Glenn Conway

The roar of hundreds of motorcycles, converging in South Otago for a rally, will provide a backdrop to the official opening of a newly sealed tourist road this coming weekend.

The international day of rural women will be celebrated with a day-long event at Telford Rural Polytechnic next month.

Southland's vast lignite resources could be tapped, with Solid Energy yesterday confirming it was investigating building a lignite-briquetting plant as part of an industrial estate in Mataura.

Police have pinpointed this morning's hoax bomb threat in Balclutha to a phone booth outside a popular restaurant in the town.

Long-serving South Otago netball volunteer Cheryl Blair has been named the country's top volunteer coach for her contribution to the sport over nearly three decades.

A cocktail of rising depreciation, falling sales and bad debts all contributed to a $140,542 post-tax operating loss for the Clutha Licensing Trust in the past year.

The Department of Corrections, which spent $5.6 million on air travel in the past financial year, had cut its travel spending in the last two years by nearly $2 million, Corrections Minister Judith Collins said yesterday.

Library users are borrowing fewer books from Clutha district libraries.

South Otago and West Otago dairy farmers are being equipped with another tool to help them make decisions on when to apply effluent during traditionally wet times.

Cuts to the national roading programme will be keenly felt in the Clutha district, with officials fuming over nearly $8 million worth of projects being lost and rural Otago roads suffering neglect.

Department of Corrections staff jetted off on more than 13,090 flights around the country in the past financial year - an average of 50 trips every working day - with taxpayers footing the $5.3 million bill.