Reporter’s Diary

Press, 16 May 1978, Page 2

Reporter’s Diary

Ducked

TOUGH country ducks on Victoria Lake in North Hagley Park, far from displaying the timidity of some of their city friends, have taken direct action over a nuisance on their temporary watering place. Last year, some ducks were buzzed and bumped by people playing with ra d i o-controlled model power boats. The other day. one of those boats headed into a group of ducks and failed to get them to flee. Instead, a gang of the ducks pounced on the power boat and scuttled it. The boat’s owner had to wade out and retrieve his toy from the bottom of the lake. Far afield

A MONARCH butterfly has been found in Nelson with a tag on its wing asking the finder to return it to the zoology department of the University of Toronto. If it is a Canadian butterfly, it is an incredibly long way from home and the possibility arises that it was carried to New Zealand from North America by high air currents. Mrs Nancy

Webb, of Motueka, caught the butterfly in Queen’s Gardens and found the tiny white tag taped to the forward edge of a wing. Battery railear AN EARLIER railcar than the 1936 models mentioned in Roy Sinclair’s article on Saturday was an electric-battery model which was built for the Christchurch-Lyttelton run in 1926. Mr Alan Paterson recalls travelling on it when he was a boy. The chassis was imported and the body was built by Boon Brothers in Ferry Road (but completed, after many difficulties, at the railway workshops). It was transferred to the Little River line, where it ran twice a day, and then to the Rangiora run. The Edison electric battery railcar, as it was called, was somewhat experimental. Apparently it was powered by storage batteries which enabled it to run for five hours before stopping for seven hours to be recharged. Passengers diked it for its cleanliness*and its silence but it met an untimely end when it caught fire in

1934. The railcar was limited to short trips because of its need to stay close to battery-charging facilities.

Independent service AN ELDERLY Rangiora reader sees no reason why the sole recruit for meals-on-wheels in the Buller district, an 82-year-old, should go without. The reader is aged 79 and also declines the meals-on-wheels service but asks whether one of the similarly independent pensioners in the Buller area could not cook a few meals for the 82-year-old. “If we want a friend, we must be a friend,” she writes, “and probably 82 would be appreciative.” ‘Sonar 9 camera DR EDWIN LAND, inventor of the Polaroid in-stant-picture photography system, has produced some more wizardry with a camera that uses an echo device to focus automatically. The new camera determines the focus distance by measuring the time it takes for sound to travel from the camera to the subject and back again. A transducer emits an inaudible “chirp” which is timed to measure the distance. The focus motor then drives the lens to the appropriate position, fo-

cusing more quickly and accurately than can be done manually. It even works in complete darkness, say the manufacturers. Walk this tray STRANGE gaits may be all right for John Cleese’s Ministry of Funny Walks but they proved to be the downfall of two men going through Customs between Singapore and the Malaysian town of Johore Baru. Customs officers noticed that the pair were doing a “funny walk” past the checkpoint at the causeway and detained them for questioning. Each was found to have 360 contraband ballpoint pens tied around his thighs and lower legs. Tests refused

THE SCIENTIFIC commission which advises the Archbishop of Turin has rejected a proposal to make carbon-14 dating tests on the Shroud of Turin. The shroud is alleged to be the burial cloth from the tomb of Jesus. The linen cloth bears a mysterious set of markings which, when reversed into a photographic negative, reveal the face and body of a man. The shroud is taken out of Turin Cathedral for public veneration once : every two decades

and is next due to be exhibited in September. Scientists believe that car-bon-14 dating could establish the age of the material to within 50 years and the commission’s refusal of tests has been described as a “devastating blow.” Numerous other tests have been authorised, however, including electronmicroscope examination, infra-red and ultra-violet photography, and pollen tests which may shed light on the age of the shroud.

Luck held

AN ACCOUNTANT trying to beat inflation took tickets on several horses in the last race at Addington on Saturday. One of them won. much to the punter’s delight. He cast the other tickets to the wind and made for the pay-out window. “Wrong tickets,” said the pay-out clerk. The poor man was downcast and deeply regretted his uncharacteristic rashness in throwing the other tickets away. But, walking back with his head down, as accountants do in the hope of finding 5c pieces, he noticed two tickets that had a familiar look about them. They proved to be the self-same ones that he had thrown away and he was able to return to the window and collect his $B. — Garry Arthur