Reporter's Diary

Press, 25 January 1979, Page 2

Reporter's Diary

Miscount A BLUSTERY Bluff fisherman who found himself in a rather ritzy restaurant last week complained loudly to the waiter and management when he got only 11 scallops in his entree. He assumed that there should have been a dozen, and that he had been short-changed. But he had to eat his words, as well as his scallops. The chef usually serves nine scallops with each entree, and this particular diner had. in fact, been given two more scallops than anybody else. On the map JAPANESE fishing boats working off the New Zealand coast should have no difficulty in finding their wav in future. The Royal New Zealand Navy has sent eight mailbags full of hvdrographic charts to agents for sale in Janan. A record number of these Navy charts were sold last year. In the 12 months to December 31. 61.500 charts were sold — 10.500 of them in December alone. Most of them covered the New Zealand coastline but a few were of the Pacific. The Navy’s Hvdrographic Unit also reports that its “Boatpak’ series sold well last year. II estern Easterns A REPORTER who some

years ago made the effort to learn to eat Chinese food with chopsticks was in a Chinese restaurant in Christchurch recently using the traditional Oriental eating tools to pick through his meal. On the other side of the room he noticed a party of Chinese tourists, also eating Chinese food, but with knives and forks. I nderstandable AN ITEM in Tuesday’s “Diary” about the Los Angeles drinking drivers having to give blood to pay for their sins has reminded a reader of a remark made several years ago. It was made at a Rotary function by the then president of the Auckland branch of the Red Cross Society. There were never enough men offering to give blood, he said, and a frequent excuse they made was that thev had too much alcohol in their bloodstream for it to be of any use. “But gentlemen, I can assure you.” he continued, “the patient would rather be drunk than dead.” Men and machines ONE OF the more entertaining aspects of camping, a reader reports, proved to be watching the men in camping grounds trying to use the washing machines. At the campsite where she stayed, she

said, there were three washing machines, two of them automatic, which were worked by a coin slot machine. Putting the coin in the slot was usually as far as most men got. When it came to using the machine. they stared hopelessly at it for five minutes and played with the knobs, before asking some understanding woman nearby to help them. Modern miss

THE OTHER side of the men-and-machines situation was revealed to a Christchurch man yesterday when his temporary home help arrived. His usual helper was away on holiday, and the agency sent a reliever who, after doing a few simple domestic chores, set about doing the washing. However, an agitator washing machine proved too much for her. She had been brought up on automatic machines, and with no buttons to push, she was lost. Garden contest CHRISTCHURCH enthusiasts entering the annual Canterbury Horticultural Society’s garden competition will be busy in the next few days adding the finishing touches to their gardens, for the contest will be judged on February 5. The contest, held since 1935. is the biggest in New Zealand, the society says. There are classes for different sizes of gardens, as well as for factories, institutions,

hotels, and motels. Christchurch residents and tourists visiting the city who want to see the prize-win-ning gardens will be able to obtain a list of them from the society’s secretary after the judging. Cuckoo debate NATURE-LOVING Britons who scan the letter columns of “The Times” each New Year in search of the reader who hears the first returning cuckoo need not be disappointed. Although English breakfast tables are unlikely to see another copy of “The Times” until long after the birds are sizing up prospective nests to invade, the “Guardian” is providing an alternative for such correspondents, even if the tone is inclined to be more flippant. “I have not yet heard the cuckoo this year. Is this a record?” A few days later another reader wrote; “In reply to P. D. Chamberlain’s letter, I, too, have not heard a cuckoo this year. But who did not hear it first?” Principles? ON MONDAY of last week, the Communist “Morning Star” in London published a fiery editorial declaring that what Britain needed was a sixmonth freeze on prices, followed by strict price controls. The following Thursday it announced that the price of the “Morning Star” would go up from the end of January. —Felicity Price