Reporter’s Diary

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33987, 30 October 1975, Page 3

Reporter’s Diary

Ross party RESIDENTS of the little West Coast township of Ross are still getting over their school centennial celebrations held at Labour Day week-end. The event was celebrated in true West Coast fashion — with whitebait patties, rivers of beer, and torrential rain. It was so wet that the marquee in which the centennial banquet was held was flooded, and the boards put down to keep people dry started to float about. Some of the waitresses were sloshing about in bare feet in several inches of water. But the weather was considered as much a part of the proceedings on the West Coast as the traditional ball, roll-call, and group photographs. It was the biggest event for Ross — population less than 500 — since its heyday in the gold rush of the 1860 s, when the town had up to 4000 inhabitants. Not him, her A FLAW on the type on page 20 made it appear yesterday that it was Mr B. Grace and not Mrs Grace who was “terrified” when their yacht went aground on a reef at Ripapa Island. They were rescued by sea cadets. It was not her husband who was afraid, Mrs Grace hastened to say yesterday. "You know what men are like,” she said. “My husband is never afraid of anything, unfortunately. I’ve been dragged in to countless things — potholing, mountain climbing, and now yachting.” Timing IT MUST have been a bit discouraging. Mr Paul Mathison, the National Party candidate for the Labour stronghold of Sydenham, was called away to the telephone during his election meeting at the Tennyson Street R.S.A. hall. He left Mr Bert

Walker, M.P. for Papanui to hold the floor, only to find that the caller was the Sydenham branch of the Labour Party on the telephone wishing to book the hall “for John Kirk’s victory celebration” on election night. Bring your oivn THE CHRISTCHURCH City Council plans to toast its Japanese hosts in expensive Scotch whisky when its official delegation arrives in Kurashiki, Christchurch’s sister city, for “Christchurch Week” next month. But the Mayor (Mr Hamish Hay), and other members of the official party, have all been asked to “bring their own grog” in true New Zealand fashion. The City Council has sent a letter to all members of the Christchurch party telling them that while whisky is very acceptable to the Japanese, it costs about $25 a bottle in Japan. To help save the ratepayers’ money, the travellers are asked to use their dutyfree allowance in Hong Kong to buy three bottles of whisky each for use at the “hospitality evening” being put on for the Japanese when they arrive. Post-haste NOT ONLY is postage reasonably cheap in New Zealand compared with other countries, it is also extremely' efficient, in the view of at least one English immigrant. She has learned from a friend in Essex, England, that her letter posted in Christchurch at 6 p.m. on Sunday, October 5. arrived at its destination by the first post only two days later, on Tuesday, October 7. Go game AN ANCIENT Oriental board game called go has gone so far in Auckland that enthusiasts have been able to organise the country’s first big national

tournament for the weekend of November 15 and 16. Exponents claim that go is at least as good a game as chess, and that it is played by about 10 million amateurs all round the world. The essence of the game is a contest for territory between two players. There are preliminary confrontations, and threatening gestures, I which may ultimately develop into an open battle to the death. The game is one of continuous I struggle, ending when the territories of each player I are completely enclosed so that there can be no further invasion by the other side. The player with the largest territory is the ] winner. Bounders

ABOUT 40 gradual es of the Cobham Outward Bound School at Anakiwa will take part in a sponsored run in one-mile stages from Christchurch to Timaru on Saturday to raise funds to re-equip the Cobham school. The group, which includes 13 from South Canterbury (the remainder are from Christchurch), plans to complete the distance in about 12 hours. The runners will leave the Christchurch City Council offices at 7 a.m. and will carry a baton containing a message from the Mayor of Christchurch to the Mayor of Timaru (Mr C. R. Hervey). With them will be the warden of the school (Mr J. Mitchell) who has been flown to Christchurch by N.A.C. to take part in the run. Some members of the Canterbury Outward Bound Trust, including Mr L. J. Beatty, a member of the Christchurch Harrier Club, are also expected to take part. A British long-dis-tance athlete, Gavin Woodward, covered 100 miles in a single stage run in 11 hours 30 min when he set a world record for the distance at Tipton in England this week. Saturday’s run is part of a national fund-raising project in which North Island graduates of the school recently ran in similar stages from Auckland to Wellington.