New Zealand weather

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32707, 9 September 1971, Page 12

New Zealand weather

FORECAST TO MIDNIGHT Situation.—A, ridge of high pressure moving, over New Zealand is followed by a weak depression from the mid-Tasman Sea. Forecast: Canterbury, the Kaikoura coast and central Marlborough: light winds, tending north-easterly; fine, with moderate tempera- | tures; patches of coastal fog. Nelson and the Marlborough Sounds: moderate northerlies; fine at first, but cloud increasing; moderate temperatures. Buller and Westland: light variable winds; cloudy, with some light showers this afternoon; moderate temperatures. Outlook: showers on the West Coast; mainly fair elsewhere. CHRISTCHURCH READINGS

Yesterday in Christchurch was fine. Observations taken at the Meteorological Office, Harewood, yesterday:—

Phaaes of Moon Last quarter: September 12, 6.23 a.m. New moon: September 20, 2.42 a.m. First quarter: September 28, 5.17 a.m. Full moon: October 5, 12.20 a.m. Moon—Today: Rises, 11.38 p.m.; sets, 8.17 a.m. Tomorrow: Rises, —; sets 8.53 a.m. Noon weather Auckland: 15deg, partly cloudy, 5.5. 2 m.p.h. Wellington: 13deg, partly cloudy, 5.5. 14 m.p.h. Christchurch: 13deg, fine, calm. Dunedin: 14deg, partly cloudy, 1 E., 6 m.p.h. 4 ,

Cl• • | Mb/ ‘ ’ - jWW ilil® DIRECTORS AND SENIOR OFFICERS OF THE RESERVE BANK OF NEW ZEALAND who are meeting in Christchurch this week. This is only the third time that the bank’s board has met in Christchurch. SEATED, from left, are Messrs L. A. Hadley (Wellington), R. W. R. White (deputy governor), A. R. Low (governor), and T. W. Perry (Christchurch). STANDING are Messrs D. C. Kirkpatrick (Hastings), R. E. Gambrill (Gisborne), W. S. Otto (Auckland), R. Porter (Auckland), S. A. McLeod (Assistant Secretary to the Treasury), and J. E. McClean (Invercargill). NORTH SEA OIL HUGE SUMS TO BE SI EXPLORE RRITIS THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1971. A cautious confidence in dairying The confidence of the general manager of the New Zealand Dairy Board (Mr S. T. Murphy) in the prospects of the dairy industry is. apparent from his speech this week to the Society of Dairy Science and Technology, gutter is now fetching £480 a ton on the United Kingdom market compared with £315 a ton 12 months ago: Mr Murphy apparently felt it necessary to defend the board’s selling policy: “ If we do not “ ask for the price we can get we only pass the profit “to the resellers”. If anyone had suggested 12 months ago that Mr Murphy would be defending a decision to ask £480 a ton for butter most experts — including, perhaps, Mr Murphy — would have dismissed the suggestion as wildly optimistic. Nor is there any reason to expect a reduction in this price over the next 15 months. Because of the reduction in dairy herds in Europe, Mr Murphy said, “ any significant recovery of the low European “ butter stocks is hardly possible this year or next ”. If the present prices of butter and cheese were maintained until the end of the season next May, the board would show a surplus of more than $50 million in its trading account. That would enable the board to pay off its $20 million debt to the Reserve Bank and the dairy companies to distribute handsome end-of-season bonuses. But the buoyancy of world markets this year has a more enduring significance. If the present price for butter holds until the end of next year New Zealand will have averaged £390 over the four years ending 1972. Under the terms of the agreement reached between Britain and the European Economic Community at Luxemburg this year, £390 would then become the minimum price for New Zealand butter in the United Kingdom until 1978. If any dairy farmers then complain that £390 is far short of the £480 received in 1971 and 1972 they will need to be reminded that it is also far ahead of the £300 they had to accept from 1966 to 1970. Even so, the Dairy Products Prices Authority will have a difficult decision to make next year: should it recommend producers be paid in 1972-73 on the basis of the 1971-72 realisations or on the 1972-73 expectations? Much will depend on the outlook at that time for other dairy products. At present the outlook is hopeful: Mr Murphy said that world demand for cheese, wholemilk powder, infant milk foods, and condensed and evaporated milk was steadily increasing. But if a surplus of milk were again produced in Europe, would the E.E.C. again dump supplies in other markets, reducing the prices for New Zealand produce? Although he does not say so explicitly, Mr