Hamish McNeilly

It's an old and battered little blue book, held together by pieces of string and sticking plasters.

A lost memento commemorating a World War 1 soldier has been reunited with his descendants, after it was discovered during alterations to a Taieri home.

An English cricket fan who travelled to New Zealand to watch England play the Black Caps but ''didn't see a ball being bowled'' will fly out of the country today after facing his biggest test.

The future of the Dunedin-based Ngai Tahu Maori Law Centre - the last such facility in the country - is under threat.

Another aggravated robbery of a Dunedin dairy this week has prompted police to warn shopowners about the dangers of selling synthetic cannabis products.

The Dunedin gang members who sourced Whanau Ora grants to buy cannabis ''conspired to financially rort their own organisation and, by implication, those that funded them'', Whanau Ora Minister Tariana Turia says.

The Maori development ministry, Te Puni Kokiri (TPK), claimed it was getting ''value for money'' through its Whanau Ora funding of a Dunedin trust, which was later found to have been used by gang members to buy cannabis.

Anyone offered discounted synthetic cannabis is urged to contact police, following an armed robbery of a Dunedin dairy early yesterday.

The company behind flawed payroll system Novopay could be slapped with a financial penalty, after human error resulted in a privacy breach yesterday.

A man was treated for smoke inhalation and minor burns after a fire in a flat yesterday afternoon.

Bob Burns may have been a reluctant recruit, but the South's top policeman leaves behind a ''fantastic career'', and a crime rate which has plummeted 26% during his tenure.

Two revellers jumped on to a fire truck, while ''out-of-control larrikins'' threw bottles at the appliance during a large party in the student quarter.

Dozens of ancestral remains were reburied in an emotional ceremony at Puketeraki Marae, Karitane, yesterday.

New Zealanders may have won more than $347.7 million in Instant Kiwi prizes over the past five years, but the popular scratchcards have played a key part in the ''normalisation of gambling'', the Problem Gambling Foundation says.

Multiple gunshots startled volunteers at Orokonui Ecosanctuary late on Monday, prompting a warning from police over the use of firearms.

Large tracts of Otago and Southland's coast could be opened up for the commercial harvesting of paua, a move expected to face opposition from recreational fishers.