Thursday's headlines: TVNZ shows face the axe; two in critical condition after fall from Lion's Rock at Piha; man who boasted he was living on the dole to campaign on social issues told to report for an immediate work test.
NZ Herald
The New Zealand Herald reports police are trying to establish what a group of men were doing on Lion Rock at Piha in the moments before two of them fell at least 60 meters early on Wednesday. They are in a critical condition in Auckland hospital with head injuries and bone fractures.
The axe hovers over shows as TVNZ finances take a hit. All programmes will be up for review as the State broadcaster faces tighter budgets and falling advertising revenue.
Dominion Post,
The Dominion Post reports St John Ambulance has apologised to the relatives of a drowning victim and launches an investigation after a call-centre error led to delays.
Phone logs obtained by the newspaper show it took a paramedic 22 minutes to reach the dying man after call-centre staff received a 111 call.
An unemployed Wellington man, who boasted he was living on the dole to campaign on social issues, has been told to report for an immediate work test.
Benjamin Easton, who's lodged an Environment Court appeal to stop Manners Mall being turned into a buses-only road, told the paper on Tuesday he was deliberately on the dole to bring the people's challenge to the courts.
The Press
The Press reports on the lack of adequate warning signs at a Waimakariri swimming spot that has claimed four lives in six years.
Water Safety New Zealand says councils should stop nit-picking over the responsibility for signs in an obvious danger spot.
The body of a schoolboy was pulled from the river by a police dive team on Wednesday. The boy, aged 15, drowned after disappearing while swimming with family a few metres downstream of the bridge on Tuesday night.
ODT
[The Otago Daily Times reports a forest fire near Dunedin is expected to burn for days. At least 10 helicopters spent Wednesday attacking the blaze.
A fixed-wing aircraft dumped fire retardant where possible, and a ditch-digger created firebreaks.
Civil Defence and rural fire manager Neil Brown expects the cost to be more than $1 million.
