Reporter’s Diary

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34047, 10 January 1976, Page 3

Reporter’s Diary

Hollies in rlink “PERHAPS the police could store' the New Year's Eve haul of beer with all the beer confiscated al Lancaster Park over the years. '* writes Mr R. P. Hughes to “The Press." He might be relieved to know that the police do not have a storage problem for ageing beer. Most of the beer confiscated at New Year was later claimed -by its owners. Only a few bottles were left in the hands of the police. The same generally happens with beer confiscated at Lancaster Park or other functions. What remains sometimes goes into the police auction of unclaimed property, and sometimes it is given to the Christchurch Hospital — for the patients, of course. /.,/p in I later JUST to hand from her Majesty’s Stationery Office, Belfast, is the “Ulster Year Book, 1975" which puts a brave front to show that, in general, life and business continue normally there. The police forces, for example, rate less than two pages in a book of 300 pages. Among the vital statistics, the most frequent causes of death are given as heart disease, cancer, and cerebral haemorrhage., with an alarming increase noticed in the incidence of lung cancer — but no mention

of terrorism. Karate and judo are listed among the sports where interest is increasing and. a remarkable growth is noted in the new sport of “orienteering”—that is. finding one’s way about in a strange country with the help of a map and compass. ■ \erer ntniin' SENATOR Howard Henry Baker, jun., one of the four United States Senators who will visit Christchurch next week, is, like his colleagues, a lawyer. He is a Republican from Tennessee who was catapulted to national fame in the summer of 1973 as the ranking Republican on the Senate Committee on

Presidential Campaign Activities — the long name for the committee which investigated the Watergate scandal. In 1966. Senator Baker became the first popularly elected Republican Senator in the history of Tennessee. Richard Nixon stumped the stage on his behalf, but when the Watergate scandal broke. Senator Baker’s long friendship with the President did not prevent him from taking a non-partisan course in the committee’s investigation. He patiently and persistently questioned each witness, not to establish moral culpability. but to try "To find out what causes a man to do this, so that we can write legislation to keep it

from happening again.'’ Americans who followed the hearings were impressed by Senator Baker's sincerity, integrity, and impartiality. / liming nit tt in nia SYDNEY'S rock oysters are being attacked by mudworms — and research to establish how to beat the worms is turning up curious information. Mudworms not only live in mud; they eat it, and they leave, their refuse in their backyard. Once they are inside an oyster, that does no good at all. The oysters respond by building thin caves of shell over the intruding worms in an effort to seal them off. If the worms are trapped, and get too hungry, they eat one another. As many as 15 can live in a shell blister in one oyster. and laboratory research has shown that females can go on producing young’ without a male in sight. As long as they have mated once, it seems, they can store sperm until needed. Perhaps someone will make a film about a giant female mudworm that goes slurping about, chomping up oysters and spawning little monsters all over Bondi Beach . . . Elderly shark STILL ON THAT subject: a school shark tagged and released 25 years ago in Bass Strait north of Tasmania has been caught off South Australia. The shark was tagged originally in 1950, when it. was estimated to be 18 years old. That makes it more than 40 years old now, one of the oldest on record. Some

consolation: in 25 years, the shark had grown only 11cm to reach a length of 167 cm or 51ft. liigger biters A DRAMATIC communication from North Canterbury: a sheet, torn from a notebook with three jumbo-size mosquitoes stuck to it by transparent tape. The cryptic message says: “Seeing is believing, ox- anything you can do ( can do better. New Zealand mosquitoes at Waikuku Beach are bigger and hungrier than those at Rabaul or Tonga." Valuable information, but the writer does not indicate whether all his specimens are from Waikuku, or has he kindly provided Rabaul and Tongan captures for comparison? City by night THE LIGHTS of Christchurch ought to be sufficiently attractive to make the new “Twilight Tour” offered by the Christchurch . Transport Board into a popular attraction, Many years ago, the board tried a similar tour, but it was not a great success. Many more visitors are coming to Christchurch now and patronage of the board’s afternoon “Hills and Harbour" tour has doubled in the last two years, to reach almost 10,000 people a year. Christchurch residents are often not as well informed as they might be about the bus tours available in the city. In their own interests, Christchurch ratepayers ought to be encouraging as many visitors as possible to "use the buses.