Wednesday's papers: community work sentences not completed by more than a third; coroner says tractors should be fitted with seatbelts; PM tries to stop new UK tax on tourists.
NZ Herald
The New Zealand Herald says Prime Minister John Key met his British counterpart Gordon Brown overnight and tried to stop a planned air tax which the New Zealand travel industry says could jeopardise its UK tourist market.
A coroner wants all tractors fitted with seatbelts - but the farming industry does not.The recommendation was made at an inquest after a man was thrown from a tractor and crushed as it rolled on a farm in Poverty Bay.
Dominion Post
The Dominion Post says cash-strapped consumers are continuing to pay premium prices for goods and services, despite tumbling fuel prices. Fares for public transport, taxis and airlines have all risen in the past year because of the cost of fuel, but an immediate cut has been ruled out now that prices are dipping.
On the travel tax story, the paper says Mr Key is seeking urgent advice over the plan which the British Government is labelling an environment tax.
The Press
The Press says the High Court has overturned a rent rise of 24%imposed by the Christchurch City Council.
A car belonging to retired school principal Rod McKenzie is pictured stuck on the edge of a weir in the Collins River, north of Nelson, during this week's flooding. Mr McKenzie survived.
A boy aged nine years, is said to be threatening elderly Christchurch supermarket customers, demanding money and stealing grocery items.
ODT
The Otago Daily Times says more than a third of people sentenced to community work last year failed to complete it - a figure which has at least one critic concerned there's something wrong with the system
And tourism bosses says visitors to Dunedin could disappear in a cloud of billowing black exhaust fumes unless the city does something about its bus fleet.
