A decade-long project to save endangered giant snails from a West Coast coal mine will finish next year.

Bottom-trawling fisheries have been banned from a 10,000 hectare area off the West Coast of the South Island.

Reefton police say help from quick-thinking locals helped nab four burglars who smashed their way into the service station early today.

The woman who put Gloriavale cult leader Hopeful Christian in prison says he is no man of God and labelled him a “pervert”.

The woman who put Gloriavale Christian Community guru Hopeful Christian in prison for indecent assault has had her name suppression lifted so she can tell her story.

Two people were killed on the roads in separate incidents during the weekend.

Elisabeth Easther booked a trip to the wild West Coast to fritter away a weekend.

The parents of a 15-month-old Greymouth boy who died in Auckland’s Starship Hospital last month have been spoken to by police.

A Rotomanu farmer who stood trial in March for his part in the starvation and death of nearly 800 cows has been found guilty.

The ramifications of a further 113 job losses at Stockton will reverberate right down the West Coast and all the way to the Port of Lyttelton, MP Damien O'Connor says.

Solid Energy did all it could to avoid job cuts on the West Coast but the coal market made it too difficult, Bill English says.

The West Coast mining industry has been dealt a heavy blow today, with 113 jobs to go at Solid Energy's Stockton mine.

A Westport man was acquitted in the Greymouth District Court yesterday of two charges of threatening grievous bodily harm and one of possessing a machete.

A number of calls have been made to the police hotline number set up for former and current Gloriavale members.

Job losses on the West Coast have been foreshadowed ahead of meeting between Solid Energy managers and workers at the Stockton Mine tomorrow.

A member of the secretive christian community Gloriavale says allegations of men being groomed to have sex with underage females are "rubbish".

A Gloriavale school principal says the New Testament is very clear about men and women having different roles to play.

West Coast police area commander Inspector John Canning paid a courtesy visit to the Gloriavale Christian Community yesterday.

Secretive Christian community Gloriavale appears to be adding to its coffers by selling a hand-reared African grey parrot on Trade Me.

At least one former Gloriavale member has approached police, and others are considering it, after police urged for ex-members to come forward.

Police have launched a full inquiry into the death of a 15-month-old Cobden boy after he was taken to Grey Base Hospital not breathing and suffering cardiac arrest.

After 20 years, but family members of the 14 young people who died in the Cave Creek disaster marked the anniversary today by acknowledging that they were ready to move on.

Virginia Pawsey says today will be a day to remember her son, who died in the Cave Creek platform collapse, and reflect on the passage of time.

"It's not a lifestyle I would choose. But in actually talking to a lot of the people that are there I couldn't help thinking, 'They have a happier and simpler life than I do.'

The Grey District Council has refused to enter into a public debate about a plan to close a road near the Gloriavale Christian Community, as the issue heads to the Environment Court.

The secretive Gloriavale religious community owns assets worth $36.6 million, including a dairy farm, deer enterprise and an aircraft repair firm.