Murphy appears to expect a shortage rather than a surplus: and the board is evidently confident that the E.E.C. will honour its commitment not to “frustrate New Zealand’s efforts to diversify “ its trade ” — which the board interprets as an assurance not to dump in other markets. Encouraging as all this is for the dairy industry, it should not be allowed to obscure the difficulties yet to be overcome. Many of the cheese factories in Taranaki are overdue for replacement; should the new factories be designed to produce cheddar, or some other type? Or should they be replaced by wholemilk powder factories, or dual-purpose factories? If wrong decisions are made today on false or inadequate market information, millions of dollars might be wasted. Australian dairy products to be shut out of the United Kingdom market after next year will presumably be dumped in other markets in competition with New Zealand produce. Protection of less efficient producers — notably in Japan and the United States — continues to exclude dairy products from potentially lucrative markets. Such problems as these must still be solved if the prosperity of the New Zealand dairy industry is to be assured beyond 1972. A wary confidence is certainly not misplaced: complacency might be disastrous. Local body elections Twenty-year-olds, who are eligible to vote in local body elections for the first time, have swollen the number of new voters for the elections on October 9 Enrolment is compulsory (although the law is seldom enforced). Voting is not compulsory: but all citizens should realise that they have an obligation to cast their votes for members of the territorial and ad hoc local bodies which provide many of the most important services and amenities in the community. Few citizens can have an excuse for not registering. Electoral rolls are on display at 14 street stalls in the city until September 17, the last day for enrolment: and little time and effort are involved in a citizen’s checking to see that his or her name is on the roll, and applying for enrolment if it is not. Political groups and organisations such as the Canterbury University Students’ Association are making strenuous efforts to ensure that all eligible voters are enrolled. The Christchurch City Council is doing its best to encourage voting by making it possible to vote at special booths throughout the city for three days before the official polling day. Three years ago some 12,000 votes were cast before polling day. Even so, fewer than half the electorate voted. The men and women elected to local bodies are there to represent the public. They cannot be expected to look after the electors’ interests if the electors themselves seem indifferent to their interests. 1 Reprinte A minimum’of £1 to explore the British s centrated and expensive spent since 1964 on pros with the programme to themselves in order to the first 15 of which t based on the outcome of The initial £300 million outlay, spent principally in the southern section of the North Sea, has given Britain a new indigenous fuel in the valuable form of natural gas and has transformed the gas industry. The North Sea now provides more than 90 per cent of all gas requirements and will soon provide 100 per cent of a fast-growing market, once the connections can be made. The prize for which the oil companies are competing is a minimum 3 million barrels of oil a day from the British sector. Home consumption is now running at 2 million barrels a day and is rising fast. The 3 million barrel estimate of output is considered highly conservative. First auction ever It explains why the ShellEsso group bid £21.1 million for a single licence area in the first-ever auction of drilling rights that the British Government has conducted. Only 15 out of the total of 436 blocks were chosen for auction, but among them was block 211/21, an area of 100 square miles lying 88 miles north-east of the Shetlands. This was the Shell-Esso group’s prize, and a budget of at least £100 million has been set aside to explore it. Seen in this light, the price bid begins to look a very calculated risk, but the nearest drill that Shell has sunk in that part of the North Sea is a good 16 miles away. This Shell-Esso bid was by far the largest made for a single block. The auction brought in a total of £37 million. which gave the Government a good idea of just what the world’s oil companies think the North Sea is worth. If they cannot assess its commercial value, no-one can. There still are 165 blocks that none of them thought