Rebecca Fox

With 15 days to go until television goes digital in most of the South Island, including Otago, 90% of viewers have already made the switch, Freeview technical manager Tim Diprose says.

Why the Government has not already made float-free satellite-linked beacons compulsory is beyond Port Chalmers Fishing Co-operative executive member Peter Scott.

A Lotto transaction in Queenstown has been investigated after a Dunedin woman raised concerns about the accuracy of an outlet's ticket-reading machine.

People are being called upon to show their support for the embattled Department of Conservation through a ''Love Doc Day'' today in an effort to get the Government to cancel the latest round of job cuts.

New Conservation Minister Nick Smith has overturned a decision by his predecessor, announcing he will make the final calls on the future of the Milford Dart Tunnel and Fiordland Link Experience proposals.

A Middlemarch farmer's two convictions have been set aside by the High Court, which found he did not disturb a riverbed, as the Otago Regional Council maintained.

If hunters remember anything this roar, it should be the seven basic rules of firearm safety and the old forestry safety message ''no meat is better than no mate'', New Zealand Deerstalkers' Association vice-president Bill O'Leary says.

It is expected tough new water quality regulations approved by the Otago Regional Council this week will end up in the Environment Court.

Changes to water quality proposals will give landholders more time to meet tough new standards and allay fears about the ''pollution police'', Cr Duncan Butcher says.