Reporter’s Diary

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33981, 23 October 1975, Page 3

Reporter’s Diary

Maidens ‘saved’ “TAP! TAP! TAP!’’ went a fireman’s finger yesterday on the outside of the reporters’ room window, three floors above the street. The well-drilled staff crowded around and threw up the window to let him in. But what he wanted was someone to leap out. “The Press” was not on fire, it was just the fire, brigade’s way of trying out its newest equipment — a .$72,000 “snorkel” rescue device. The big hydraulic arm can raise rescuers and firefighters 55ft, which means to the fifth or sixth floors of city buildings. Station Officer L. N. Price said it was not in commission yet. The brigade was still training a nucleus of men from each shift to use the snorkel. JI nil some MARIST has a fourth grade Rugby team made up of ancient players over the age of 30. They come from all walks of life, including most of the professions, and include some formerly well-known senior players. At the end of the season the team had its full official portrait taken, with everybody appropriately kitted out. Underneath is printed the names of the players and the season's statistics: “Played 15. Won some, lost some, drew one.” Local author “RETREAT from Apartheid.” a review of New Zealand's sports contacts with South Africa from the 1920 s to the present day. is being launched today. The book’s author is Richard Thompson, reader in sociology at the University of Canterbury, and a long-time opponent of sports contact with South Africa. It is being published by the Oxford University Press, Wellington. This is his

fourth book, and his third on racial questions. Mr Thompson is the author of “Race Relations in New Zealand” and “Race and , Sport.” Condemned ACCORDING to the Registrar (Mr P. D. Clancy) the front portion of the old Supreme Court building has been condemned by the Ministry of Works because it is unsafe. But Compensation Court, cases and domestic cases from the Magistrate's Court are still being heard in the old No. 2 Supreme Court room upstairs. On the buses THREE or four years from now, Christchurch's buses should all be red again. London buses introduced the practice of giving an entire bus over to one advertiser four years ago. i This year the Christchurch ' Transport Board followed ■ suit, but now London Transport has decided that enough is enough. There I will be no more once present contracts run out. and the entire fleet of double- : deckers will revert to its I familiar red. Apparently the novelty, if not the paint, I has worn off. If ChristI church follows the same ; time-scale, users of public transport will have to put : up with the confusion generated by heavily disguised buses for another three years at least. J principle ; BELIEF in the worth of > the child at all levels “is ' ; basic to the principal of > social justice,” says a big i advertisement by the primary schoolteachers, pressf ing their claim for the • same pay as secondary t teachers. That line was 5 added by hand — presum- » ably a teacher’s hand — , to the copy for their ads vertisement, and it will

have hardened the resolve of many parents that teachers should not get any more money at all until they learn to spell. Some would say they should not even be allowed to pass on their faulty spelling principles.

\icophilia THE BROOKES collection of nicophilia (things associated with the tobacco industry) has been bought by Rothmans for permanent display in New Zealand. The firm says the 70,000 items are a record of all trends in cigarette marketing and packaging in the last 125 years. Mr Colin Brookes has been visiting New Zealand, and sold his collection to Rothmans before setting out on a round-the-world yachting trip. He said he had had offers from all over the world, but felt that his collection would have a good home in New Zealand. Highlights of the collection are a box of Simmons cigarettes manufactured in 1848, a pipe, pencil case, and tobacco box sent to British soldiers in World War I as a Christmas gift from Queen Mary, books, pamphlets, and posters on the subject, and 1 cigarettes produced in the Saar Republic. which no longer exists. A fter funds PEOPLE of the Leeston-Southbridge-Ellesmere district are making a big effort this week to raise enough money to buy an ambulance. The local Jaycees have organised a continuous fund - raising effort that began with the Ellesmere Show and will end with the Southbridge Labour Day sports. One of the events today is a display by the combined garden clubs of Southbridge, Leeston, Dunsandel, and Springston in the Leeston School assembly hall. At the last count the various projects had raised $5OO.