Reporters Diary

Press, 22 January 1979, Page 2

Reporters Diary

j Passed muster j INSOMNIA is not a | problem for Air New Zealand’s avionics engineers at Christchurch Airport, but they have been obsessed with counting sheep. Dominating the aircraft parts on the work bench is an electronic sheep jumping a wooden fence between two light beams. ( The invention, which John ( Pollard, an engineer, seems to find a big yawn, marks the airline's entry into the field of ! agriculture with the ( design and manufacture of I electronic sheep-counters ■ for Wrightson N.M.A. The

counters eliminate the need for expensive counting out pens during shearing, gives. shearers an accurate tally, and gives farmers the exact size of the muster. As each sheep passes down the woolshed chute after being shorn, it breaks a light beam and the tally clicks up. In devising the counter, the engineers had to defeat several special problems, such as sheep chewing through the cables and dags getting caught in the light bulbs. But all were overcome and the machine is already attracting interest from overseas.

Knee deep x 7 AN ADULT seven-legged frog is the centre of attention at the amphibian and reptile section of the Australian Museum. It was found in a Sydney gar en, and the museum was very happy to get it. The frog has five front tegs and two hind legs. Apparently it is not unusual to find multi-limbed frogs, but this specimen is unusual in that it is fully grown. Deformed animals are usually easy targets for larger predators and rarely achieve adulthood. However, having survived childhood, the frog is destined for a premature death. After that it will be soaked in a solution to make it transparent and then soaked in a second solution which will make the bones turn red, so the bone structure is clearly visible for research. Up-date GRAFFITI can be recycled. A fading inscription on a Fitzgerald Avenue building — “Stop Viet Murder” — has been given new meaning in recent days with the addition of a second line “of Kampuchea.” Patriotic AN EXPATRIATE New Zealander surprised us a little with a problem he encountered when on a brief visit back to Christchurch. He said that over the years he had forgotten the words and melody of “God Defend New Zealand” and, in order to refresh his memory and to teach it to his child, he tried to buy a record of the anthem. He also sought to buy a New Zealand flag, but said that extensive shopping expeditions failed to turn up either. It certainly seemed

strange. But from our own inquiries it does appear that no vocal versions of the national song are listed on current record catalogues. Brass band and other instrumental versions are available, but not one with the words (which can be found readily enough, in the “New Zealand Official Year Book,” for instance). On the question of a New Zealand flag, however, we had more success. A prolific supplier is the Scout Shop, in Colombo Street, which stocks five different sizes, from the small table flag, such as that used on diplomats’ cars or on tables at conferences, up to a two-metre Jong display flag that needs a hefty pole to support it. Jenny is lost

THIS column tries hard to avoid being a free advertising space for Jost pets and the like, but occasionally the circumstances of a particular story merit inclusion. In this instance we are concerned with Jenny, a 10-year-old, grey, wire-haired dachshund. Jenny has spent most of her life as a pedigree breeding bitch at Bluff. Then, in common with her colleagues, when her useful years of motherhood were past, she was speyed and offered to a good home. In Jenny’s case, the home was that of Mrs N. Hepburn, an elderly woman with a great passion for animals, and Jenny was flown from Bluff to Christchurch last Wednesday. But at 4 p.m. on Friday Jenny disappeared from her new r Burwood home. Mrs Hepburn has advertised in newspapers and on radio, but so far without success. If anybody knows anything of Jenny, Mrs Hepburn would welcome a telephone call’to 82-644,