Reporter's Diary

Press, 12 October 1976, Page 2

Reporter's Diary

‘Gay Gazette’ IN THE days when Sid Scales was drawing the familiar sights of Christchurch, "The Press” was also running a regular liftout, fold-up children’s section called “The Gay Gazette.” We could hardly have called it that today. Charlie observed SALI MAHOMET, the original "Ice-cream Charlie” of Cathedral Square, resembled a sunburned British colonel, judging by his likeness in this drawing by Sid Scales, from "The Press’’ of January 28, 1939. Mrs E. Davis, of Torrens Road, dug it out of her archives after reading about Sali Mahomet in connection with the recent retirement of Mr Vic Wilkinson, who sold ice-cream in Oxford Terrace. The caption said that “Ice-cream Charlie’s” stall was a rendezvous for children, and for “boys, youths, and young men, mainly on bicycles, who, while hurrying through the town on errands, can

only spend a few minutes for refreshment.” Legion withdrawn THE French Government has bowed to demands by Corsican officials and announced that it will withdraw the Foreign Legion training camp based at Corte. The legionnaires will now be trained in mainland France. There has been strong anti-Legion feeling in Corsica recently. The Legion is renowned for its severe discipline, and desertions are not uncommon. In recent weeks a deserter has been convicted of murdering an old woman while he was on the run, and another is soon to be tried for the alleged murder of two shepherd brothers.

A fizzer A FITZROY, New Plymouth, resident found half a stick of what looked like gelignite when he was cleaning out old boxes in his bedroom. He immediately called in the police,

who took the stick out to the garage and called in an expert. The stick was

taken to an open area where it could be disposed of safely. Kerosene was poured over it and was lit. It burned fiercely, but when the fire went out, the stick was still there. The police made a closer inspection and found that it was only a replica made out of plaster of paris. Senior-Sergeant A. P. Burr said the stick looked authentic because of the wrapping and a genuine fuse. It had been found among other old plaster moulds in the bedroom. Joke improved A RESIDENT judge of the Christchurch Supreme Court was not a bit amused when he entered his chambers to find a huge toy panda bear sitting behind his desk wearing his official wig. The panda was an exhibit in a court case, and his

Honour was still unamused when he discovered the identity of the girl on the Justice Department staff who put the panda in his room. It was only when he was told that she did it on the instructions of a visiting judge — one

senior to him — that he realised that it was the funniest thing that had happened to him in a long while. Ragamuffins “A MOTLEY collection of ragamuffin and scapegrace Woolmarks has appeared in illegal postures in some family newspapers,” complains Mr E. J. Hunt, the Woolmark licensing manager for the Wool Board, in the board’s newsletter. “We’ve had Woolmarks

without any underwear-, a few lazy devils lying flat on their backs, some with their bottoms in the air, and even one which had the cheek to present his backside in public.” He draws retailers’ attention to their obligation to use the symbol in its complete

legal form, including its “underwear” (the wording underneath). The one illustrated is the Woolmark giving cheek. Match king THE circular from which was taken yesterday’s cautionary tale in favour of golf mis-spelt the Match King's name as Ivan Knegar. The powerful and wealthy industrialist was Ivar Kreuger who built the Swedish Match Company into a huge concern by acquiring match monopolies in one country after another in return for large loans which he negotiated on behalf of needy Governments after the World War 1. At the height of his power, according to Chambers’ Encyclopaedia, he controlled 250 match factories in 43 countries. New Zealand was one of the countries in which he monopolised the match trade. After he shot himself in a Paris hotel in 1932, it was discovered that for many years he had been forging documents and falsifying returns. To boost the use of matches, Kreuger is said to have started the superstition that it is unlucky for three to light a cigarette from one match. Cheap at the price IT COSTS $lOO to give your own body to medical science, but, as Professor J. Carman of the Auckland Medical School points out, this is a real saving. “A funeral is going to cost about $6OO, so you are saving money as well as helping others,” he said. While a body was acknowledged as a gift, certain people had to he paid. The death had to be registered, and there had to be a charge for transport to the medical school. When the body was later cremated, the university bore the cost. Professor Carman believed the cost was "fair and reasonable.” Most people were very happy with it. “But. I have had some people hang up when asked to pay some small part of what normally would be the cost,” he added. —Garry Arthur