Te Awamutu Te Awamutu Your Vodafone Courier Local Dealer Published Tuesday & Thursday THURSDAY,THURSDAY JANUARY JANUARY 19, 19, 2012 2012 158 Alexandra St, Te Awamutu Ph: 07 870 6031 Fax: 07 870 6032 YOUR COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER FOR OVER 100 YEARS Email: teawamutu@fi rstmobile.co.nz 8520596AA CIRCULATED FREE TO ALL HOUSEHOLDS THROUGHOUT TE AWAMUTU AND SURROUNDING DISTRICTS. EXTRA COPIES 40c. BRIEFLY Principles pay in long run Oarsome event This year’s Te Awamutu Rowing Club Golf Tournament on February 19 has a new format. for real estate principal The teams of four will have the best two stableford scores counting for the overall total. Prizes will be awarded for best gross, best net and best stableford. As the annual event follows the national rowing champs, organisers are hopeful there will be some New Zealand rowers joining the field. Mahe´Drysdale was a member of a winning team (Oarsome Foursome) at a previous tournament. Entries for the fundraising tournament at Te Awamutu Golf Club are $20. Further details from Allan Barugh (ph 870 1199). TRY for a wish For the 2012 Sanitarium Weet-Bix Kids TRYathlon, Kiwi kids are encouraged to ‘Try for a Wish’ to raise money for Make-A-WishNZ—an organisation that makes wishes come true for Kiwi kids with life threatening illnesses. Any youngster registered for the Sanitarium Weet- Bix Kids TRYathlon 2012, can give the TRYathlon a bit of extra magic! All they have to do is go to weet-bix.co.nz and register to FILE PHOTO ‘Try for a Wish’, then ask family STEPH DUNSMORE (right) and Karen Voss (left) when they started out as co-owners of Te Awamutu’s Century 21 Countrywide in January last year. and friends to sponsor their TRYathlon, with all funds raised being used to make By GRANT JOHNSTON done by her former business part- the landlords as clients bar two from holiday in Fiji. ner. overseas, and because of the recom- At first she thought it was errors wishes come true for Make-A- Steph Dunsmore of Te ‘‘They (landlords) were owed mendations of current landlords to with record keeping but when she Wish children in their local Awamutu’s Century 21 Country- money, I owned the business and it others she has signed up a number realised Voss had been stealing area. wide is living proof of the adage ‘it’s was down to me to sort it out.’’ of new clients. from the rental trust accounts, she For more information visit what you do next that counts’. Mrs Dunsmore’s prompt actions Mrs Dunsmore says a new was aghast. www.weet-bix.co.nz. When Mrs Dunsmore discovered in sorting out payments to landlords signwritten car to deal with rental ‘‘She had been using the rental that co-owner of their Te Awamutu meant they were able to meet business will hit the streets soon. cheque book as her personal cheque Water babies real estate franchise, Karen Voss mortgage commitments etc. ‘‘We have a great team here. book.’’ Today’s photos for Snap had been helping herself to clients’ ‘‘I met personally with tenants They were let down as well. An audit put the initial figure of Happy (page four) are all based rents she was shocked to her core. and landlords affected — and I knew ‘‘But despite the difficulties our missing amounts at $55,000 but a in and around the water. But her immediate response was that I had done the right thing,’’ she branch was 15th best performed in later audit saw that increased to While the weather hasn’t to take out a loan herself with says. New Zealand last year — we will be $90,000. been great this summer, it husband Steve to pay the landlords Karen Voss (49) pleaded guilty to looking to build on that.’’ Mrs Dunsmore is hopeful, hasn’t stopped the kids from out of their own pockets. 59 fraud charges when she appeared It was only in January last year although retaining a realistic making the most of the sea, That cost the couple $55,000 and in Te Awamutu District Court on that Steph Dunsmore and Karen mindset, about the reparations that lakes and pools. as other anomalies (such as theft of Monday. Voss embarked on their partnership may be ordered at sentencing in If you have a photo you bond monies) have come to light, There were originally 82 charges as franchise owners of the Te March and that the punishment will would like to share with the their debt to sort the mess out has relating to $100,000 stolen from Awamutu branch. be appropriate to the crime. Courier community send it with grown to $80,000 and keeps growing. company accounts, but the with- Mrs Dunsmore realised her busi- She is infuriated that her former details to: cathy.asplin@ Mrs Dunsmore