Wellington City Council covered $800,000 of the floodlit artificial turf's $1.7 million bill. The responsibility for finding the remaining $900,000 to fund the artificial turf has been accepted by the St Patrick's College Foundation.

Some avenues of revenue generation have already been identified. The Marist St Pat's Rugby Club, which will be a prime user of the turf, is committed to a contribution of $300,000. The College's parents' association will provide $50,000.

The College is facing further major expenses; in the wake of the Christchurch earthquakes, the school, which was built on reclaimed land, has been assessed by engineers.

The assessment shows there is a need for $8 million worth of seismic work on the land and the buildings.

Last week's opening of the artificial turf was attended by Attorney-General and St Pat's old boy Chris Finlayson, Mayor Celia Wade-Brown and several Wellington City councillors, including John Morrison, the driving force behind the venture, and Paul Eagle who is an old boy of the college.

They were welcomed by a student haka and the formalities ended with Archbishop John Dew blessing the facility.

The artificial turf will be available for use by pupils and local sports teams, including the Marist St Pat's Rugby Club.

St Pat's rector Fr Paul Martin said the field would help students train more often.

"That's our only field, in terms of our own college space. Therefore if the weather was no good, we had nowhere for the kids to train.

"The option of being able to train at night is a huge plus for us."

Source

• The Wellingtonian
• The Cornerstone
• Image: MSP

The Wellington-based accountant pleaded guilty in Wellington District Court last November to accessing a school computer for cash and to pay, among other things, for room service, sweat shirts and a king-sized water bed.

In addition to being struck off the NZICA register, Mr Don has been ordered to pay $5594 costs and expenses to the institute for the tribunal hearing and the investigation by the professional conduct committee. Read more

Archbishop John Dew kicked off Social Justice Week on Wednesday with a pep talk for a group of students from wellington's St Patrick's and St Catherine's Colleges at the St Catherine's gymnasium. As Head Coach for the Catholic team, he urged them to keep their eyes on the ball, in working together to achieve the goal of a fair and just society.

Values on the sporting field - fairness, an equal chance of success, unbiased refereeing - are equally important in society, said Archbishop John The vision of all people living as a human family in fullness of life is one that becomes more difficult to achieve in an unequal society, and in a world marked by extremes of wealth and poverty, hw said

"As sports spectators, we will be looking over coming weeks to see that regardless of who wins the Rugby World Cup, it will be a fair competition. We expect rules to be agreed on and enforced by unbiased referees. We expect that sports grounds will allow for an equal chance of success - for example that one side won't be playing up-hill or kicking into the wind for the whole match."

Archbishop John said it was time to blow the whistle on inequality. "It would be great if New Zealanders put as much enthusiasm and effort into ensuring we have a fair society, as we do into cheering for success on the sporting field.

"New Zealand has been a world leader in the growth of inequality, and this leaves people on the fringes of society whose life isn't as good as human life should be. Luke's Gospel talks about compassion for the poor. People who follow the Gospel are obliged to reduce inequality and poverty in our society."

Level with me : Who is the Fairest of them all? - the Social Justice Week blogsite
will be looking at social inequality - nationally and internationally - through the eyes of countries competing in the Rugby World Cup.

They have ranked the countries based on their performance on various social inequality indicators, and are running a light-hearted blog on how they stack up against each other - as well as debating the issues around social inequality.

We all know the All Blacks will take the Cup. But who will win on the social equality stakes?
Find out who they think is the winner - and make your own judgement. Join in the fun and debate, as in a light-hearted, sporting way some of the deeper issues that sometimes divide us and the world.

Level with me is at: www.socialjusticeweek.org.nz or through the Caritas website.

Source

• Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand
• Image Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand

The 44-year-old man appeared in the Wellington District Court on eight charges of dishonestly accessing a computer and one charge of money laundering.

"Throughout the interview process he was very clear that Silverstream must be a "Gospel-based school." Gospel teaching are his guiding principles and will underpin the ongoing development of the college under his leadership."

For the last five years Mr Tully has been involved in the Marist Education Project. This project, established by the Society of Mary, promotes the Marist educational ethos to al its staff, students, parents and even the board. The project also includes the well sought after Marist Youth Leader programme, which Mr Tully has been involved in leading.

Prior to being named rector of St Patrick's Silverstream, Mr Tully taught Mathematics at St Patrick's College Wellington, Wellington College and Naenae College.

He was deputy principal at Porirua College, Principal of the Challenge 2000 College, a school for troubled youth.

When rector at St Patrick's College Wellington the college enjoyed considerable success in lifting its academic, sporting and cultural performances.

Gerard Tully is married with three children, is a keen sportsman and enjoys the Theatre. An old boy of Silverstream, the College hopes he will be able to join them towards the end of the third term.

The announcement was made jointly by Denis Boyle, Chairperson of the Board of Trustees and Brian McGuinness, Chairperson of the Board of Proprietors.

Sources

• Society of Mary NZ