Reporter’s Diary

Press, 21 July 1976, Page 2

Reporter’s Diary

Huntsman’s wake BEN RUTHERFORD, the North Canterbury runholder who died earlier this month, was given a huntsman’s send-off at a wake which followed the funeral on July 7. The wake was held at his Waikari property, “Jedburgh.” His widow, Mrs Monica Rutherford. sounded “Gone away” on the hunting horn, and his polo-playing nephew, Rod Rutherford, recited “The Ballad of 8.G.R.”, which begins: “Once upon a tennis court there lived a pack of hounds. Who used to watch the goingson across Macdonald Downs ...” Mr Rutherford Was a keen huntsman, and the ballad about him comes from “Harking Back,” a history of hunting in New Zealand by Theo Herbert and Duncan Holt. He owned a pack of hounds at Macdonald Downs near Hawarden, and was Master of the Brackenfield Hunt from 1946 to 1952. Watch this! ANOTHER reader shares our doubts about one-way viewing of television, “Don’t dare publish my name,” she warns, “but the other evening, whilst indulging in my usual habit of undressing in front of the fire, I was just wriggling out of a very tight girdle when a voice from ‘the box’ said: ‘You are witnessing an amazing revelation!’ Now I turn it off—just in case.” Thank you, Joan, Weighty tome XAVIER HERBERT’S latest book —all 1468 pages of it—has landed with a resounding thump on the literary editor’s desk. The grand old man of Australian literature has produced a monumental work called “Poor Fellow My Country” which contains 850,000 words—more than are in the Old and New Testaments combined. It won the Miles Franklin Award last year, and the first printing of 14.000 copies sold out within a month in spite of its daunting size. This is the second reprinting of the novel, which is set in Northern Australia. Only 25 copies of the first edition reached Christchurch last year. It is described on the dust jacket as the novelist’s “full and final statement.” Fire hero NOW THAT he has been chosen to lead the country’s secret agents, Mr Paul Molineaux, S.M., will

no doubt find himself involved with deeds of derring-do, in the best secret service fashion. He was once commended by the police for something of the sort himself. It had none of James Bond’s flamboyancy, but it was bravery above and beyond the call of duty. Mr Molineaux was identified as the man who climbed a carpenter’s ladder to reach the veranda at the height of Ballantyne’s disastrous fire in 1947. He was seen standing on the veranda with his arms outstretched, encouraging girls to jump from the second-floor windows. Three did jump, and two of them survived after Mr Molineaux and another civilian who followed him up there carried them to the edge of the veranda and lowered them to helpers in the street. Holbrook, N.S.W. COMMANDER Norman Holbrook, the First World War V.C. winner whose death was recorded here recently, has his name commemorated in Australia in the town of Holbrook, New South Wales. It used to be called Ten Mile Creek, and later Germanton in honour of an early German settler. But anything German was suspect during the First World War, so the residents substituted the name of the naval hero who took his submarine under a minefield to sink a Turkish battleship. The centre of Holbrook is graced today by a metal submarine in tribute to its town’s namesake. One-upmanship A CHRISTCHURCH man has declined to be labelled as a “man of achievement’ or an “intellectual.” The publisher of the titles “Men of Achievement” and the “International Who’s Who of Intellectuals” has invited him to submit a biography for inclusion in each of these publications — $3O down and the balance ($45) on delivery. The reluctant biographee feels that his achievements, intellectual or otherwise, are not worth $75 to advertise. Three busts DEBUNKING of the late Sir Winston Churchill in recent times has not discouraged the bust-makers. John Armstrong, a former student of Henry Moore, has just produced a bust of Winnie which can be purchased in three ver-

sions. The bronze model, produced in a limited edition of 750, is lOin high and comes in a black walnut case which serves as a permanent plinth. The model costs £770 and is signed and numbered. Another edition of 1000 is fashioned in soft-paste porcelain by Melwood of Staffordshire and costs £3BO. Discreetly unpriced is a third version in solid hallmarked sterling silver, weighing approximately 160 troy ounces. Liquidity ASSOCIATED Group Holdings, Ltd, must have one of the better boardroom booze cabinets in the country. The Auck-land-based finance company, which owns 50 per cent of Cooks (N.Z.) Wine, Ltd. ended its March 31 year in what the chairman (Mr R. H. Duncan) describes in his annual review as “a comfortable liquid position.” — Garry Arthur