Reporter’s Diary

Press, 29 August 1977, Page 2

Reporter’s Diary

Clockwork Bishop THE COLONISTS’ collection at the Canterbury Museum has been given an ingenious alarm clockautomatic tea maker constructed by the mechanically minded Archbishop Churchill Julius for his own use when- studying at Oxford University in 1868. The archbishop delighted in anything clockwork, and when making his calls would ask his parishioners if they had any clocks that needed fixing. He knew what made them tick and also what kept them ticking. When he fell in the sea while negotiating a tricky part of the South Westland coast, he astonished the locals at the next hostelry by ordering a large glass of whisky and dunking his gold watch in it. “Great stuff for the innards of a watch,” he explained. He became Bishop of Christchurch in 1890, and first primate and Archbishop of New Zealand in 1922. His name is perpetuated in Bishop Julius Hostel for women students at Christchurch Teachers’ College. One of his sons inherited the archbishop’s mechanical bent — he invented the racetrack totalisator. Archbishop Julius's alarm clock-teamaker was given to the museum by his great-grandson, Mr A. C. Elworthy. of South Canterbury. Clue dropper

EVEN those boring television interviews about overseas trade have their

uses, as a housewife on the fringe of Fendalton discovered this week. She had tuned in with half an ear to an interview with Mr J. A. Walding, who was Minister of Overseas Trade in the last Labour Government. Discussing the latest round of New Zealand Government negotiations with the E.E.C., Mr Walding remarked, “You can’t criticise the hooker from the stand when you don’t know what’s going on in the scrum.” That rang a bell. “Ah!” said the woman, “That’s the word I want for my puzzle.” Her subconscious had been at work evidently, when other means had failed to solve the crossword clue: “Rugger men who succeed at fishing.” The answer, thanks to Mr Walding, was “hookers.” Scout car A TRACTOR capable of doing the variety of work that arises on the highways and byways of a rural county such as Akaroa has to be a versatile machine. The Akaroa County Council has sorted out one that has a light back-hoe at the back, and a small front-end loader and a bulldozer blade at the front. If it buys the machine from the contractor who now owns it, the council plans to add a hayrake arrangement at the front and canvas sides to the existing roof. “I’ve seen it working," said Cr L. Mcßae. “It’s a peculiar looking outfit — it’s got everything on it — a bit

like a boy scout’s knife, really.” Romany race POLICE in Nottinghamshire are looking into complaints that gipsies shut off seven miles of one of the country’s busiest highways — the Al — and turned it into a racecourse. Villagers alongside the Great North Road complained that 250 gipsies, some from as far away as Scotland, sealed off the road with their vehicles for 20 minutes while two gipsy families decided which of them owned the better horse. Each staked $4OOO on the race, and there were side bets of thousands more. It happened at 6 a.m. on a Sunday — and after the race the winning owner rejected an offer of $7OOO for his horse. Police are having trouble with their inquiries because the gipsies dispersed afterwards to all points of the compass — as they are wont to do. Swimming weather NOW THAT the time has come for the sun to return to Antarctica, two scientists from the Scripps Institution of California are, perversely, giving up their underwater swimming. Throughout the winter Peter Slattery and John Oliver have made 41 dives beneath the 140 cm thick sea ice to study the denizens of the deep. A helper waits at the top to fill their gloves with hot water before each dive and to keep the hole free of ice while they are down. The last two halfhour dives have been particularly unpleasant for Peter Slattery because of a faulty zip which let the

28.5 degrees F water soak into the lower half of his insulated suit. During the winter, seals have taken a close interest in the scientists’ activities, and are suspected of disturbing equipment left on the sea bed. Export ‘pats* THE BATTLE still rages over whether the pavlova is the New Zealand or Australian national dessert, but the Aussies are consolidating their position by making an export drive with the sugary confection. The Swan Lake Pavlova Company of Melbourne is exporting pavlovas to Britain and the United States. It is forming a World Pavlova Society, with Dame Edna Everage (alias Barry Humphries) as patron. According to Australian tradition, the pavlova was invented by Bert Sasche, chef of the Esplanade Hotel, Perth, in honour of the appearance there of the famous ballerina Anna Pavlova in “Swan Lake.” The production line “pavs” have been made for the last 35 years in Mr Paul Swan’s factory in Melbourne, and are sold all over Australia. His prima pavlova costs $6.50 and serves 20. Stilt-climber THE WELSH call Snowdon a mountain — the tallest in Wales, in fact. But last week-end a child of 12, Emma Disley, climbed all 3560 ft of it on stilts. It took her four hours and a half to complete the sponsored walk. The money she raised will go towards saving baby seals. —Garry Arthur