worth applying for at all. Others received as many as 28 bids. Companies new to Britain, like West Germany’s Deminex group, have been drawn into the hunt, bidding £3.4 million in partnership with British Petroleum for the highly rated block 15/26. Norsk Hydro, the Norwegian combine which has already done very well out of the major oil discoveries in Norway’s portion of the North Sea, went away empty-handed. The search for oil has tended to diminish interest in natural gas but the Conoco company, and the National Coal Board were nevertheless prepared to make a partnership offer of £425,000 for a licence area near the established Viking gas field that Shell had previously surrendered. Even if no further major gas finds are likely to come from the southern portion of the North Sea, some groups are still prepared to spent sizable sums picking up spare pockets of energy that may still be lying there. Some low bids Inevitably, in any auction the major groups get the plums, because they have the technical expertise needed to undertake this sort of tasl as well as the capital to fund it. But some small companies did remarkably well. The Chieftain Development Company, a little-known Canadian independent, shrewdly offered an across-the-board series of very low bids for no fewer than 13 of the If blocks on offer. It sounded pathetic at the time hut Chieftain has now got licences,to three blocks for a total outlay of £16,000. At least another £11,000 a block will have to be paid by each licensee for actual operating rights, but Chieftain has got quite a lot for very little. Negotiations are now going on for the remaining 421 blocks, each of 100 square miles, that were not put up to auction but offered by the Government under the licensing system that has operated since 1964. These comprehensive licences are valid for six years, and cost a lump sum of £30 per square kilometre (it used to be £25 per square km until 1969). During this time, the licence holder has to undertake a closely supervised programme of exploration, and at the end of it has the right to retain not more than half the original concession for a further 40 years, for a rental that starts at £40 per square km but rises by steps of £25 a year to a maximum of £290 per square km. This, however, is offset against royalties of 12] per cent, assessed on the wellhead value of all oil, gas or condensate (oil-gas mixture) found and marketed. Why the Government has gone metric with its rents has never been quite clear. Licence holders have to be resident British companies, a condition that has helped to turn London into the oil capital of the world. All the major American oil companies have been obliged to establish bases here in order to qualify, but it has gone further than that. The highly successful Phillips Oil now controls its European oil operations from European headquarters situated in London. In all, 288 companies (among them the National Westminster Bank) subd from the “Economist” by acre 500 million will be neede ection of the North Sea oil hunt the world has y pecting in the North Sea which the oil combines lualify for 436 new offsl le Government formally an auction held the pret mitted, separately and in groups, a total of 1501 applications for licences. Interest in the North Sea has started to spread beyond the oil industry but has not, surprisingly enough, reached the shipyards yet—although they would do well out of the work it could bring. More and more offshore drilling rigs are being required, to work in increasingly deep and stormy seas. The rigs used when North Sea prospecting began in the mid-1960s are dwarfed by the structures that will drill for the next round of exploration. Shell has four new ones on order costing £8 million each, three times what the company paid last time round. Their working platforms could comfortably hold an entire football pitch they can drill to 25,000ft in waters 600ft deep, with 75ft waves. They also have for the first time, engines that make them self-pro-pelled, for a top speed of nine knots. Work like this woulc transform the prospect for yards like the Upper Clyde group. But the £32 million contract went instead to Norway, the United States and—incredibly—Spain. Under the United Nations continental shelf convention which Britain signed in 1964 countries have full rights over the seabed round their shores out to the point where the depth of water reaches 200 metres (656ft). Off the gently shelving coast o Britain this has led to con siderable complications. France and Ireland botl