Reporter’s Diary

Press, 1 September 1977, Page 2

Reporter’s Diary

| He’s gloating '• THE PHANTOM raspberry I blower (mentioned yester- ' day) whose activities led j to the cancellation of the I Citizens Band Radio I Club’s weekly news bulle- | tins, is gloating fiendishly over his success. The I cheeky interrupter of the I air waves calls himself j KZOI (an illegal call sign) ; and puts out a newsletter to those citizens band users with whom he has I made contact. The August i one, under the heading of “Music Makers N.Z., Ltd,” crows: “The latest news is that the bulletin has I finally been annihilated | after many years of hard I work by KZOI and his I associates. We know all stirrers ... are pleased with this news. We are sincerely grateful to our , inside informants who helped us achieve this wonderful result.” None of the 1600 or so licensed CB ' operators m Christchurch | appear to know who their tormenter is, although some call him up now and | then to hear the songs he | broadcasts. Even if they i don’t, he will often interj rupt a conversation to ' play one of his own comi positions. Sample: “Here we sit, looks like this is it. I We’re stirring again, | Channel 4 gonna give i you more. We’re stirring again. We’ll do it so long till I the bulletin is gone — For ever this time ” Chaperon FREDDIE Laker, the cutprice air travel man whom we all hope to see extend I his operations Down ■ Under, still has the human , touch when it comes to I running an airline.

According to a story in the forthcoming issue of “Reader’s Digest,” he was on band with a comforting word when an old lady panicked just as she was about to hoard one of the aircraft on his transatlantic “Skytrain” service. "Nobody is going to make you go if you don’t want, to,” said Laker, “but at least let me show you around my plane.” He gently led her up the steps, and was over the English Channel before his staff realised that he was missing. In the end, it seems, the only way he could persuade the old lady to fly was to go with her. Troglodytes

THE CAVE houses of Taylor’s Mistake, threatened by City Council ultimatums, will be the subject of a book now being researched by two Christchurch persons, Don Long and Bob Groundrill, of 161 Taylor's Mistake Road. They intend to describe and illustrate cave houses from Whitewash Head round to Boulder Bay and are keen to get in touch with anyone who built or

occupied any of the cave houses, or who have early photographs of them. They also hope to take photographs inside the few cave houses still occupied. Their definition of a cave house is a dwelling in which the cliff face has been used in lieu of a wall, at least in part. Voise pollution A CHRISTCHURCH doctor who does not own a television set. and hardly ever watches television, complains that he is often forced to see it and listen to it when he makes his

house calls. (Yes, a doctor who makes house calls ) He used to have the same trouble in the days before television, when he could not visit a patient without being blasted out of the room by a blaring transistor radio. It proved very detrimental to the bedside manner, and so he developed a little routine for dealing with it. Instead of the customary basin of hot water, he would ask the householders for a bucket of cold water. When they expressed surprise, and asked why, that was his cue. “To drown that damned radio,” he would say. He never had to do it; they always took the hint. But as it is only the exceptionally small television set that will fit into your average bucket, he will have to think up a new ploy.

Lockjaw prescribed THE MIGRATING Pom who shows any symptoms of whinging is given some advice in an article in the London “Daily Telegraph.” The myth — or otherwise — of the whinging Pom comes from a totally different idea of how outspoken opinion should be, writes Judith Doyle, who has returned to Wellington after 18 years in Britain. “The Kiwi resents a newcomer telling him what’s wrong with the country on the basis that a visitor doesn’t walk into anyone else’s house and start criticising the wallpaper,” she says. “Figurative lockjaw for the first year or so is the price New Zealand asks from a new migrant.” Crim reminder GEORGE LONG, of St Albans, had good reason to be cheerful when he came across a bundle of old envelopes while going through his things. They date back to World War I,

and contained letters from his parents posted while he was serving at Gallipoli. Scrawled on the envelopes are such dismal phrases as “wounded,” “captured,” and — worst of all — “killed in action.” Only the first was right. At the age of 85, Mr Long has proved the last one well and truly wrong. The letters caught up with him at a hospital in Malta. Private Long and other machine-gunners of the Canterbury Regiment were among the first to land at Gallipoli, and he was hit by a shell burst when he reached the top of the hill. Australian ambulancemen fixed him up and he was taken to a battleship, then via an Australian troop ship to Alexandria, then Malta, and finally to hospital in London. Of Gallipoli, he remembers that only half of his battalion was landed. “If they had landed all the battalion, we would have been in Constantinople in three days,” he said. The “killed in action” private went on to France with the advance guard, and captured 32 prisoners when he went “over the top” at the Somme. He still wears the increasingly rare Gallipoli badge. 45s contest CARDSHARPS from Haast to Karamea are practising furiously for the big event of the year — the New Zealand 45s Championship to be held at Greymouth on September 10. Expatriate West Coasters are also expected to travel to Greymouth from all over New Zealand to try their luck at the Coast’s traditional card game. There is a big line-up of trophies, including a booby prize for the worst team. —Garry Arthur