Reporter's Diary

Press, 2 January 1979, Page 2

Reporter's Diary

Selective seagulls SEAGULLS, one would think, are not likely to be too fussy about which rooftop they perch upon. But one house on the waterfront at New Brighton seems to have a special t traction for gulls. They flock there, leaving their calling cards on the roof, and for some strange reason, they ignore all the other houses in the immediate vicinity. Observant passers-by can see this for themselves — the roof with the gulls is the only messy one in the neighbourhood. Stayers

COULD this be one for the record, a Christchurch family wonders. Just over two years ago, they bought a house in Avonhead. Since the , three different sets of neighbours have

come and gone on one side of them; two families have lived in the house on the other side, and the property is on the market again; the house diagonally opposite has changed hands and so has one over the back fence. It should be added, however, that the family that has remained unmoved at the centre of all this activity has, among its possessions, two guitars, a big stereo speaker system, one dor, two parrots, one motor-cycle, and an old “bomb.” t\eiv Year tradition A CENTURY-OLD tradition — the ringing of the bell at the Holy Innocents Church at Mount Peel to welcome in the New Year —was continued on Sunday evening by members of the Acland family. For 109 vears. no vear has passed

without the ringing of the bell by some member of the Acland family at this time. The church was built by John Barton Arundel Acland in 1968 and dedicated by his father-in-law, Henry Chitt'- Harper, first Bishop of Christchurch. A service was held in the church at 5 p.m. on Sunday and about 100 people gathered for the hell-ring-ing at midnight. The bagpipes were played by Katherine Hatton, aged 14. Carols were sung, with Mrs Shona de Latour at the organ. Wishful thinking TWO YOUNG Christchurch people who had returned home from a trip overseas went to the docks recently to pick up their trunk full of goodies. While they had been away for two years, they had collected a lot of clothing

and mementoes and so they had sent a trunk home by ship. In the five months that the trunk took to arrive, it and its contents grew larger in their imaginations, and when they went to pick it up on the wharf, they hired a trailer to carry it back. They both felt a bit foolish, on arriving home, with the trunk on the trailer looking like a pimple on a pumpkin. They had to admit that it would have fitted easily in the boot of the car. Expensive tastes TWO ANIMALS in Britain with exp nsive tastes came to light recently. In Gloucester, Sally, a black Labrador, chewed her way through £lOO — the day’s takings of her master, who owns a hotel. The publican had called the police when he discoverd the money was missing. Then he discovered Sally with the tell-tale remains of some partly-digested fivers. And Blacky, Britain’s wealthiest cat, died oefore she could eat her way through a small fortune. She inherited $65,000 from her mistress, Mrs Ivy Blackhurst, in 1975, but died last week at the age of 19 after living on a diet of cod, lamb’s liver, salmon and rabbit which cost the estate $23.50 a week. Greedy

DRIVERS on a busy highway in Lbs Angeles found themselves literally rolling in monev when $3OOO in coins fell out of an armcured truck. Cars screeched to a halt as drivers jumped out to scoop up the cash, which had spilled from the truck when its rear door swung open. Three cars bumped into vehicles in front and several people were injured before the police arrived to restore order.

—Felicity Price