have differences with Lon don over median line, dividing their continents shelves from the British, anc so has Denmark, represent ing the oil rights of the Faroe Islands. . Even withir accepted British working areas, there are cartographi problems. Many of tht depths on the charts an proving to be wrong, anc by margins sufficiently wide to throw out the drillers calculations and working methods. The. remoter area< now being explored are ir waters which may not have been surveyed since the las century, while the seabec changes in parts of the nortl so rapidly with every storm that sonar radar is now used to keep a running check or what the bed under the rig is up to. The largest oil discovery yet proved off Europe has been the Ekofisk field eas of the median line dividing British waters from those o Norway. Ekofisk, currently rated at 300,000 barrels LE r i (1) Letters to be considered tor this column must not exceed 150 words. They should be on only one side of the paper; preferably typewritten otherwise clearly written in ink: and ample margins and spa- e between lines should be left for convenience in subediting. . (2) A legible signature and full address—not a P.O box number — are required wnethei these are to be printed or not (31 The correspondent must say whether the letter has been or is to be submitted elsewhere (41 The editor cannot return or keep any letter not accepted for printing: nor does he undertake to acknowledge or enter into correspondence concerning tetters although i i acknowledgement will be made where this seems to be necessary or helpful (5i As a general rule, correspondence on news items in other publications, or carried on radio and television, is not acceptable. Movie-goer.—Your views noted. Weka.—You could write direct to the N.Z.B.C. P.J.A.—Leave personalities to the politicians. W.K.M. (Granity).—A. Inquiring. B. Confirmed. Not necessarily the only newspaper. W. Rosenberg.—Mr Muldoon has been invited to comment on your further letter. Forty Years On.—(1) Inquiring. (2) The reproduction of such photographs is usually poor tn quality. R. J. Glen.—It can be appropriate or Inappropriate accord- ’ ing to the circumstances; so can the reproach of resorting to it. W. Hamilton.—Any person or organisation may stipulate that a donation should not be acknowledged publicly. Most appeal committees think it essential to publish acknowledgement lists. HumptylDumpty.—A question on religious affiliation was not asked at the 1966 census. However, in the 1961 census the numbers of persons in the various religious denominations were: Northern Ireland. Roman Catholic 497,547, Presbyterian 413,112, Church of Ireland 344,800 (includingChurch of England and Episcopal Church of Scotland), Methodists 71,865, others and not stated (“Statesman’s Year Book,” 1970-71). Republic of Ireland. Roman Catholic 2,673,473, Church of Ireland 104,016, Presbyterian 18.953, Methodist 6676, others 15,223 (“Whitaker’s Almanack,” 1971). Waterside wages Sir,—One small question, please. How much would be earned by Auckland waterside workers for one hour’s work last Saturday morning? —Yours, etc., SMALL FIXED INCOME. August 31, 1971. [The Auckland Port Employers Association, replies: “The current , ordinary hourly rate of pay for waterside workers is $1.4033. The normal Saturday morning work period at Auckland is four hours and a half, worked between -7.30 a.m. and noon. Payment for the first three hours is at time and a half, and the balance is at double time. On the day in question the waterside workers held an unauthorised stopwork meeting' over working a container vessel. The men were absent from work from 8 a.m. to 10.15 am. Payment was made for the time the men were actually on the jobs—that is, 7.30 a.m. to 8 a.m., 10.15 a.m. to 12 noon— two hours and a quarter. This was three-quarters of an hour at time and a half and one hour and a half at double time.”] Accommodating tourists Sir,—One reads of the need to encourage tourists to visit this country. Recently an Australian family decided to visit New Zealand and tour the South Island. It consisted VEERS of two adults and two children of six and four years of age. When they contacted the New Zealand Tourist Bureau they were told that, at all leading hotels, including the Hermitage, family units were not available. They were told to book two twin rooms. This mean a cost of $34 a night, which is .to be expected, I suppose; but the main point is that the children are too young to be sleeping away from their parents, and, if the parents are separated the holiday begins to fall apart. Now this family has decided to stay at Great Barrier Reef, disgusted with New Zealand’s tourist accommodation. It appears to me that New Zealand is not doing all it can to promote tourism by neglecting such a request.