Dean Taylor is the editor of the Te Awamutu Courier and Waikato Herald. In a strange twist of fate on Friday afternoon, when sirens started blaring around the town, I was sitting in Te Awamutu’s St John’s Church for the memorial service of former Waipā councillor Alan Empson . That was about 1.
50pm and judging by the response – police, ambulance and Fire and Emergency NZ – it was serious, and it was, a two-vehicle crash on SH3 north of Ōhaupō that closed the highway. Police updates later said it had been a fatal crash and then I received a text from a friend who said Jim Parlane was the victim – officially James Charles Morris Parlane, 61. The strange twist of fate is that Parlane is also a former Waipā councillor, serving two terms from 1998 to 2004 and also standing unsuccessfully for mayor in 2004, 2010 and 2013 and unsuccessfully for council in 2004, 2007, 2016, 2019 and 2022.
He also stood for Parliament for NZ First while a student at university. His sister Angela confirmed the rumour of his death by email on Sunday, saying she had spent many years reading bad things about her brother in the press but that in his passing the media might reflect on some of his positive attributes – of which there were many. She said a number of people had contacted her and are grieving about his sudden death, including herself and her brothers John and David.
One of Parlane’s attributes was that he had strong convictions about what was the right and wrong way to go .
