Harbour work queried by Historic Places Trust

The New Zealand Historic Places Trust is investigating whether the Waitaki District Council committed an offence when it undertook extensive work at the Oamaru harbour last year.
The council carried out work on the breakwater and original Macandrew Wharf. The trust had no record of authority being sought and granted as required by the provisions of the Act, the trust's southern general manager, Bruce Albiston, said.
The trust had been assured this week by the council that it would advise those responsible for further works or developments of the requirements.

 

Little-known iwi claims strong Waitaki affiliation

A little-known North Otago tribe has raised a dissenting voice against energy giant Meridian and its proposed Project Aqua. But what is the background of this low-profile group?
WHEN individuals representing the Waitaha iwi choose to speak out, they pick their moments carefully.
The lodging of resource consents for the Project Aqua power scheme was one such moment.
Waitaha upoko (head) Rangimarie Te Maiharoa this week said his people were deeply hurt by the proposed scheme, which would see the construction of a 60km power canal with six power stations, along the south side of the Waitaki River. Although the iwi usually kept a low profile, it had chosen to speak out now.
The iwi claims strong links with the Waitaki. Waitaha artefacts dating back more than 1000 years have been found on sites on the south side of the river."

 

Waitaha tribe

I WAS DISAPPOINTED to find fanciful assertions about the origins of Waitaha reported uncritically on your front page as if they were facts. The evidence from archaeology and DNA shows that New Zealand was settled by a group of at least 200 people from tropical Polynesia a little over 700 years ago. Despite the success of the Kon-Tiki expedition there is no evidence supporting migration here from South America."

 

Pillaging of ancient sites irks anthropologist
Unscrupulous western traders in antiquities are contributing to the pillaging of ancient cultural sites in Cambodia, anthropologist Prof Charles Higham warns.
Prof Higham, a leading University of Otago archaeologist, leaves for Thailand next month to resume work on the biggest archeological fieldwork programme undertaken in Southeast Asia.
His archaeological work is supported by a $420,000 Marsden Fund grant and traces the origins of Angkor civilisation.
Prof Higham said he had stopped digging in Cambodia because he felt 'quite sick' over the pillaging of newly uncovered sites.
Unscrupulous collectors were 'ghastly creatures' who were fuelling the pillaging and desecration of temples belonging to one of the world's greatest pre-industrial civilisations."

 

Digging into the old city
University of Otago anthropology student Adrian Taylor holds a mid-19th century earthenware bottle recovered from under the Farmers car park in Great King St, Dunedin, as fellow student Joanna Wylie takes notes.
Dunedin archaeologist Peter Petchey has high hopes of finding out about early life in the city during his latest dig.
Mr Petchey, assisted by a team of anthropology students from the University of Otago, is excavating under the Farmers car park in Great King St, before a $12 million redevelopment of the site takes place.
Under the Historic Places Act, the redevelopment cannot start until an archaeological investigation has been done.
Mr Petchey said the area was one of the earliest settled in Dunedin, with a plan from the 1840s showing a harbour inlet near the Farmers site.
The length of time since settlement, and undisturbed ground under the site, meant there was the potential for discoveries.
'We're hoping to find out about the nuts and bolts of early Dunedin life.'"

Monday, September 01, 2003