaper and online since 1997. He is the winner of several journalism awards for business and investigative work.

CONTACT ALASTAIR THOMPSON

• Mobile - 021707044
• Twitter - @althecat
• Google+

• Linkedin
• Facebook
• Email - alastair@scoop.co.nz