Thursday's headlines: Accommodation is stretched to the limit in Christchurch by the Ellerslie International Flower Show; vow to break council stranglehold on Auckland housing; new type of speed camera being tested.
NZ Herald
The New Zealand Herald leads with a couple receiving a $9000 payment from a school which failed to protect their daughter from threats and bullying.
After complaining about being kicked, punched and threatened with an axe, the girl, then aged eight, was asked to leave the school.
New Housing Minister Nick Smith is vowing to break the "stranglehold" of Auckland Council's policy of containing urban sprawl. The minister says his focus will be on opening up land supply.
Waikato Times
The Waikato Times reports on three members of the same family charged with the manslaughter of two teenage girls.
The girls, aged 13 and 14 were killed in a car accident on Christmas Day 2011 after the driver of the car, their cousin, lost control.
At the time he was racing another cousin and the mother of the girls in separate vehicles. The Crown prosecutor said all three had been drinking.
Dominion Post
The Dominion Post reports on a new type of "smarter" speed camera that is being tested at Ngauranga Gorge.
The camera uses radar and laser-based technology to spot speeding cars across all lanes, uphill and downhill. It can even tell whether one car among several others is speeding.
Cricketer Jeetan Patel missed last week's Test in Queenstown because he was injured after an altercation with a pub bouncer.
Patel and Daniel Vettori went out drinking after day one of the four-day match.
The Press
The Press leads with the naming of the high school teacher involved in making secret upskirt videos of unsuspecting girls in and around Christchurch.
Douglas Haora Martin was assistant principal at Lincoln High School at the time he made the videos. The principal of the school says she is "outraged and angry" by his behaviour.
Accommodation is stretched to the limit in Christchurch by the Ellerslie International Flower Show.
Some hotels are having to turn away international guests because they are fully booked.
ODT
The Otago Daily Times reports that Shotover Park Ltd, a Queenstown company, is taking Lakes District Council to the High Court over a decision to zone a section of land it owns as for industrial use. The company wants to build a $50 million retail site on the land.
After nearly three years and more than $45 million spent restorations and improvements, Dunedin town hall and the neighbouring Dunedin Centre are scheduled to reopen next month.