—Yours, etc., TOURISTS OR NOT? August 27, 1971. [Mr L. F. Manning, district manager of the Tourist and Publicity Department, replies: “No trace of the inquiry can be found at this office and I can only presume that, it was made in Australia. Generally speaking, hotels in New Zealand will arrange stretchers in a room for small children travelling with parents. However, this would be at the discretion of the manager. Some leading hotels have multi-bed rooms and others have connecting doors between rooms. Firstclass motels, the envy of tourists from many parts of the world, are well distributed throughout New Zealand, and they have all the facilities required. Some have fully-equipped kitchens and some have restaurants attached. In Australia (where I have recently lived for five years), the same conditions prevail with hotels, but the motels do not have fullyequipped kitchens. Practically all motels in Australia have a restaurant attached.”] Degrees in business Sir,—’'Parent of Students” shows an alarming lack of knowledge about the role of the seventh form. In no way does advanced, concentrated learning “hinder maturity development.” The pressures and responsibilities on these pupils are considerable. Any ideas of “the elite” are in the minds of parents, not pupils. A specialised year, Form VII is (especially for science subjects) invaluable in the context of university work. Most students would be struggling were they to go from Form VI to stage 1 in subjects such as mathematics, applied mathematics, or chemistry. The suggestion of. two years, at work after Form VI is utterly nonsensical and remote from present realities in education. "Parent of Students” presumes that school pupils lack “common sense” and “stable habits,” and believes that the magic of two years as a worker will remedy such student inadequacies. There is no such magic, and even if there was, who needs it? —Yours, etc., A.M.B. September 8, 1971. American football Sir,—I wish to correct an error in the caption to your gridiron photograph on page 9 of today’s edition. The participants at the University of Michigan' Stadium are Detroit and Baltimore, not Michigan, as stated.—Yours, etc., R. T. McCARRON. September 7, 1971. TO Th Walton Street Sir,—The sight of a concrete building • being erected on the corner of Walton Street and Colombo Street, hard up to the boundaries, is too much. Is the already dangerously narrow roadway never to be widened? Two cars can barely meet in it but what about the fire engine opposite? Does it have to go the long way round, or do the firemen jog and carry everything? When all the buildings on the two comer sections were demolished we thought the job of widening had begun. But no. Could the council explain how 93 people to the acre are going to have egress from Walton Street? R4 Zoning needs a wide street.—Yours, etc., WALTON STREET LANDLORD. August 30, 1971. [The City Engineer (Mr P. G/ Scoular) replies: “The amount of widening required in Walton Street has yet to be determined. A building permit was recently issued for a retaining wall in Walton Street and this permit was subject to the condition that the wall will be removed when, the redevelopment policy for the area has been determined.”] Vandalism Sir,—I have spent the last week preparing wickets for the forthcoming cricket season. This morning as I crossed the park, I discovered that a motorist, bent on deliberate • destruction, had made a number of turns on one of the newly prepared wickets, which will now require a second top-dressing. I feel it is time for drastic action and severe penalties should be imposed on offenders.—Yours, etc., IRATE PARK-KEEPER. September 7, 1971. Tibet Sir,—“P.J.A.” seems to have forgotten two things. First, it was made reasonably clear in these columns a E EDI' month ago that Tibet was independent before the Chinese invasion. This invasion began on October 7, 1950, and Tibet’s independence was gradually reduced by the Chinese until in 1958, with the occupation of the Potala, the last vestiges of it disappeared. Therefore China was not invading its own territory as “P.J.A.” suggests. Second, “P.J.A.” has neglected to answer my questions. If he is unable to answer them, I can certainly do so for him.