Reporter ‘knew her voice’

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33958, 26 September 1975, Page 2

Reporter ‘knew her voice’

Telephoned from Christchurch last evening. Mr Carpinter said that when he had telephoned the hotel, he had heen put. through to Mrs TirikateneSullivan’s room. A woman had answered. He had said: “Mrs Tirikatene - Sullivan?” She had replied: “Yes.” Mr Carpinter said he had given his name, and said (that he was with the “Evening Star". Without any i prompting, Mrs Tirakatene'Sullivan had immediatelybegun to give him a statement about the Town Hall booking. She appeared to have been expecting the call, Mr Car- | pinter said. 1 He had been certain that

the person to whom hell spoke was in fact the Minis-1( iter. This had been because I i of her distinctive voice (hie 1 had never met her, but had i heard her speak on radio' and television): because of: I I her references to her father, I 1 the late Sir Eruera Tiraka- I itene; the fact that the Maori {s elders had registered their {distress to her; her general:l air of authority, and the in- 1 I clination towards repetition which was one of her char- i acteristics. < "This would have been I { very difficult for someone i else to impersonate," he ‘ said. Mr Carpinter also said I that he had spoken to Mrsii Tirakatene-Sullivan on the;! telephone last Saturday, and;: she had sounded the same asii the woman he had spoken to ‘ when he had conducted the telephone interview. There had been no sugges- < ition by any member of thei

Minister's staff, or by any other person, that they had taken the telephone’ call from him, and given the interview. He felt there were reasons for the Minister to deny having given the interview, because he thought she had said “some stupid things." “Her statement to radio later in the day was less extreme and was’ qualified.” Asked whether Mrs Tir a k a t e n e-Sullivan had sounded upset during the telephone interview, Mr Carpinter said she sounded “animated.” He had refused to give a television interview on the issue on Wednesday because he had been exhausted after a 16-hour day on Tuesday, and because he had been “somewhat upset?’ “You just don’t go on national television in that condition." It had also seemed that

■there was nothing new he ii could say. The television re1 1 porters had told him that : they knew of a woman who had’ said she had been with s the Minister ' most? of the / time in question, and that , : the Ministef had received no j calls. '■■ ■ But there was no{ question >:of anyone’s claiming there -j had been rio calls at all, Mr Carpinter said. The operator - at the hotel had. said that iithere were some-calls, and son Tuesday evening Mrs Ti--1 rakatene-Sullivan had told\ lithe editor of the. "Evening Star” that there had been i,other calls. • i ? Mr Carpinter Jvas born in e Christchurch, and was edutreated at St Bede’s College, where he was dux.-He then n attended the University of Canterbury and graduated ' B.A. before taking the postgraduate journalism diploma, t course.