Reporter's Diary

Press, 7 December 1976, Page 2

Reporter's Diary

Not appealing IT’S A SAFE bet that very few Macdonalds will be moved to contribute to the Clan Campbell’s appeal for money to restore their family seat, Inveraray Castle. The castle was badly damaged by fire in November last year, and will cost millions to restore. The Macdonalds probably regard it as divine retribution — if somewhat belated — for the Campbell’s treachery in the Glencoe Massacre of 1692. The Mr cdonalds and the Campbells were hereditary enemies, and when Macdonald of Glencoe became technically a rebel, by being six days late appearing at Inveraray to swear allegiance to the crown, it was Campbell of Glenlyon who undertook his punishment —

probably at the instigation of the Master of Stair and Breadalbane. After enjoying 1? days of hospitality from the unsuspecting Macdonalds, the Campbells attacked and killed the chieftain and more than 30 of his followers. Their objective was extermination, but many Macdonalds escaped through the passes. Whew!

SUMMER’S long-delayed arrival must be consider-

able relief to Radio Avon, which has launched a promotion called "100 Days of Summer." It is a significantly shorter summer than that being celebrated by a Sydney radio station; it calls its promotion “127 Days of Summer.” Chisnail picnic DESCENDANTS of William Chisnal, an early settler whose property extended from Russley right in to Cathedral Square, plan a picnic reunion at Yaldhurst on New Year’s Day. William Chisnail, a carpenter from Suffolk, had a wife who was pretty well off, and they bought up more than 1000 acres of Christchurch land after they arrived in the Phoebe Dunbar in 1850. Mrs H. Cameron, one of their descendants, remembers her grandfather talking about ploughing up Cashel Street. Many of the latter-day Chisnails are keen on genealogy, and hope to track down other twigs and branches of the family tree at the reunion picnic. It will be held at Dudley Lodge, Yaldhurst, which was owned by William Chisnall’s son Alfred. William Chisnail was drowned in the Waimakariri.

His men prisoner FOR THE last 15 years of his life, the ' multimillionaire Howard Hughes lived a sunless, joyless half-lunatic life, a virtual prisoner walled in by his own crippling fears and weaknesses. “Time” drew that description from a new book, “Howard Hughes — the Hidden Years,” by James Phelan, excerpts of which are published in the latest issue of the magazine. The “New York Times” said that the book, to be published in America by Random House in January, supported accounts the newspaper had obtained from other authoritative sources. Hughes, according to these sources, was virtually a prisoner of the security system he had constructed to protect himself against the world. He was also indecisive, bedridden and helpless to enforce his orders about the running of his business. The newbook is based on reports to Phelan by Gordon Margulis and Mell Stewart, personal servants of Hughes. The two men lifted and carried Hughes, brought him his food and dealt with his personal needs. Otherwise, with one exception, only secretaries and medical personnel saw him. Odds against THERE’S a 50-50 chance that Glenn Turner, the cap-

tain of the touring New Zealand cricket team, will lose the toss yet again the next time he leads his team on to the field for a test match. That would make nine times in a row. Professor G. M. Petersen of the University of Canterbury Mathematics Department calculated that, at the beginning of the sequence, the chances of Turner’s losing the toss eight times in a row were one in 256 — one half raised to the power of eight. “But the coin has neither memory nor conscience,” said Professor Petersen, “so the next toss is a ne situation for the coin, and the chance that he will lose next time is back to one in two.” Comic fign.es BRITISH children still read comic papers in which blacks dress like cannibals, the Chinese pull rickshaws, and gallant British soldiers thrash their foes gloriously. The images in the comics, thriving on the memories of a past colonial era and two victorious world wars, are criticised by a Sussex University psychologist, Nicholas Tucker, in a survey published in the education magazine “Where.” He writes that in the world of children’s adventure comics, continents like Africa are still “teeming with wild animals and slightly less wild natives . . . and blacks still dress like cannibals and go in for

nigger minstrel talk.” He added: “The Chinese still pull rickshaws and interpose the word ‘honourable’ before every noun.” Mr Tucker asked if such regression to a “world-that-was” might not be a sign that Britain was beginning to live dangerously in the glory of its past. Matter of degree THE “femineers” have raised a problem for the University of Canterbury council. They are wives of members of the Welington branch of the Institution of Engineers, and have offered a Femineers’ Scholarship to be awarded to a female undergraduate student studying for a bachelor (shouldn't it be spinster?) of engineering degree at Canterbury. Council members felt that the terms of the scholarship would leave the university open to accusations of being sexist. But one councillor said that if it was discriminatory, at least it was in favour of the “underprivileged.” Novel length IF wordage is any guide, the judge’s decision in the case of the Banabans of Ocean Island will make a good-sized book. The judgment is about the same length as “Vanity Fair” and “David Copperfield.” —Garry Arthur