Reporter's Diary

Press, 13 August 1976, Page 2

Reporter's Diary

Headache A PLANNING wrangle over a proposed subdivision at Wainui in Akaroa Harbour iu so complicated that it has given Mr W. J. M. Treadwell, chairman of the No. 2 Town and Country Planning Appeal Board, a severe headache. He started off with a migraine yesterday morning, just thinking about the case, and had to take an adjournment later when the headache started again. By mid-afternoon the room was festooned with maps and plans, and the table had disappeared under notes and reports. "Are you referring to the existing subdivision, sir?” asked a lawyer in reply to one of Mr Treadwell’s questions. The chairman paused, and scratched his nead. “Quite frankly,” he admitted, “I don’t know.” Another pause. Then, “I think we’ll take the tea adjournment now.” Patronage

MR LAURIE FRANCIS, New Zealand’s new High Commissioner to Australia, has admitted to the Australian press that his posting to Canberra is a political one. A prominent member of the National Party. Mr Francis said he

would not be surprised if he was recalled should Labour regain office. Ratted A RESIDENT of Moncks Spur has been having trouble with his milk bottles. Every morning when he trotted out to collect the milk he would find the metal-foil tops knocked off and lying on the ground. Practically no milk was spilt, so the family was not deprived, but the householder was getting very impatient with his milkman. The milkman denied responsibility, and the customer was on the point of complaining about it to the Milk Board. But he happened to look out one morning and see the real cause of the problem. A large field rat was climbing up on his milk bottles, gnawing the tops off, and drinking the creamy surface layer. It had been doing so for a couple of months, but fortunately, he says, the family has never been healthier. In good hands “GOD took my tonsils out,” said a little boy proudly to his parents after his operation in Christchurch Hospital. He could see they didn’t be-

lieve him, so he gave them the details. Two lady angels in white robes took him into the theatre anteroom and handed him over to two male angels, also in white robes, who took him to the theatre. One of the angels said to the other: “God, look at those tonsils.” Then God came along and took them out. Squatter evicted A SQUATTER moved into the wreckage of the Moore’s house in Kuaka Crescent, Bromley, after a fire there some months ago. Now that the house has been rebuilt he has nowhere to go. He’s a multicoloured Persian cat, which Mrs Gail Keats next door says is obviously of good breeding and in good condition. The Moores have moved in again, and have a cat of their own. so the squatter has been given the heave-ho. Mrs Keats and Mrs Annette Moore are feeding the Persian between them, but they would like to find its owner. Greenish glow A CITY lawyer has had to retire his new dark green suit from active duty at the bar of the Supreme Court. The first time Mr David Palmer appeared in his new suit, Mr Justice Roper drew him aside and said “This really won’t do.” (or words to

that effect) “especially with your yellow shoes.” It seems that the suit, which appeared subdued , even sombre, in the clear light of day, positively luminesced under the artificial lights of the new courtroom. Pommy pumpkins THE great British pumpkin mystery has cleared only a little since a Diary report that a London greengrocer retorted “Cattle fodder.” when asked for one. Dr Peter Perry, reader in geography at the University of Canterbury, agrees ‘ with other readers that pumpkins are not used as cattle fodder in Britain (although one dissenting voice has been heard on that question), but says that pumpkins of a sort do grow and ripen in those benighted islands. He grew them himself 20 years ago in the west of England. “I can equally well recall the larger specimens grown by most of our neighbours.” he writes, “and the monsters which emerged from well guarded back gardens for competitions." (The biggest ever was a 2041 b Boz monster grown in the Midlands in 1970). Dr Perry says that the variety of pumpkin grown in New Zealand will not mature in the usually shorter British summer. The kind grown there is generally

orange or yellow, more perfectly spherical, and very large. But Dr Perry said it made insipid eating. More pumkins

WHILE the British may not (or may, as the case may be) feed pumpkins to their cattle, some New Zealand farmers do — or did. Professor R. H. M. Langer, professor of plant science at Lincoln College, has volunteered the information that pumpkins used to be grown as stock feed in the East Coast area of the North Island. “They were rationed out by slashing the hard skin open to provide for the daily requirements of the stock,” he writes. “I believe that the custom still continues on a very small scale.” But Professor Langer urges us not to place any reliance on a claim by his colleague Cucurbitas who says that in Southland pumpkins and marrows are both grown as a stock feed, and it is a common practice to winter hoggets inside the pumpkins. ‘ln good years I understand that this practice is extended to include cattle,” writes the learned Cucurbitas. “One cold evening a farmer went out to inspect his flock — next morning they found him frozen to the marrow." —GARRY ARTHUR