Northland news in brief: Island summer library open; and Police looking for missing man

The pop-up Urupukapuka Island library at the Department of Conservation's Otehei Bay Visitors Centre - a hit with campers last summer - is back for this summer.

A pop-up library for holiday makers on Urupukapuka in the Bay of Islands is making a welcome return this summer.
The mini-library will operate out of the Department of Conservation's Otehei Bay Visitors Centre providing free books to campers and other visitors to Urupukapuka Island.
The pop-up library was run for the first time by Far North District Libraries last summer and proved a big hit with visitors. The service will again provide a range of reading materials free of charge. Because the library is unstaffed, no library card is needed, and users can keep the books if they want to.
Far North Libraries is encouraging pop-up library users to photograph themselves alongside the library trolley at the Urupukapuka Island Visitors Centre. Each person who emails a photo to outreach@fndc.govt.nz will be sent a prize.

Hunt on for missing 29yo man

Police are appealing for the public's assistance in locating William Martin, currently missing in the Kerikeri area. The 29-year-old was last seen by his family in the Mission Road, Kerikeri area near the Kerikeri River at around 11.30am yesterday. Both Police and William's family have concerns for his wellbeing and would like to locate him. William is around 175cm tall and of solid build with brown neck-length hair. He was unshaven, wearing a blue shirt, dark blue shorts and no footwear when he was last seen. If anyone sees William, please call Police on 111. Otherwise, if anyone has information on where he may be please call 105 quoting the reference number P049106753.

Nurses reach pay agreement

There'll be no more nurses strikes in Northland or elsewhere in the country next year after they settled their pay dispute with district health boards.
The New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) has signed an Agreement in Principle to settle its Nursing Pay Equity claim for the NZNO and PSA members who work in district health boards.
NZNO industrial services manager Glenda Alexander said this settlement is of historical significance because it corrects the long-standing sex-based undervaluation of nursing work.
"This pay equity agreement will be absolutely life-changing for many of our members.''
The pay equity claim covers about 40,000 members of the DHB-employed nursing workforce, including more than 1000 in Northland. The dispute spurred a series of strikes by nurses across the country.

NI brown kiwi no longer endangered

The Department of Conservation Te Papa Atawhai has announced that the North Island brown kiwi is no longer threatened, and kiwi conservation groups all over the country, including Northland, are celebrating.
A five-yearly assessment of the conservation status of birds in New Zealand reveals that the North Island brown kiwi has been reclassified from "At Risk – Declining" to "Not Threatened". Classifications are based on an estimated number of mature birds, the area occupied, and the predicted change in the population over three generations or 10 years, whichever comes first.
Save the Kiwi executive director Michelle Impey says this result is a ringing endorsement of the work carried out by passionate whānau-, hapū-, iwi- and community-led kiwi conservation groups all over New Zealand. "Today's announcement is momentous for kiwi conservation," says Ms Impey. "It proves that the work that groups on the ground have done so tirelessly over the last five, 10, even 20-plus years to protect kiwi in their backyards has been fruitful – and it works.''