RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32461, 23 November 1970, Page 21

RANDOM REMINDER

ORGANISATION

Professors diminish in stature if they forget to forget things. Without mental muddles, they become just ordinary people. Artists, similarly, lack colour unless they are desperately untidy and offhand about the things which bother ordinary folk, like dining only two or three times a week, off spaghetti, served on the lid of a cocoa tin. Accountants should wear rimless glasses and be precise in all things. And engineers should be thoroughly organised folk, with clearly-defined plans for everything they do, prepared well in advance. And that, generally, is how one finds engineers. At least, that is our ex-

perience of engineers. We knew one who was in a responsible position on one of the major South Island power projects. And when he had to leave the deep south to go to Wellington for a week for a conference of engineers, he organised everything down to the last detail. It was an ideal opportunity, he said, for his wife and their two children to stay with his wife’s parents in Christchurch. He fixed everything up, arranging the packing, checking the car, jotting down a little timetable for the journey, making advance telephone calls to all those who would be part of the troop movement, and so forth.

They drove to Christchurch. He carefully unloaded the car, made sure his wife had everything she needed, slapped his coat to make certain of such things as wallet and cheque book, bid his family adieu, and climbed into a taxi. To the railway station he went, to Lyttelton, and on to the steamer express. He sampled the ship’s entertainment until the Heads were left behind, then went to his cabin. \

He opened his case. It did not contain his toothbrush. It did not yield any of his clothes. All at held was a collection of his children’s toys, chosen and packed with - his typical precision.