says she was not drawal of 23 charges by Police will ness partner was ‘dipping her hand friend has not even offered an under a legal obligation to repay the reduce that amount. in the till’ in July last year, when apology or explanation for her teawamutucourier.co.nz money, but was never in any doubt Something good has come from she handled the rental component of actions. that she had a moral obligation to the carnage. Mrs Dunsmore’s integ- the business while Voss, who ran ‘‘She needs to face up to what make good the financial damage rity means she has retained all of that side of the business, was on she’s done.’’ 8520607AA DEUTZ FAHR AGROLUX 85 LIMITED NUMBERS4X4 85HP 20X20 Transmission with creeper - 40kph 2 D/A-Remotes 2 speed PTO 540-1000rpm Euro-loader 360 FEL, 3rd service, self levelling $60,000+GST 8520618AA 2 TE AWAMUTU COURIER, THURSDAY, JANUARY 19, 2012 YOUR LETTERS CourierTe Awamutu Freedom of speech issue Freedom of speech is the foundation of I have been a resident in Waipa for 12 significance being debated in public when democracy and to lose that in any way and years and due to the letters from Council- comments will be made only on selected CONTACTS for any reason can ultimately lead to lor Wilson and the excellent coverage by topics and the ideas for these topics will be dictatorship. the Ratepayers Association, for the first provided by editorial staff, council and MANAGER As Editor of the Courier, you, Sir, with a time I have been able to know how council councillors and members of the public. feeble excuse for no longer printing letters is operating and what goes on in council This can be perceived as the public Alan Price from a democratically elected member of meetings. being outnumbered and their concerns e: [email protected] Waipa Council, have started down that As for the new Councillors’ Forum, I silenced. downward path. cannot see much information of any B.P. MORRISON EDITOR Dean Taylor e: [email protected] Ardijah on Kawhia Kai Festival menu REPORTERS Cathy Asplin Ardijah will be bring- entertainment lined up e: [email protected] ing their unique ‘poly beginning with a tra- fonk’ indigenous sounds ditional mihi (welcome) Colin Thorsen as the headline act for at 9am. Also performing e: [email protected] the Kawhia Kai Festival will be Hamilton bands scheduled for Saturday, The Spiritz, Stingray and February 4. Zionhill, a duet called ADVERTISING In a career spanning Tukutuku singing in Te Dorinda Courtney nearly three decades, Reo, as well as two local e: [email protected] Ardijah have released kapa haka groups — five albums, numerous Ngati Mahanga Whanui hit singles, and evolved from Whatawhata, and Julie Jackson their ‘poly fonk’ sound Te Taha Tu. e: [email protected] out of their funk and Now in its seventh R&B origins. year, The Kawhia Kai Bookings Having been hugely Festival attracts some [email protected] popular when they 10,000 visitors to a feast played at the Festival in of music and entertain- CLASSIFIEDS 2009, Ardijah’s lead ment, as well as contem- TC190112SP2 singer, Betty-Anne, says porary and traditional ARDIJAH will be the headline act at Kawhia Kai Festival. Tania Cortesi-Western, Rhonda Bird ‘‘It’s always a ‘buzz’ to be Maori cuisine. Anna-Marie Holmes invited to share the Among the more than coming from all over the pate).” coast of New Zealand’s [email protected] music alongside Kapa 25 kai stalls, four local country to sample other As a festival to cel- North Island, the Haka and fellow musos’’. Kawhia marae will each traditional and contem- ebrate Waitangi Day for festival’s venue is PRINTERS ‘‘The band is hanging have a stall dedicated porary Maori kai such as all New Zealanders, the designed along the lines out to treat ourselves to just to hangi – the most toroi (marinated mussels event also showcases of a traditional Maori APN Print Ellerslie some wonderful tra- popular dish of tra- and puha), creamed paua Maori arts and crafts village. Visitors enter Published Tuesday & Thursday ditional Maori kai so we ditional Maori kai, says and kina, inanga (white- with demonstrations of through a carved Circulation 12,109 will be arriving early in event organiser Hinga bait patties), kanga wai/ raranga (traditional flax waharoa (gateway) and the day to sample what’s Whiu. pirau (fermented corn), weaving), and ta-moko the whole site is sur- on offer,’’ she says. “Each year the marae puha and pork spring (traditional tattooing). rounded by fences made PHONE: 07 871 5151 FAX: 07 871 3675 Introduced by radio teams prepare more rolls, pawhara (smoked Held on Omiti from manuka.