News in Brief

 

Voting made simple
Voting packs are being delivered to electors from Friday September 16. Look out for yours and if you haven’t received it by Thursday September 22 you may need to request a special vote by phoning 0800 922 822 or visiting Council offices in Dargaville or Mangawhai.

Kaipara District Council uses the Single Transferable Voting (STV) electoral system for electing the Mayor and Councillors. STV is used in all District Health Board elections and a number of local, regional and national elections across the world.

STV is a form of preferential voting, where a voter simply ranks the candidates in order of preference. Place a 1 next to the candidate you most prefer, a 2 next to your next most preferred and so on. You can rank as many, or as few, candidates as you wish.

When the votes are counted the 1st preferences are allocated first. To be elected a candidate needs to reach a “quota” of votes, calculated by the number of vacancies and the number of valid votes cast.

Early warning for fishermen
Recently a member of the public reported a group taking too many mussels from the Whangarei Heads area. Fishery Officers responded to the call and met the men as they came ashore with their vessel. The group had a total of 2,683 mussels between the three of them.

Directed to the Whangarei office for a formal interview the trio decided to take a detour and not go to the office. They now face Fisheries Act charges for the shellfish but also for obstructing Fishery Officers, charges of up to $250,000, and forfeiture of their vehicle, vessel and trailer, which was confiscated at the time.

The mussels were kept cool in wet sacks and returned to the harbour the next day.

The daily limit for green lipped mussels in the Northland area is 50 per gatherer.

Concert to cover Waipu washout
Waipu’s Jill Mutch and Don Fraser have decided to find a way to recover some of the losses after the annual Waipu Highland Games were washed out during a storm on New Years Day.

They are holding a grand Celtic Concert in the Waipu Celtic Barn on the Sunday of Labour Weekend.

Celtic Fyre will feature multi-award winning fiddler Marian Burns, with the McSweeney Brothers. Plus there’s the Celtic magic of Twisty Willow, Anam Cara, singers Monica and Andy, the NorthCal pipers, soloist Enya Finlayson, and Brucey from the Bog.

Matinee and eveing shows are lined up, tickets from Waipu Real Estate. Phone Jill on (09) 432 0090 or email waipucelticfestival@gmail.com. Matinee $25, Evening show $30, children $15. Labour weekend Sunday.