Reporter s Diary

Press, 25 May 1977, Page 2

Reporter s Diary

Squashed eyes SQUASH players should wear special eye protection says an article in the Accident and Compensation Commission’s magazine. While eye injuries in squash are uncommon, they can be disastrous. In New Zealand, during 1971, 23 squash players were admitted to hospital with eye injuries, and many more must have been treated privately or as outpatients. The squash ball fits neatly into the orbital socket of the eye, says the magazine, and can do irreparable damage. The newly available eyeguards (pictured) cost $7.50 and preserve full peripheral vision. Joined in

A WOMAN reporter left the sidelines of the Royal Commission on the Courts in Christchurch yesterday and gave the commissioners a few ideas of her own. She said later that she had listened while two

women’s organisations gave evidence, and was so appalled at their failure to mention aspects she considered important that she decided to give evidence herself. She asked the secretary if she could say something. Permission was granted, and she gave the commission her views on how rape victims should be treated in court — namely, in closed-court sessions and in more informal circumstances. City tested A GROUP that got a lot out of the May school holidays was the 30 physically disabled and ablebodied students who were sent out by the Y.M.C.A. to see what sort of fun Christchurch had to offer. David Payne, the Y . M . C . A ’ s recreation officer for the disabled, said most of the disabled youngsters came from out of town. He paired them up with able-bodied students from city schools, and they set off in groups

of four to find out what was going on in the city. The experience “undoubtedly benefited both sectors of society,” says the annual report of the local branch of the Crippled Children’s Society. Punished

WELLINGTON police were quickly on the scene on Monday night, after they got a number of calls that a man was attacking a car in a city street. On arrival they found a man vigorously laying into a car. But the- case was closed when he explained. It seems his old Morris Oxford had been playing up lately. He was fed up with its unreliability, and when it would not start he vented his feelings on the poor vehicle. Too big “I DON’T care if you think of me as a little pest.” says a letter from Mark Adams of Camberwell Place, “I have a big problem.” His problem is that “The Press” is far too big. If he sits on the couch to read it, all the pages fall off; if he tries reading it on the kitchen table, that’s ‘a real pain” too, because his mother puts her breakfast plate on the paper and he can’t turn the page. He has tried reading it on the floor, but that hurts his elbow. “1 have to slouch all over the paper to read the headlines,” he says, “and sometimes the cat sits on it, making a furry obstacle which takes five minutes to shift.” Mark says he thinks “The Press” should be reduced to the size of his suburban

paper, and asks why it has to be so big. The reason is that there is so much news to be printed that we would never get it in a newspaper the size of a suburban. Wellington’s morning newspaper, “Dominion,” tried publishing a tabloid-size newspaper for a while, but has gone back to the size known as “broadsheet.” Londoners travelling on the underground railway have developed a technique for dealing with Mark’s problem. Crushed together at the rush-hour, they fold their newspapers in half lengthwise and flick half a page round at a time, keeping their elbows tucked into their sides. It might work at breakfast. Summit walks

IF THE Port Hills are swarming with hikers and trampers during this balmy weather, blame the Christchurch South Rotary Club. It has produced a large leaflet designed to encourage citizens to use the various scenic walks near the Summit Road. The leaflet, which is available free at such places as the Canterbury Public Library, includes a full-page map showing the tracks between the Sign of the Takahe, the Sign of the Bellbird, and the point where the Rapaki track meets the Summit Road. The walks range from a half-hour trip from the Sign of the Kiwi, to fullday trips along the incomplete part of the Summit Road from Gebbies Pass to Pigeon Bay. For those longer trips, the leaflet recommends that two families start from either end and exchange

car keys when they meet. And don’t take Banks Peninsula , lightly, it warns. The weather can change rapidly at the altitudes reached on the outer peninsula. Top supporter AN ENGLISH punter is steadily chewing his fingernails down to the elbows as he awaits the outcome of the European Cup Final between Liverpool and the West German side Borussia Moenchengladbach in Rome today. He has invested £5O ($89.75) with the bookmakers William Hill to win £20,000 ($35,900) on a four-way accumulator bet. At the start of the season he backed Red Rum for the Aintree Grand . National, Liverpool for the English league title, Manchester United for the F.A. Cup, and Liverpool for the European Cup. Deterrents

SKIERS and other visitors to Temple Basin were straying from the zig-zag track that leads up to the skifield from the Arthur’s Pass highway, the Arthur's Pass National Park Board was told this week. Instead of zig-zagging with the track, people were taking the shortest route straight down, and this was destroying the ground cover and causing erosion. All sorts of deterrents were considered — barbed wire, electric fences, and even the planting of Spaniard, a vicious speargrass. But in the end the board decided to do the civilised thing and simply put up a notice. — Garry Arthur.