Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Luxury in Taupiri

Taupiri, if you don’t recall it, is on State Highway beside the Waikato River on a bend in the road 10 kilometres south of Huntly before Ngaruawahia. The small mountain there is the burial place of King Tawhiao, Billy T James and Dame Te Atairangikaahu. It is a small town, population 4-500.

Monday’s Waikato Times reported on the feverish excitement in Taupiri about the forthcoming elections for the community board:
The Taupiri Community Board has attracted just two nominations for October’s elections – Elva Gouk and Fred Hansen – with none of the six sitting members seeking re-election.
And that’s prompted several senior Waikato district councillors to call for the board to be disbanded.
“Taupiri has made it abundantly clear it is not interested in having a community board,” said councillor Rod Wise at last week’s council meeting.
“Taupiri Community Board is a luxury that can be handled another way. We should take it up with the Local Government Commission.”
Mr Wise said it was a very small urban community with a hall committee, a recreational reserve dominated by rural people and a rugby ground which was privately owned.
“It would make better sense having a Taupiri appointment to the Ngaruawahia Community Board,” Councillor Moera Solomon said.
“The lack of business at their meetings has concerned me for quite a while,” she said. “It only takes a few minutes to have a meeting. It is a struggle to have a worthwhile discussion about anything.”
 Unfair. The minutes show that meetings can take up to an hour and a half.

No comments: