Local Opinion

Together in disasters

Eons ago, humanity began to learn from natural events and understand our Earth in incredible ways. We evolved through tragedies like impactful eruptions and earthquakes. Valuable stories were passed down to teach descendants how to…

Cars, cows and miracle cures

Travellers desiring to inspect the site of the big hydro-electric works at Arapuni had not experienced the best facilities for making the motor journey between Te Awamutu and Putāruru owing to the mail cars on the Arapuni-Putaruru section not synchronising…

Life is what you make it

The early settlers of our region remain significant to our history and our future. Māori landed in Kawhia harbour and many travelled across the hills to settle in Waipa. Generations of tribes covered the lush,…

The Boxing Day tsunami

This time 20 years ago, countries around the Indian Ocean were reeling from the grief and horror of one of the deadliest events in modern history – the Boxing Day tsunami triggered by the 9.2-9.3…

The misleading ‘one in 100 flood’

This week I had a chat with Joshua Sargent with the Environmental Research Institute at the University of Waikato. He is an environmental spatial scientist, which is someone who combines the elements of environment, people,…

Tales of Christmas passed

Campers in 1937 in the Waikato district were glad to see the sun after three waterlogged days. The weather change came at a time when 90 per cent of campers had capitulated, clambering into their…

Letters to Editor – 19 December 2024

Pay your way In this last year I have been very disappointed to see so many vehicles with expired road registration – some months expired and some by years. A recent one outside the information…

Why we need social sciences

As a scientist who studies the world we live in and how it impacts us, I deeply value the social sciences. It is human involvement that turns a hazard into a disaster. When we have…

The phantom reverend

When Mrs Harvey, widow of Presbyterian minister Reverend Harvey, washed up penniless and vulnerable in Sydney in 1924, it struck a chord with Te Awamutu residents. She had recently lived among them running a small…

Treasures on earth

In Matthew’s gospel, Chapter 6, Jesus teaches: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven……

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