Reporter’s Diary

Press, 8 April 1978, Page 2

Reporter’s Diary

Rutherford replica A LIFE-SIZE plastic replica of Lord Rutherford, the Canterbury College physicist who went on to uncover f e secrets <' the atom, is now ready for casti g at the Canterbury Museum. It will preside over Rutherford’s den, in what is now the Christchurch Arts Centre, when the physicist’s old laboratory is opened soon for public inspection. The 6ft 3in figure of Rutherford at the age of 23 is the work of Gary Sutton, who created the figure from photographs. He started with a frontal portrait only, but in response to an appeal in “The Press,” a mertiber of the Rutherford -mily now living in Wellington sent a very ■helpful profile of Lord Rutherford as a young man. Chess tourney IN A BID to promote chess playing, the Canter-

bury Ch ,s Club is organising a competition among Christchurch business houses. The club already has several entries — from Ballins Industries, Paparua Prison (where one of the “guests” is a New Zealand-ranked player), Christchurch woolbrokers, the Statistics Department, university researchers, Patience and Nicholson, Kaiapoi, and the Post Office mail room. Keith Foster of the Chess Club hopes for 12 teams, and says they will play once a week, starting early next month. Oddly enough, chess is not very big in the Soui Island. He says there are only six cl tbs affiliated to the Chess Association, compared with an astonishing 214 in the North Island. Dnhloons galore A MILLION dollars worth of Spanish bullion recovered from a wrecked galleon will be the big attraction at Oceans ’7B. a conference of underwater divers to be held in Auckland in 'une. The bullion, known as “Atocha’s Treasure,” is being brought to New Zealand by an American salvor, Mr Mel Fisher. It is said to be on tenth of the treasure discovered at Key West, Florida. The display will includ' gold bars, dubloons, crucifixes, and a 751 b bar of solid silver. Uster's friends YAAKOV MORRIS, the Israeli Ambassador, will speak at the first public meeting of the New Zealand branch of the Northern Ireland Peace Movement in the Society of Friends Hall in Christchurch on Wednesday evening. It seems a strange choice of speaker

— until one learns that Mr Morris, was born in Belfast in 1920, and lived there until he was 27. He left well before the latest wave of “troubles,” but it gave him first-hand experience of Ulster’s circumstances. The New Zealand branch of the peace movement was formed by Miss Helen McLean, after hearing Mairead Corrigan speak in Christchurch early last year. Miss McLean, the branch secretary, says there are about 40 New Zealand members, and their aim is to raise money to help the movement.

Spacing advice

MATCHBOXES bearing advice about “spacing,” and similar messages are being distributed by branches of the New Zealand Family Planning Association in hotels, sports clubs, student centres, and other gathering places where they might strike a light in the cause of “people spacing,” as they call it. The 20.000 boxes are aimed particularly at encouraging parents to give their children "family life” education. Clearance sale

THERE IS an air of desperation about some advertising. Take a garage sale advertised yesterday,

for example. In addition to the us.ial household items, such as the motor mower, the fridge and the clothes dryer, it went on, “prams, cot and mattress, bassinet, babies, children, adults clothing . . Close call

THE SOUTH Island training officer for a big insurance company has to travel about a lot but dislikes eating alone in hotel dining rooms. He went into the dining room of one hotel and found it quite empty, so he went away again. When he came back there was another guest already seated, and he

asked whether he could join him. In conversation, he said that he was the training officer for an insurance company. The other man asked if he liked his job. Yes, he replied, he did. It proved to be the right answer. The stranger gave him his card, which showed that he was dining with his boss — the assistant general manager for New Zealand of the same insurance company. Fathead ALTHOUGH she lives in Fendalton, she is clearly no blue-rinse Nationalist. A particular Cabinet Minister is her bete noir, and she reacts with heat each time she sees him on the television screen. This week she finally decided what was wrong'with him. The Minister appeared on television again, and the woman declared in a loud voice to her husband: “The trouble with him is that he’s got suet on the cranium.” Delaying tactic ADVICE to travellers: Carry pencils when visiting Australia. The latest novelty there is toiletpaper printed with crossword puzzles. —Garry Arthur