RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31773, 2 September 1968, Page 17

RANDOM REMINDER

HELPING HAND

Every motorist needs help at some time or another, but not many have the good fortune which was enjoyed by a wellknown Christchurch radio personality .who came by a puncture in Hereford Street. Like many a driver before him, he discovered that the days of carrying tyre levers seem to be over, and he found it impossible to get his hub cap off. But he was almost opposite the Central police station, so asked there for something with which to do the job. A constable, most helpful, went away to look, and returned with the ideal instrument—a

jetnmy, politely called a pinchbar. Felicitous phrase. No doubt it had been retrieved, somewhere down the line, from a citizen who was intent on using it for no good purpose. But it did cause the motorist to reflect on his good fortune, and to speculate on what other useful items of equipment might be found, in an emergency, at a police station. It is unlikely, of course, that the police station staff would readily relinquish its stock of gelignite on request, nor is it easy to hit upon a reason for such a request which would carry conviction or perhaps which would not. A driver who found he had come out without his shoes

might get some rubbersoled ones if he put his story properly; the police might be convinced that it was essential for them to lend a good upright-looking man a set of skeleton keys, although the probability is that they would insist on a member of the force coming along too: it would need a pretty good story if one wanted to borrow a few detonators, but if one said it was imperative to hear the news, a transistor radio would probably be available. Motorists who have lost their keys might apply for jumper bars, and the police, as ever ready to help a lady in distress, are probably well equipped to assist someone who has laddered h«r nylon*.