Reporter’s Diary

Press, 19 July 1976, Page 2

Reporter’s Diary

Splashdown NEW ZEALAND parachutists had to take a ducking on Friday when they were ordered to jump into Suva Harbour from an R.N.Z.A.F. Cl3O transport aircraft to entertain more than 2000 Fijians lining the seawall. The 10 who jumped are on jungle exercise in Fiji with the Royal New Zealand Air Force parachute training school. The drop coincided with the changing of the guard at Government House in Suva, during which the Royal Fiji Military Forces band marched through the city. The parachutists were plucked from the harbour by members of the Fijian Navy in inflatable rafts. Trade secrets RISKING the wrath of the Department of Education, the newsletter of the New Zealand Educational Institute has divulged the contents of a departmental circular marked “CONFIDENTIAL.” Circular 1976/5 (in reply please quote 7/22/1) contains very hush-hush information on “alternative methods of construction of school swimming pools." Kept her word MISS EVA PHELPS, the little Australian battler from Marion, an Adelaide suburb, has finally sold her beloved family home. Miss Phelps, aged 91, made headlines across Australia and overseas nine years ago when she refused to be budged by big business and her house became an incongruous island in the huge Marion shopping centre car-park. At that time, she rejected a

$12,000 offer from the developers and told them, “I wouldn’t sell my home for twice the price.” She was as good as her word. This week it was sold at auction. Miss Phelps collected a cool $107,000. “Money means nothing to me now — I have gone past that," she said at the nursing home where she has lived since December. “All I want is a bed, a good meal, and a kind word.” The shopping centre bought the property. Bike rally THOUSANDS of bicycles may converge on Cathedral Square one Friday evening next month to dramatise a request for better facilities and cycle tracks in Christchurch. The rally is the idea of the Bicycle Planning Committee, formed last September to look into cycle facilities and cycle safety. It plans to form a Bicycle Action group to prove that there are plenty of cyclists in the city who need and would use such facilities; and the mass gathering of cyclists would be its first main activity. Was he bombed? 808 KING was convinced that the unattended bag in his Bedfordshire pub was •an I.R.A. bomb, and so he picked it up, carried it across the car-park, and hurled it over a 7ft fence. It was not until he got back to his job at the bar that Mr King discovered the bag contained only dirty bocts belonging to an amateur footballer, Peter Houghton. Mr Houghton was subsequently cleared in the Bedford Crown Court of assault and causing damage to Mr King’s glasses.

Harking back FEW THINGS make people more dissatisfied with their lot than learning how far the money used to go in the good old days. Mrs J. W. C. McKenzie, of Brookside, has come across a 1921 newspaper clipping, yellow with age, advertising “Christmas Lines” at a Balclutha store. Converted to decimal currency, it offered preserved fruit at 15c a cun, Hawaiian pineapple at 20c a large can, sultanas and raisins at 13c a pound, dates at 4c a pound, large tins of baking powder for 21c, cordials for 32c a large bottle, and jellies at 40c a dozen. There was even a 5 per cent discount for cashMarket fluid

THOSE who think their legs are being pulled by the businessmen who say they can sell Manapouri water to the Middle East will be reassured to know that Norway is already doing it, Bergensmeieriet, a large dairy company, his reported a boom in overseas sales of fresh, pure spring water this summer. Demand has topped 75,000 litres in some weeks. The company sells about 500,000 litres of bottled water a year. The main markets are in West Africa, the Middle East — and in Denmark. Britain’s drought has made those parched islands a sales target, too. Litter study

SECONDARY - school pupils who belong to Ecology Action’s schools’ division plan another onslaught on the litter which disfigures the verges of the Main South Road. On July 31, they will clean up that section of road for the fourth time. Last year, they examined the litter they collected, and they plan to make a similar

survey this time. The results will be the basis of a written report on the causes of litter — and their proposed solutions to the problem. Watching? CAN THEY really see us after all? As we 101 l at our ease in front of the set — unshaven, scratching where we itch, chewing with our mouths open, clothing perhaps in disarray — are those beautifully groomed, impeccably behaved television announcers watching all the time? It never seemed likely, until lately, when several of them took to saying, “I’ll see you tomorrow”, (or whenever they are due to appear next). One of them even said the other night, "And that’s a promise”. Makes you uneasy. — Garry Arthur