Reporter’s Diary

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 34031, 20 December 1975, Page 3

Reporter’s Diary

Token hoarders HOARDERS of milk tokens are causing problems for some Christchurch milk vendors. Supplies are running out, and the milk vendors are reluctant to order more from the manufacturers — for the very same reason that some housewives are stocking up. Both parties believe it is inevitable that the Government will remove, at least partly, the subsidy on milk. The housewives think they will beat the price rise by using tokens bought at 4c each, but Mr lan Murray, president of the Canterbury Milk Vendors’ Association, says they are dreaming. All vendors already have supplies of a new token in anticipation of a price rise. It is a different shape from the present one. When the price of milk goes up. householders will still be able to use the present tokens — but they will get only 4c worth of milk for them. Change of climate TWO DOZEN Alaskans have had the good sense to leave their wintry country and spend Christmas in New Zealand. They will arrive in Christchurch tomorrow to begin a camping tour in the South Island." A similar group from the Alaskan Methodist University toured the North Island last year. This group. many of whom come from the Aleutian Islands, will spend most of next week under canvas at the Addington Show Grounds. They will leave for Dunedin ’ and the Southern Lakes on Christmas Day

Pots and kettles THIS “Diary” intends making a New Year resolution not to point the finger of scorn at misprints and mistakes in other journals. Yesterday's item about one of 3ZB’s announcers, Ken Ellis, gave him the wrong first name. There have been other lapses, too. But before 1975 arrives, there is time to recall a misprint which occurred in a Saigon newspaper back in the 19605. It misquoted the British philosopher and author, Thomas Hobbes, as having observed that “life without order is nasty, British and short ...” The British Ambassador decided not to complain, on the very reasonable ground that the correction would probably read. “For ‘British,’ read ‘brutish’.” Slipped a n ay BRITAIN'S Conservative Party probably feels that it should never have let Mr Barry Leay get away. A product of the Tory training system, he emigrated to New Zealand in 1963, and as general director and secretary of the National Party presided this year over the sort of political victory which the Conservatives are hoping for next time around. Mr Leay started his political life as a Barnsley Young Conservative. His father, Mr William Leay, who also lives in New Zealand now, contested the Labour stronghold of Hemsworth, South Yorkshire, for the Conservatives in 1959.

Franz Josef A VISITOR from Christchurch looked at the Franz Josef Post Office last Sunday and found it wanting in virtually every respect. The clock had stopped, the stamp-vend-ing machine was out of order, the rubbish tin was overflowing, the garden sprouted docks a foot high, and — perhaps worst of all — the flag was flying. It looked abandoned,’ but when the traveller called again next morning it was open for business (although the rubbish tin was still overflowing). She recommends that all of Franz Josef except the hotel, the information office, and two churches be bulldozed away and rebuilt into a charming village using local stone. It seems a drastic remedy, but curiously enough, Ms Elaine Harrison, formerly of "The Press’s” library staff,, is building just such a house (pictured) at Franz Josef, using local boulders for the walls. Cautioned THE FIJI Teachers’ Union is worried about complaints that some Fiji teachers are arriving at

school with hangovers, red eyes, and shaky legs. The union president (Mr . Krishna Datt) says in this year’s “Fiji Teachers’ Journal", that a small minority of teachers need cautioning about their drinking habits. Pupils and colleagues are quick to notice signs of a hang- i over. He says teachers work under great restraint : and often suffer frustrations in their job. But they could release their tensions through sport and discuss their problems I with other teachers over coffee or tea instead of liquor. He also notes that the Education Ministry has expressed concern about the number ef teachers staying away . from school. Some teach- ' ers have personal prob- i lems which seem insurmountable, but the solu- I tion is not in staying away from work, Mr Datt says. The lake district WE THOUGHT a hard-up colleague might have changed his holiday plans after the announcement of savage petrol and liquor price increases. But no, he says, he still plans to go around the lakes this Christmas — Horseshoe Lake, Bottle Lake, Victoria Lake . . .