Reporter’s Diary

Press, Issue 33842, 14 May 1975, Page 3

Reporter’s Diary

Heart-breaking I ATTITUDES of commercial I fishermen and mill workers j at Rhode Island, in the j United States, have been I compared in a social surI vey by the University of ‘ Rhode Island,' They were I asked what they considered the worst thing that could happen to them. The ■ most frequent response ' from both groups was the individual’s own death or serious illness. The second most common reply was I “loss of boat" among j fishermen, and “loss of ■ wife” among mill workers. I Fishermen put loss of wife third. ! Ao complaints ! A MILEAGE millionaire I twice over, Mr Claude I (“Bluey”) Manser, a ! Brisbane-based Cobb and - Co. bus driver, has thous- ! ands of New Zealand ;. friends but has not yet : been to New Zealand. He i was coach captain .to a group of New Zealand journalists who visited Queensland last week on Air New Zealand’s inaugural Christchurch-Brisbane service. “I’ve driven thousands of them, and neVer struck a bad New ZeaI lander,” he said. “I can’t I- say the same for Ameri- | can, British, dozens of I other nationalities, or even Aussies.” Since 1948 “Bluey” Manser has driven scheduled bus trip interstate tours across Ihe outback and deserts, and round-Australia tours taking 54 days. His travelling companions of last week were glad when he told them they had left New Zealanders’ reputation un- , tarnished. “You must have,” one of Cobb’s execuI lives said. “If ‘Bluey’ I hadn’t meant it, he’d have ‘ said nothing.”

Aid for deaf A TRAINING programme for pre-school deaf children in Suva cannot begin until Volunteer Service Abroad finds a New Zealand occupational therapist to help run it. The therapist is needed to help develop the children’s mental and physical abilities by teach-

ing them simple exercises. These abilities are extremely limited in the children, who, because they are deaf, have not received any sort of instruction. The 21 children who need the occupational therapist are all totally deaf, possibly as the result of an outbreak of rubella measles in Suva in 1972. In committee? FLAGGING interest should be no problem at the New Zealand Institute

of Architects conference which will begin in the Town Hall tomorrow. A long programme of events for the four-day conference has been drawn up and sent to those who will attend. At the end of the programme is a cryptic item: “Please note. In the unlikely event of delegates getting bored, discreet diversions can be had by private arrangement.” The reference to the unspecified diversions, ‘The Press” has been assured, was intended more for amusement than action. Sticky problem SOUTH VIETNAMESE refugees in camps in the United States have posed an unusual logistics problem for the U.S. Army: there are not enough chopsticks to go around. A Chicago supplier. Mr R. Sandler. had a million sets in stock so 45,000 sets have been bought and will be air-freighted to Fort Chafee

in Arkansas for distribution. Passion SALLY, a 15-year-old polar bear at the London zoo, died after a love tussle with her mate got out of hand. Polar bears usually scrap a bit when they come together and Sally and Sam began to fight soon after they were put together for mating at the week-end. Keepers had to use tranquiliser darts to knock out Sam during the height of the scuffle so that they could enter the cage and separate the bears. Sally died soon after from serious head wounds.

Campaign bits RANGIORA’S National Party candidate for the General Election, Mr D. F. Quigley, is probably New Zealand’s first political candidate to use a doubledecker bus for his campaign headquarters. The largely rural nature of the

electorate and the number of different telephone exchanges scattered through it decided Mr Quigley on the use of the bus. It is a 1952 Bristol, and he is hiring it fro. . the North Canterbury motor dealers who bought the bus from an American. It was already, fitted out with sleeping accommodation for six. a refrigerator, washing machine, and stove. It has its own power plant and hot and cold water. In built-up areas, the bus will serve also as an office for the campaign, and Mr Quigley intends that on his “whistle-stop” excursions into the rural areas he and his family will live in it.