David Bruce

A Southland farmers' protest known as ''Bloody Friday'', organised in secret in four days in 1978, will be recalled at a reunion being planned in Invercargill early next month.

Hockey may finally get a pavilion with changing rooms, a viewing area and toilets at Centennial Park, almost 15 years after the artificial, all-weather turf was built there.

Oamaru's five-day-a-week newspaper, the Oamaru Mail, has a new owner, ending five months of speculation over whether it would be sold or could close.

Electricity is again being generated from the Tekapo canal, about three months after owner Genesis Energy drained a section to seal leaks.

Oamaru court manager and registrar Peter Bond may be going, but he hopes the town's historic courthouse will stay as a court.

Contaminated land on Oamaru's foreshore is being capped with sand, clay and soil to be redeveloped as open space and landscaped as part of the harbour redevelopment.

A runaway utility vehicle caused a two-vehicle crash when a car transporter rear-ended a small hatchback just north of the railway overbridge at Deborah yesterday.

Less than $1 million is left from a grant of $2.75 million to build more of the Alps 2 Ocean cycle trail from Mt Cook to Oamaru.

Farmers using road verges to store stock feed including baleage, machinery or other items could find the practice prohibited under changes proposed by the Waitaki District Council to its roading bylaw, unless they get a permit.

A digger is used to clear vegetation on the south side of one of the twin wooden bridges over the Waitaki River, in preparation for work to start later this week or early next week on the approach from Kurow to a new two-lane bridge.

The Waitaki District Council made history yesterday, holding its first meeting in Otematata, which was possibly the first such meeting by any council, including before local body reforms in 1989.