Reporter’s Diary

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34133, 21 April 1976, Page 3

Reporter’s Diary

Just lousy SWIMMERS itch head louse, fleas, pinworm, whipworm, hookworm and eyeworm are just some ot the 42 parasite species which have been recorded from man in New Zealand, according to an article in the New Zealand Journal of Zoology. In spite of there being so manv. relatively few are of great medical importance. says the author, Mr J. H. R. Andrews, of Victoria University of Wellington. But he does suggest that further work is needed on Toxoplasma, a protozoan parasite with which more than 50 per cent of those under 40 are believed to have had contact. b can cause fever and inflammation of the brain. The domestic cat is the most likely source of infection in New Zealand, says Mr Andrews, adding that there is some legislation tc control cats in puhli'- places where food is handled. In view of the new Government's recent reversal, change that to “was some legislation.” 1/ore super. IT SHOULD have been a good Easter for retired former servicemen. From the eve of Good Friday they' started to reap the benefits of legislation enacted last vear to increase their superannuation an average of 54 per cent. The legislation was introduced by a local member of Parliament. Mr Roger Drayton, a former R.N.Z.A.F. squadron leader. Prison loaf PRIVATE schools in Sydney ar-- making crime pay 7, in a manner of. -peaking. Rising costs have forced schools such as Sydney Grammar to close down their boarding-houses, but two others have found novel way's to economise.

Scots College buys its bread from Long Bay Gaol at 20c a loaf, compared with 43c in the shops. Knox College saves on library costs by buying paperbacks and having them bound by Long Bay prisoners. Su perchicken ONE CHRISTCHURCH hostess impressed her guests the other day with an enormous, succulent chicken that weighed an impressive 61b. It had drumsticks like those of a young moa. The guests speculated that perhaps it had been encouraged with hormones to grow so big — a good 21b bigger than ordinary big table birds. But no, the use of hormones is banned in New Zealand, as it is in the United States, Europe, and the United Kingdom. Something to do with the unpleasant side-effects for workers handling the hormones. Poultry experts say it is quite possible to fatten chooks up to 61b and even as much as 71b, but it is uneconomic to do so because of the cost of the extra food. However, chicken farmers sometimes select a few good ones for their own tables and keep fattening them for as long as 14 weeks. The one whose wellgnawed leg bones came into cur possession must have been in that category. Overdid it THE FRENCH architect, Roger Taiiliberu said to be receiving a colossal fee for o. signing the modernistic Olympic stadium in Montreal. designed a guard wall too high and blocked the view of 10,000 sea’ed spectators. It would have to be pulled down — at a cost of $300,000 and 15 days work — and be replaced with a glass wall, said the Olympic site engineer. Mr Roger

Trudeau. But the installations director, Mr Jean Reindeau, said the extra work would not delay the opening on July 17. Slow progress MOTORISTS who use Victoria Street have long suspected that the traffic lights at the Clock Tower, controlling the intersection of Victoria Street, Montreal Street and Salisbury Street, are loaded against them. Recent examples occurred on the Thursday befo'e Easter and yesterday. City-bound traffic between 1.15 p.m. and 1.45 p.m. filled the section of Victoria Street between Beatey Avenue and the lights, leap-frogging forward on five or six light changes. Similar congestion occurs in the late afternoon for out-bound traffic. Ominous? COLD though it was yesterday, it was nowhere near the minus 13 degrees Celsius shown on the Government Life clock. That was equivalent to more than 23 degrees F below freezing, but it was just due to some quirk tn the works. Let’s hope it is not an omen of things to come this winter. Off-side A SYDNEY man and a woman were in hospital with gunshot wounds yesterday after an argument over a soccer ball. The police said the row began when a boy 7 kicked the bail over a neighbour’s garden fence. The neighbour refused to hand the ball back. When the boy's parents went next door to remonstrate, a fight ensued which ended with the husoand of one family 7 and the wife of the other being shot in the chest and knee respectively. The man was in a serious condition. A 24-vear-old man will appear in court on a malicious wounding charge. The police said further charges would be laid against others later.