Reporter’s Diary

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34106, 19 March 1976, Page 3

Reporter’s Diary

Hot seat CR FRANK Chisholm made few' friends among his fellow Waimairi county councillors when he said recently that many people got themselves on to local bodies just for prestige and to "keep their seats warm.” They told him off in no uncertain terms at this week’s council meeting. Last I word in the debate went to Cr Martin Hobby, who said that considering the vast volumes of hot air I released around the counj cil table, some councillors I would warm their seats a ! lot faster if they sat on their faces. There’s no answer to that. Memo, writing THE “Squander Bag” award is the Diary's answer to the American "Golden Fleece" award for wastage of public money. I We have a candidate already — the Broadcasting Council. It is seeking applicants for a three-dayv course it is holding in Wellington next month on the subject of "memo and letter writing.” Those tak- : ing part will learn how to construct memoranda of impeccable “word usage, style, grammer, and syntax.” After that. the Broadcasting Council plans to run a course on “Land-Rover driving.” That way THIS sign was put up recently as part of the City Council's campaign to clean up Cathedral : Square. But as it is fixed to a pole, some denizens of the Square have not been able to resist the

temptation to twist it around so that it points to the very lane which the council wants to dissuade people from polluting. Yesterday a new fastening was added by council workmen to keep the sign — and its readers — on the right track. ,/t/g band IT'S amateur hour in Cathedral Square at lunch time today. An open invitation has been extended to everyone who can play anything from a tambourine to a grand piano to bring their instruments along and help swell the numbers of the jug band. This is the last day of the Arts Festival. ‘G estapo tactics’ NOT everyone thinks the Lions clubs’ “SpeakUp” campaign to delect crime is a good thing. One Porirua city councillor has likened it to the tactics of the Gestapo. Cr Helen Smith told a meeting in Wellington this week that the campaign was public spirited, but misguided. In war-time Germany, people were encouraged to inform on their fellow men in just the same way. Cr G. W. McCormick called it "a typical niddle-class reaction, organised by typical middie-class people." He urged that the $lOO the council was giving towards the cost of the campaign be spent instead on investigating the reasons for property offences, or for providing more facilities in Porirua. Godwits gone THE godwits have

taken off from the Estuary on their trip to the far north. A South Brighton resident saw a large flock take off this week, leaving behind rather more of their number than usual. Incidentally, Miss Nora Finn, who takes such a close interest«in the godwits, was aghast at being dubbed "the Godwit lady.” She says she is not an authority on the birds, but now that she is retired from nursing she can spend more time observing them. “There are many ornithologists in Christchurch whose knowledge about godwits and other waders makes me feel quite humble," she said. Her aim is to make Christchurch people aware of the pleasure to be derived from watching the Estuary, and of the respect they should have for the huge bird population so close to the city’s front (or back) door. In spite of her disclaimer. Miss Finn is so enamoured of godwits that she has even followed them to Alaska to see them on their nesting grounds. Now she wants to follow the rest of them to Siberia. 10c champagne TIMES change, and so do prices. Wilton’s, a London restaurant famous for its oysters and fish, which has received this year's "Restaurant of the Year" award, once charged the equivalent of 18c for half a dozen oysters and bread and butter. That was in 1906. Today oysters cost 50c each. Wilton’s 90-year-old manager, Mr James Marks, who began there as a boy, looked back nostalgically the other day to 1906 prices for the accompanying drinks. A glass of wine cost sc, and Champagne 10c.