Reporter’s Diary

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34131, 19 April 1976, Page 2

Reporter’s Diary

Sit tight THIS is traditionally a busy time of year for the Christchurch Drainage Board. On top of that, one of its filters is being overhauled at the Bromley sewage treatment wc.ks, and the bc_«J has to take care that the system does not become overloaded while tl-at is being done. One me..iber suggested at a meeting of the construction and treatment works committee this week that the citizens of Christchurch be required to reduce their output 7 per cent, in much the same way as consumers have been asked to cut back on their use • ‘ elec' ’ :ity. Patience taxed OFFICIAL *■ at the Robert taxation office have spent a day waiting in vain for a farmer who promised to present them with a cow as a down payment on his income tax debt. The farmer walked into the offic* this week, told an

official he had no money to pa-r his in. 'me tax, and produced six live fowls as a deposit, promising to return next day with a cow. Taxation officials say they waited all day for the farmer but he failed to turn up. Grounded FOUR hundred tons of agricultural lime have been stockpiled at Wigram for spreading over the Royal New Zealand Air Force’s srassed aircraft manoeuvring . ea. But in spite of the business its in, the Air Force is not planning to spread the lime from the air. It will be done by truck, in just the same way that the superphosphate was spread there list year. Trampled

PANIC broke out during churcl services conducted by a faith healer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, this week and 19 persons were trampled and crushed to

death in a stampede to-w”-ds the door. The police said 14 persons died in the 9ft wide front d< of the Pentecostal Love and God Church and another five died later in two nearby hospitals. A witness said David Miranda, a well-known Brazilian faith healer, was speaking at the inaugural service for th- newly constructed church when the panic broke out. A woman in the church said that another woman worshipper apparently fell into a trance during Mr Miranda’s sermon and started moving about. Other worshippers stepped back to give her room and Started pushing their neighbo. s. Panic broke out quickly in the tense atmosphere, the police said. Woof, cheep THE OWNER of two pups born in Perth, Australia, says they have been adopted by a hen. Mrs A. Kenney, of the suburb of Jolimont, said the two Kelpie-Chow cross bred pups were born last Saturday. Since then they have been nestling under the

hen ■ — with a new-born chick. Mrs Kenney said the mother of the pups could not feed them and had killed an earlier litter. She said the hen did not seem to mind, though she was sure it was very confusing for the pups and the chicken. Ton of pot ROTTERDAM policemen have seized more than a ton of marijuana in one of the biggest hauls made in the port, and one of four Turks they arrested told them there was a “Cyprus connection.” A tip-off led the police to a delivery van on March 30, and 600 kg (13231 b of the drug was found inside. The police believe the marijuana came from a Turkish ship which arrived in Rotterdam the previous day from Famagusta, in Turkish-occu-pied Cyprus. One of the men seized in the van was a member of the crew. Customs officers and policemen searched the ship and found another 570 kg (12571 b of marijuana, packed in white cotton bags.

Forgotten A SMALL boy was accidentally left behind at a service station at Newcastle, north of Sydney, on Thursday, while his family continued their holiday trip. The police said the boy went to the lavatory and emerged to see the family station waggon disappearing up the highway. Two hours, 60km and a head count later, the boy’s parents and their nine other children returned relieved but embarrassed to pick him up. Double tragedy SIMON SHARP, aged 24, an agricultural engineer, went to a coroner’s court in London last week to hear evidence of an incredible repitition of a family tragedy. Nine years ago he had been a passenger in his father’s car when it collided with a motor-cyclist. His father died. Last month his mother was a passenger in his car when it hit a tree and she died. Both accidents happened in the same Hampshire village and on the same road.