—Yours, etc., R.W.G. September 8, 1971. Ice skating rink Sir,—This is a world where minorities march in protest presumably to right what they consider injustices; but just how far are the rights Of minorities protected? I would cite the case of the area round the Centaurus ice skating rink. Admittedly for agreement was obtained from the residents before the rink was built; but the population round the rink was sparse in those days and I am certain no-one then visualised a rink operating seven days a week. Although the area has since developed into one of our very best residential districts, the residents have never been given the opportunity to decide whether they want the rink to continue and if so for how many days a week. The proprietors must be really greedy and inconsiderate to deny the long-suffering residents at least one day a week completely clear of revving cars, a blaring loud-speaker, bottles, and litter.—Yours, etc., TWICE WEEKLY. August 6, 1971. [No reply has been received from the management which was invited to comment on this letter.] Pukaki high dam proceeds Ministry of Works men at Twizel have started building a new high dam on the edge of Lake Pukaki. The and 1400ft long. It wi will make it possible t lake by 123ft. The new dam will replace the existing control dam which releases water into the Pukaki River. The engineer in charge of the dam construction (Mr T. Storey) said yesterday that, all going well, the dam would be built and the lake ready for filling by October, 1976. The dam will be made 61 silt and gravel on a natural base. It will be similar in design to the dam at Benmore, but smaller. Three scrapers and two bulldozers have already started forming a road on the lam will be 200ft high 11 cost about $30m and o raise the level of the right bank of the river along which spoil from the diversion culvert excavations will be hauled. Site office foundations and underground fue tanks are also being prepared. The diversion culvert to take the outflow from Lake Pukaki while the high dam is under construction will be completed by the winter of 1973. The new dam will make it possible to store double the quantity of summer thaw water, which can be released for power generation at stations between Pukaki and Benmore during the winter. A start on the dam was authorised soon after the announcement that a further $3m had been allocated by the Government for the Upper Waitaki project The project engineer. (Mr S. M. J. Smith) said yesterday that the additional allocation had increased the total expenditure this year from $9.8m to $12.8m. The extra money would be spread round the entire project—the town of Twizel, the canal construction and the new high dam. Mr Smith said that new heavy earth-moving equipment was expected in six to nine months. The existing machinery was getting old. The three 10 cu. yard frontend loaders, 14’50-ton dump waggons and 10 bulldozers which were expected would be spread over various works. Extra men are to be taken on as soon as housing and development increases. New Zeala 1 KZJS ,o, A^l oc ' c qaa Telephone rental will be $61.10 Residential telephone subscribers in the Christchurch metropolitan area will pay $1,171a week for the rental of a telephone from FRONTS COLO HAIN AHA SHOWtM SCATTERED HKHmM OR ANTI CYC LOW PREML OR MPA US WARM W W 'W OCCLUDED STATIONA subscriber will be $61. present rate of $52.' The increases in telephone rentals vary according to the class of the exchange in which subscribers are connected. There are five classes of exchanges with rentals for private and business telephones. Those connected to multiple party lines will have to pay proportionately smaller increases. The new rates are:— Class 1 exchanges (automatic exchanges with more than 10,000 subscribers): $61.10 for individual private lines, $52.88 for two-party lines, $134.75 for business lines. Class 2 exchanges (automatic exchanges with 3001 subscribers to 10,000 subscribers): Private residential, $61.10; two-party, $52.88; business, $128.63. Class 3 exchanges (automatic exchanges with 201 to 3000 subscribers and manual exchanges with more than 10, compared with the dential, $45.83; two-party, $39.95. For additional extension telephones in private homes, subscribers will pay an increase of 17.5 per cent on their present rates. Additional equipment supplied to businesses will be.'subject to a 22.5 per cent surcharge. The new connection fee will rise from $30 to $35. FORECAST TO Ml Situation.