Reporters Diary

Press, 21 December 1978, Page 2

Reporters Diary

A clean sweep

EVERY Christmas one particular Santa Claus takes himself off to the Farmers’ store in Cashel Street for a well earned rest from climbing up and down chimneys. During the rest of the year, when he is not listening to the Christmas wishes of children who clamber on to his knee, he works as a chimney sweep — cleaning all the chimneys that he is supposed to climb down in his role as Santa Claus. Joyful

RESIDENTS of Stratford Street, in Fendalton, have had to put up with heavy traffic trundling along their street every day for many years. But now that the Waimairi County Council has erected signs at both ends of the street prohibiting through passages by heavy vehicles, the residents can hardly contain their joy. They were so happy, in fact, that they sent a huge Christmas card to councillors and council staff thanking them for their efforts and wishing them a Christmas as happy and peaceful as theirs would now be.

inconvenient KARI SCANLON, a journalist at Radio Avon, has used the men’s 100 when she has worked late shifts in the newsroom. It is much more convenient than using the ladies’ because the men’s is on the third floor, where the newsroom is, and the ladies’ is on the ground floor. Hardly anyone else is in the building late at night, and those who are have not minded. But one night recently a senior executive at Avon, who is not usually in the building after dark, happened to bump into Ms Scanlon in the room he had previously regarded as an exclusively male domain. Consequently, an edict has been issued forbidding the

young lady from entering that room. From now on, she has been told, she must go all the way down to the ground floor — regardless of her convenience. Messy lesson TWO LITTLE girls, dressed in their best clothes, were taken as a special treat to a coffee bar in the Riccarton Mall yesterday. The smallest of the two had an orange drink, and her father tried to show her how to handle a straw — obviously for the first time. But she was unable to get the idea, and instead of sucking all she could do was blow, which caused lots of orange drink to spill all over her best clean clothes. Official party WE HEARD yesterday that during the prize-giv-ing ceremony at St Margaret’s College a fortnight ago, the official party almost got stuck in the wings as it waited to get on stage. Staff members and special guests had already been seated on the stage, but the official party, including the headmistress, the Bishop of Christchurch, and the chairman of the board of governors had still to enter. However, just as they started to walk on stage, the school pupils suddenly rose and began to sing the National Anthem. The official party was stopped in its tracks and had to wait until the anthem was finished before it could continue filing on to the stage, sit down, and recover equilibrium and composure. Point of interest JOHN CHARLES Watts Russell, the original owner of the land where the University of Canterbury now stands, and the subject of an item in the “Diary” yesterday, was one of the first persons to introduce

rabbits into Canterbury, according to a reader. Watts Russell, who came to Lyttelton in the Sir George Seymour, one of the First Four Ships, cleared five acres on some of his land and planted it with buckweed specially for his rabbits, our informant says. As a further point of interest, Watts Russell’s wife was the first white woman to set foot on Quail Island, and to commemorate the event she planted several trees there. Legendary hand ANOTHER legend about the “red hand of Ulster" has come to light since the symbol of Ulster was mentioned in a “Diary” item yesterday. The legend has it that a chieftain called O’Neill cut off his hand and threw it ashore from the boat in which he was travelling, after hearing that the first man whose hand touched the shore should rule the land. Another reader reports that not only Northern Ireland has its own symbol in the left-hand corner of the otherwise ordinary British postage stamp, but so do Scotland (a thistle), Wales (a leek), and the Channel Islands. Light relief MEMBERS OF the public were becoming a little restless in the No. 5 Magistrate’s Court yesterday morning during a long delay in proceedings. But everyone in the court had to smile when the clerk stood solemnly at the front of the court about 10.40 a.m., apologised for the delay, and reported that “the Magistrate is being unavoidably seen at the moment.” Left in the lurch A RATHER unusual reason was given for an adjournment request in the same court later in the morning. A solicitor told the Magistrate “that the principal of the company had died and taken a great deal of knowledge about the company’s workings with him.”

— Felicity Price