Reporter’s Diary

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34138, 27 April 1976, Page 3

Reporter’s Diary

inother? DR R. M. KIRK, son of the late Prime Minister, Mr Norman Kirk, is following his father’s example by beginning his public life in Kaiapoi. Norman Kirk was once Mayor of Kaiapoi; his son. who is a senior lecturer in the geography department at the University of Canterbury, has just been appointed the' university’s representative on the Kaiapoi High School board of governors. Does Dr Kirk have any political ambitions? “Not at this stage,” he said yesterday. "Fm pretty busy.” But he did not rule it out altogether. He is a member of the Spreydon branch of the Labour Party and admits that he has “entertained notions” about becoming involved in politics. His present commitments will keep him busy for the next two years. Subtle WHAT is the Reserve Bank up to? It appears to be trying to put psychological pressure on those it watches over. The secretary of one Christchurch club has received a letter from the Reserve Bank in Wellington containing nothing but an empty pre-paid return envelope addressed to the hank’s chief accountant. He is completely flum-

moxed. and has been racking his brains to think of anything he should have told the Reserve Bank but hasn’t. Perhaps that is the idea. } air exchange THINGS must be bad around at Radio New Zealand. The latest economy measure — after the recent cut-back in corporation funds —is for reporters to be required to bring back their throw-away bail-point pens before being issued with new ones, just to prove that they have used up all the ink. Shades of the Great Depression. “Hostess” with mostest YOUNG Farmers’ Clubs, which used to be for young men only, have had some problems of adjustment in the last three years since they amalgamated with the Country- Girls’ Clubs. An example was given by Mr Evan Baigent, chairman of the Canterbury region of the Y.F.C. Federation, at the annual meeting in Ashburton. He said a male member of the organisation had reached the national finals of the annual cooking and hostessing contest. They had to change the “hostessing” to “hosting.” But women won the day. The winner was Helen Forrester, of the Avon City Y.F.C.. Christchurch.

Bilingual labels THE WINE label pictured above will no longer be acceptable on a bottle exported to Canada. The Canadian Government has decreed that all imports must be labelled in French as well as English, so we asked the office linguist to translate a New Zealand wine label into French. His rendering: “Vin mousseux du Rhin de la Nouvelle Zelande. Cuvee specialement preparee a la maniere des vins blancs les meilleurs du monde, produits entierement des grappes de premiere qualite. Crude notre clos de Huapai. Servir frais.” (Our apologies to the linguist and to the French language: our English-lan-guage printing machines cannot handle French ac-

cents.) With any luck the Canadian wine-bibbers won’t know that there is not a river called the Rhine in New Zealand, or that there are no castles in New Zealand. Foiled TWO PAGES of new “regional organisation guidelines” issued by the Christchurch branch of the Values Party take scrupulous care to avoid sexist titles. Instead of having a chairman, the executive is to get a co-ordinator and a deputy co-ordinator, and one of the executive is to be a “spokesperson” on regional matters. But there’s no catch-all substitute yet for pronouns. The rules say that the monthly forum of all members shall be chaired by the co-ordinator “or his/her deputy.”