—A, rid moving t over New Ze weak depression from Forecast: Canterbury, the J tral Marlborough: north-easterly; fine, w tures; patches of coasts Nelson and the moderate northerlies; increasing; moderate t Buller and Wes winds; cloudy, with s afternoon; moderate te Outlook: showers mainly fair elsewhere. CHRISTCHURCH R Yesterday in Christchurch was fine. Observations taken at the Meteorological Office, Harewood, yesterday:— Barometer 6 p.m. 11 p.m. Inches .. 29.99 30.02 Millibars .. 1015.7 1016.6 Thermometer: Degrees Maximum -.16 Minimum (grass) .. —2 Humidity: Per cent at 6 p.m. .. 85 Rainfall: Yesterday: 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. Nil 24 hours to 9 a.m. Nil To date this year .. 330mm. To date last year .. 426mm. Average to date .. 450mm. Sunshine: h m Yesterday 9 18 Month to date 59 00 Average for Sept. .. 164 00 To date this year .. 1189 12 To date last year .. 1199 12 New social centre for the blind Work has begun on the new social centre for the New Zealand Foundation for the Blind at its Christchurch regional headquarters in Bristol Street. Since 1963, the foundation will cost almost $37,000. The has been using the old Lyttel-i tender has been let to J.J. •» the social hall, because there that new social were not sufficient funds to centre would be ready by the finance a new centre. New Year, if not before. But the old hall had be- When the centre is officially come much too small for the opened, a commemorative branch’s social activities, and plaque will be unveiled, notthe facilities were generally ing that the centre has been inadequate, said the regional erected as a tribute to Mr G. branch manager (Mr C. A. F. C. Ashdowne, the first Pilgrim) yesterday. 1 branch manager of the “However, we are now to‘foundation in Christchurch. have a new social centre, the| The hall will be used for cost of which will be metiall the social functions within mainly by legacies left to the!the foundation, especially for foundation,” said Mr Pilgrim.(the activities of the indoor "It is expected that this bowling clqb and the squarebranch will have to raise [dancing club. A permanent 111?% of cost ’. as well as [public address system and a P "rv« r bVick'yi!!" n8 hearing-aid loop system will or,ck-veneer building be fitted. Petition to b on Waimak A petition signed. by 1600 persons protesting against pollution of the Waimakariri River will be presented to the Associate Minister of Finance and member of Parliament for Rangiora (Mr ' H. E. L. Pickering) on the banks of the river on Saturday. Mr Pickering will be taken for a jet-boat ride from Kaiapoi up to the motorway bridges and back down to the mouth of the river at Kairaki, where the petition will be presented to him at 9.45 a.m. The petition says, in part: “This stretch of river (from the motorway bridges to the mouth) is the most popular for recreation, pare presented . River bank ticularly from the fishing point of view, in the whole river system. On the other hand, it is also the most polluted and effluent-filled reach of water in the river. “Despite official assurances that something is being done, there has been no improvement in the state of the river, which is now virtually an open sewer. “Unless immediate, positive action is taken, the lower Waimakariri will become a dead river, unable to support fish life and will be unsuitable for use as a recreational area.” The petition was organised by several anglers who fish the lower stretches of thfe river, and was launched in March. For the Games The complete takings for the first night of the annual revue of the Merely Players, “A Bit on the Side,” will be given to the Commonwealth Games Appeal Fund. If all seats for the opening performance are sold the fund would benefit by about $700 The five-day season of the revue will begin on September 13 at the Ngaio Marsh 3000 "paying subscribers): Private residential, $58.75; two-party, $50.53; business, $116.38. Class 4 exchanges (automatic exchanges with up to 200 paying subscribers and continuous attendance manual exchanges with 201 to 3000 subscribers): Private residential, $54,05; two-party, $47; business, $11025. Class 5 exchanges (restricted attendance manual exchanges): Private restPersonal item Mr J. E. McClean, of Invercargill, has been appointed to the board of directors of the Reserve Bank, the Minister of Finance (Mr Muldoon) announced yesterdav. Mr McClean replaces Mr P. O. Smellie, who retired from the board recent!v-JP A

SUN, MOON ANO TIMS Sun—Today: Rises, 6.43 a.m.; sets, 6.10 p.m. Tomorrow: Rises, 6.41 a.m.; sets, 6.11 p.m. High water at Lyttelton— ' Today, 7.37 a.m. and 8.6 p.m. Tomorrow: 8.37 a.m. and 3J P.m.