Reporter's Diary

Press, 13 June 1978, Page 2

Reporter's Diary

Another chance ONE MAN'S rubbish is another man’s perennial joy — or at least that was what Mrs Dinny Mollet deduced from her husband's behaviour when she organised him into taking a trailer load of household rubbish to the dump. “Come and see what I’ve got out here,” he called to her. She obediently went outside and found that the old bunch of plastic flowers which someone had given her, and which she detested, had suddenly taken root in a flower bed beside the house. It was an unseasonal, and quite startling spring display of tulips, hyacinths, and daffodils; and Mr Mollet’s inspired planting has earned the plastic bunch a reprieve. Southland's peril A RETURN visit to Southland after 17 years has brought home to’ a Christchurch woman that it is in some ways a different world in the deep south. For example, the corres-

pondence columns of the “Southland Times” were reflecting views while she was there that were last heard between the wars, and when the “yellow peril” was scaring everybody senseless. Letters showed what she describes as a deep-seated suspicion of anything outside the province. The targets at the time were the Japanese woman who was found living a hermit’s life on Stewart Island, and the Japanese television crew’s expedition in search of the “last moa” in Fiordland. Some Southlanders seemed to regard both as pure cover stories masking something much more sinister — Japanese espionage, no less. Wider fame THE CENTENARY of Lincoln College has reached the ears of the higher education supplement of “The Times.” The editor of the supplement has asked for an article about the college, which is the oldest in the southern hemisphere and the third old-

est outside in the Commonwealth. One has been written by Lyndsay Wright, information officer at Victoria University of Wellington, and former research officer of the New Zealand University Students’ Association. It will be published in about a fortnight. More is less AN ODD thing about buying British postal notes, one reader reports, is that it can be cheaper to buy more than you want. He went to buy a 40p postal note at the Post Office, but was told that they were not available in that denomination. He would have to buy two 20p postal notes, which would cost $1.54. This was made up of 37c for each note plus 40c poundage (the Post Office’s commission) for each one. He decided to pay the commission only once, and bought a 50p British postal note for $1.33. It was lOp more than he wanted, but it saved him 21c. Not prepared LORD Baden-Powell would turn in his grave, said one of the charcters in a recent episode of “The Sullivans,” if he could see the exceedingly sloppy boy scout behaviour of one of the characters. But a sharp-eyed spotter of anachronisms notes that the Australian “family at war” series actually knocked Lord BadenPowell off a little early. The episode was set in 1939, but the founder of the scouting movement lived until 1941.

Banking on health THE BANK of New Zealand wants its staff kept

fit and healthy, and has printed and published a 62-page book, "Fitness for Better Living,” to achieve this. The bank’s general manager (Mr B. Smith) said a number of employees are already involved in some form of self-dis-cipline to fight problems of over-weight or lack of physical fitness. It is intended that the book will encourage this. It was written by the sports coach, Arthur Lydiard, and by Dr K. L. Ragg, and urges staff to involve themselves in activities to develop their oxygen transport systems through exercise. The authors give warning of the need to take precautions before exercising in hot or cold conditions. The book covers dieting, exercise, smoking, with chapters on suitable physical activities, flexibility, and strength exercises, with an appendix which lists the average energy expended in one hour of certain types of activity. There is also a food calorie counter.

The pig’s back

THE LATEST cult food in English pubs is what we would call a nice bit of cold crackling, and what the British call “pork scratchings.” This unlikely delicacy was introduced to the market only 12 months ago, and is nowbeing produced by two factories at the rate of 120 tons of fried pork rind a week. Sales recently passed two million packets a week, at about 20c a packet. “We can’t get enough of it now,” said Mr John Visko, managing director of the leading manufacturer. “It has definitely got some people addicted.”

—Garry Arthur