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APRIL 3, 2025
Run for it… An estimated 8000 people were in Te Kūiti for the Great NZ Muster last weekend, and for many the highlight was the running of the sheep on Saturday. The weekend also saw Northland’s Tia Henderson add to his 2025 Golden Shears title by being crowned New Zealand Open title winner. Jon Rawlinson recounts a successful weekend for the shearing community, Te Kūiti, visitors – and the sheep – on Page 3. Photo: Jessie Meng
Boy racers in firing line
By Chris Gardner
Tainui Kāwhia Forest manager Hano Ormsby fears boy racer burnouts in Kawhia’s Ocean Beach car park could spark a forest fire that spreads to the village. Because of the lack of a permanent police presence in the village there are no police to intervene when the boy racers do burnouts on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. “They burnout until the sparks fly,” said Ormsby. It has already resulted in a confront between angry residents and the culprits. “We are very mindful that we have a small community
on the leeward [sheltered] side of the prevailing wind,” Ormsby said. “These boy racers can be very arrogant and become a nuisance. Police on hand is more likely to be able to limit them, should they be doing these sorts of things.” Kāwhia Community Board chair Geoff Good said boy racers had been congregating regularly at weekends at Ocean Beach car park for about two years and “the community has definitely had a gutsful”. “There are about three or four different cars, and they are known in Kāwhia,” he said.
So well-known, the community took matters into its own hands late last year, and there was an altercation between residents and boy racers. “There were some injuries, when some of the locals took them on,” Good said. Ōtorohanga District Council Kāwhia and Tihiroa Ward councillor Kit Jeffries said police were needed in Kawhia Tourists using the Ocean Beach car park and residents were feeling intimidated and threatened by the boy racers. “They are scared to turn to the police in case something happens to them,” Jeffries
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said. “That’s a shameful state of affairs.” “We just can’t afford to have that behaviour here,” he said. The village had been without a permanent police presence for more than two years after the resident officer was involved in an accident, he said. “Kāwhia has been visited by police vehicles coming in from Cambridge, Ōtorohanga and Te Awamutu in the morning, then out in the afternoon,” Jeffries said. The community knew it was without police cover in the evenings and weekends.
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“It is an issue,” he said. “Police have advertised and did not get any applications. The person here is sole charge and covers from Taharoa in the south to Raglan in the north.” He suggested police set up random booze bus check points to send a message to the community. Community board member Dave Walsh said the dry weather brought other problems to the village. “We are coming up on marijuana harvest time,” he said. “It won’t stop the thieves coming out.” As well as stealing crops, Walsh said, thieves looked
Hano Ormsby says burnouts are putting Tainui Kāwhia Forest and Kāwhia village at risk. Photo: Chris Gardner
for other opportunities in the area. • Police asked to explain – see Page 5
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