Tag Archives: waikato times

Apology

waikatoA story in yesterday’s Waikato Times reported businessman John Spencer was selling an $80 million luxury yacht. This John Spencer is listed as a New Zealand “rich-lister” and his Whangarei company Flyghtship Construction built the yacht. However, the story included a photograph of a different John Spencer, the chairman of Tainui Group Holdings. The Times apologises for its error and is investigating how the mix-up happened. Meanwhile, a piece in yesterday’s paper promoting this week’s edition of Your Weekend, the glossy magazine that comes with today’s newspaper, carried the cover of last week’s edition. We apologise to readers for any confusion.

Fuzzy numbers etc.

waikatoOops! We seriously inflated our figures in the editorial of July 23. According to Corrections Minister Judith Collins, there were 8434 people in prisons or police stations on July 13. The prison population is forecast to rise to around 10,700 by 2016. If that forecast is realised, we then will have 2266 more people in prison. At $100,000 per prisoner per year, this would have increased the burden on taxpayers by $226,600,000 in 2016, lifting the cost to $1.070 billion – not $8 billion as we said. We muffed our maths but maintain our position: every dollar saved by finding alternative punishments could be spent on providing other public services, such as the five new schools and 69 additional state houses to be built as part of the Government’s almost $500 million infrastructure package announced in February.

Apology

waikatoOn January 9 the Waikato Times published an article headed “Dogfight goes to court”. That article was about an injunction granted to prevent the running of the Waikato Classic 2009. The article implied that the conditions of that race were changed to suit the president of the club, Peter Henley. We accept that there is no evidence to support that allegation, and no evidence that Mr Henley has acted in an improper or inappropriate manner. The Waikato Times apologises to Mr Henley for any distress the article may have caused him.

Fun with photos

A wrong photograph was used to accompany a story in Wednesday’s Waikato Times about Thames-Coromandel District Council plans to cut noise levels recorded when the Whangamata Hall was in use. Jenny Elwin was described as one of the neighbours who had complained about noise. In fact, her picture was taken in May to accompany a story in which she told how the allowable noise levels put a dampener on a function for her son’s wedding in the hall. The Times apologises for its error.

A great place for a swim

There were two errors on the Waikato Times Property page on Saturday. Hamilton East’s Parana Park was misnamed Piranha Park and the street alongside it was said to be River Rd, when it is in fact Memorial Dr. The Times is embarrassed by the errors and apologises to readers.

Apology

A report in Monday’s Waikato Times said police thought a man who died after his car crashed through a fence on Tower Rd, Matamata, may have suffered a heart attack. In fact, the crash victim was a 16-year-old youth, Brendon John Bonekamp, and his family say he did not suffer a heart attack. The Times apologises for any distress caused to the family.