Wednesday's headlines: "Time bomb" feared at Huntly East coal mine; ex-All Black granted name suppression after assaulting a child; search for Victoria Cross by family of recipient.
NZ Herald
The New Zealand Herald reports an ex-All Black was granted name suppression on Tuesday, after he pleaded guilty in the Auckland District Court to assaulting a child in September.
But legal expert Scott Optican says the secrecy over the player's identity, flies in the face of Parliament's aims with the introduction of the Criminal Procedure Bill.
And the paper carries a picture of the mother accused of attacking a schoolgirl who assaulted her daughter. Melissa Anderson entered no plea and was remanded on bail.
Waikato Times
The Waikato Times is dominated by the headline 'Deadly gas threatens Huntly miners'.
The paper reports that workers at the Huntly East coal mine believe a Pike River-level disaster was only narrowly avoided, after an explosive level of gas was detected at the mine earlier this month.
Dominion Post
The Dominion Post also features the Huntly East mine, with one miner calling a "time bomb". Both Solid Energy and the Labour Department are investigating.
The paper also features a picture of Phil Goff and Annette King taking their final steps as Labour's leader and deputy down a hallway in Parliament. The accompanying article says the fight for the leadership could carve deep wounds in the Labour caucus that may take several years and leaders to recover from.
The Press
The Press reports that Christchurch City Council has employed a private investigator to identify people still occupying red-stickered homes, saying it needed proof to pursue enforcement action.
The paper also reports that Christchurch East Labour MP Lianne Dalzel is not ruling out a bid for the Mayoralty in 2013 but says she remains dedicated to her electorate for now.
ODT
The Otago Daily Times leads with a search for a Victoria Cross. The family of Sergeant Donald Forrester Brown, believed to be North Otago's only Victoria Cross recipient, is searching for his medal.
His great-niece Trudi Bryant, last year visited visited Waitaki Boys High School, believing it to be in the school's Hall of Memories, but it wasn't. She is now appealing to the public for any information on its whereabouts.
The paper also reports that a second member of Dunedin City Council's executive management team has left, and those remaining, face new roles and responsibilities as part of restructuring by new chief executive Paul Orders.
