Reporter's Diary

Press, 31 October 1977, Page 2

Reporter's Diary

Undated PARENTS IN show business often find it difficult, in spite of their best efforts to spend as much time with their children — and to pay attention to their education — as they would like. The English singer, Cilla Black, gave an example Of this in an interview on her arrival in Christchurch yesterday. Her son. Robert, aged seven, had made her “feel like a real failure,” she said. In a general-know-ledge test at school he had had no difficulty in naming various Prime Ministers, capitals of countries, and so on. What did stump him, however, was to give the date of Christm a s Day. “That’s something I’ve known since I was three,” she said. Meals on wings HARDER TIMES for families have long been known to increase the number of stray and abandoned pets, but it might be a sign of the times that the chain reaction caused bv this is affecting also the duck population on the Avon River. A colleague who habitually pays more than passing interest to the annual hatch of ducklings in Christchurch noted over several weeks a rapid depletion of the clutches in one area — unmatched

by the natural loss on other parts of the river, and unusual in his several years experience of duck watching. He thinks he might now have found the answer. Several abandoned cats have made their home in a group of bushes on the riverbank and. while there were only two or three of them, they found food enough at the backdoor of a nearby hotel. Now the group has grown in numbers to eight, or 10 (he has never been able to get them all counted at once) and he is sure the cats are supplementing their diet by forays into the duckling population. Invasion TWENTY-SIX tribesmen from Papua New Guinea caused a stir at Ben Gurion Airport, Israel this week when they stepped off a plane, most of them wearing nothing but loincloths and feather headdresses. The tribesmen were all in a peaceful mood, however, and were on a tour of Biblical sites arranged by the Seventh Day Adventist Church, Of which they have recently become members. Suspicious A TOP English boxing referee, Mr Mike Jacobs, has found his clothing bill rising after a visit from a suspicious representative of

the local C.I.D. After refereeing a particularly gory contest at London’s York Hal] last week, he had to throw away another bloodspattered dress shirt. He does not send them to the laundry any more since one was returned — accompanied by a suspicious detective. "We have had this shirt laboratory tested, and these stains are human blood. Can you explain it, sir?” the detective asked. “You are not going to believe this . . .” began the referee: and the C.I.D. man didn’t, without confirmation from the British Boxing Board of Control. Mr Jacobs says it causes fewer problems if he throws the shirts away. He says about eight a year will go into the rubbish bin. Barren prospect IS THE North Canterbury Hospital Board doing its bit. for population control? Or was it a case of a misplaced adjective? An advertisement placed by the board in the "Situations Vacant” column of the classified advertisements on Saturday called for a "Sterile Supply Assistant.” It seems that what is wanted is someone to take the post of assistant in the Solutions Unit of Princess Margaret Hospital, handling the preparation Of sterile solutions and infections. Proof of a vasectomy or tubal ligation is not a requirement. Ritual CLEANLINESS, so it is said, is next to Godliness. And for one Welsh recluse, Godliness is 50 miles away.

Arthur Jones, aged 84. does not have such a thing as a bath at his cottage in Llaugatock, but every Monday he takes soap and towel in hand and boards a bus for the 100-mile round trip to public baths in Cardiff. Until now his weekly bus trips have been something of a mystery to the people of Llangatock. He moved into his cottage 58 years ago, after leaving the Royal Navy — and has spoken to only two persons in the village so far. Simple solution SOUTH AFRICA’S attempts to pursue separate development to its logical conclusion, and create in» dependent black States out of tribal Homelands, are producing an unforseen backlash from the Government’s most dedicated supporters. Deep in the Transvaal, where the only threat to the ruling National Party comes from the even more rigid Herstigte (purified) National Party, the white farmers are up in arms. The reason is that they resent being pulled up by black traffic officers for traffic offences when they drive through neighbouring Lebowa. the tribal Bantustan bordering their farms. They have been used to driving round those parts for years, but now, when they drive through Lebowa, they are in a Bantu area, with Bantu la-ws and Bantu traffic officers. But the Government has come up with an answer, expensive though it might be. A SNZSM bypass will be built around the offending comer of the Homeland.