RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30420, 20 April 1964, Page 20

RANDOM REMINDER

CONCILIATION

In a recent report on the prices being charged by Christchurch barbers, the most interesting point was the one raised by a hairdresser who said that if there was a departure from the system of a basic rate, people would pop into a saloon merely to ask for a quote. This seems to be a very good idea. Not so much because one customer may have been in the back country for months and the next own only a couple of tresses stretched across his skull like the wires of an old-fashioned bomb sight. But mainly because the

only satisfactory way to have a haircut is through negotiation. This week we are going to our own barber with a sound, business-like proposition. He will be asked to agree that the basic rate of 4s be retained, but that if he wants to talk about the All Blacks or Rugby generally there must be a reduction of Is. We are prepared to listen to his views on politics for a consideration of Is 6d. Attacks on mutual friends would be worth 2s (to us) and the charge would come down to Is if he forgot himself and said anything about us being a bit thin on top, or attempted to apply one or

more of the many nauseous preparations at his disposal. But we are essentially fair, and there would have to be a second sort of scale. If we feel in the mood to demolish all our colleagues while the barber nods approvingly, we would be prepared to pay a small additional fee. Because he has to suffer much of it, references to mothers-in-law ought to be worth 2s. And if we have to go to the barber to find a listener to a dramatic blow-by-blow account of our most recent round of golf, the full charge could be 10s. We know our family would subsidise us, in self-protection.