Reporter's Diary

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33963, 2 October 1975, Page 3

Reporter's Diary

Bookies winning BOOKMAKERS in Christchurch are getting so . much custom these days that they are turning business away. Apparently many punters are so disgruntled at the frequency of breakdowns in the new computerised betting sys- • tem in TA.B. agencies that they are turning to the illegal bookies to place their bets. The Geraldine meeting two weeks ago was a case in point. Punters at the Riccarton and Addington T.A.B. branches, and presumably at others, were unable to get their money on the first race, much to the annoyance of some of them. As an alternative one man telephoned a bookmaker, only to be told that he was not the qplw caller by any means, and as so many of them were keen on a particular horse he declined to take further bets. \essie • THE FABLED Loch Ness • monster not only exists, but several are swimming in the loch’s gloomy depths, according to a leading British naturalist, Sir Peter Scott. He believes that if there is one monster in the waters of the Scottish loch, which is not connected to the sea, then for zoological reasons it must have several companions. His belief in the existence of the often-re-ported but never-confirmed monster stems from c underwater photographs first taken by a group of English and American scientists in 1972. The team, w’orking for the Boston Academy of Applied Science, used echo sounders to trip cameras when large objects approached. These sonar photographs, processed by computer at the Houston space centre, showed what appeared to be a flipper. The team's latest pictures, taken this summer, are still being developed. But Sir Peter hopes they will show the complete form • of one monster. He has

done two paintings of the monsters, based on photographs. Splice planned FOURTH OFFICER Philip Bayliss plans to tie the knot with Miss Bridgil Stenson, of Hastings, on board his ship, the Westmoreland, at Lyttelton on Saturday. The ceremony will be performed in the ship’s library by the Lyttelton padre, the Rev. David Boyd, at 6 p.m. The bride, who met Mr Bayliss at Napier, will be given away by the ship’s master, Captain Philip Price. The best man will be the radio officer. Mr John Thompson, and the lady-in-wait-mg will be Mrs Vivien Milnes, wife of the third officer. Blood record CANTERBURY people gave 1779. pints — more than 222 gallons — of blood to the Canterbury Regional Blood Transfusion Service in September. That was the largest quantity of blood collected since the service began in 1937. The previous record was set in July, when donors gave 1600 pints. The average monthly collection is 1250 pints. Mr R. H. Palmer, the secretary of the service, said last month’s collections included 1119 pints from Christchurch and 660 from the mobile unit, which had a good response at Ashburton, Rangiora, and Harewood. He put the recent success down to the appointments system. Cards are sent out every 20 weeks, with up to two reminders to those who do not respond. There are 10,500 on the books. Still 17 FAR FROM being the last airline in the world to use Viscount aircraft on regular services, as was suggested on the front page of “The Press” on Monday, N.A.C. was one of 18 airlines still using Viscounts on scheduled flights. Among them, as a Timaru reader has pointed

out, are British Airways, Air Rhodesia, Burma Airways, Cyprus Airways, Gibraltar Airways, and five South American airlines. He bristled DAVID WHISKER, well known in the early days of broadcasting as a flautist with the Whisker Quartet, is back in Christchurch this week as a Hastings travel agent attending the New Zealand travel agents’ convention. Those who knew him then might have a job spotting him though, because he has changed his name to Whiskard after 66 years of being teased about it. For 24 years he practised in Melbourne as an osteopath (he says he is also a physiotherapist, a chiropractor, and a chartered accountant), and he used to cringe every time the headlines proclaimed that a horse had won “by a whisker.” He waited all this time to change his name because he did not want to upset his mother. She died last year. Mr Whiskard was in Christchurch during the war, and had the job of military inspector in Millers’ war-clothing department. He says he used to play the flute at the Savage Club, and went to Sydney on a scholarship to the Sydney Conservatorium. Impostor IT HAS TAKEN a Nelson man 49 years to discover that his father probably celebrated to excess on the occasion of his birth. He has always been known as Barry Anthony Neil. His parents called him Barry, and he has filled out innumerable forms in the course of his life listing his first names in that order. But now that he is contemplating a trip overseas he has to get a passport, and the full birth certificate that he obtained for that purpose shows his names in the order, Neil Barry Anthony. Either his father got it wrong, or was asserting his independence, but the Registrar of Births, Deaths, and Marriages assured him that it was correct — he .was really a Neil, not a Barry at all.