Reporter's Diary

Press, 2 July 1979, Page 2

Reporter's Diary

High priority NEARLY TWO weeks ago, we hear, members of the University Film Society turned up at Ham to watch an advertised film at the regular screening session. They were all sitting in the theatre, w’aitihg for the film to start, and were beginning to think that it was getting a bit late when it was discovered there was no projectionist. He had gone home to watch “Holocaust” on television. Living proof A'DOG wandered into the Banana Shire Council meeting at Biloela, central Queensland, last week, only two hours after the Shire Clerk, (Mr Jim Hooper) had told councillors that dogs were virtually running the town. The mischievous kelpie declined to accept a position at the council table.

It was more interested in meeting the two newspaper reporters in the press box. The , meeting was just about to resume after ’ the lunch break when the dog walked in boldly frbfn the general office, trotted around councillors’ legs, and sat down under one of the press box chairs.. The kelpie had apparently sneaked into the council building when a visitor opened the main door. The morning session of the council meeting was dogged with councillors’ complaints and. residents’, requests about the canine problem in the shire.. Cr Ray Barker sent the. dog scurrying out the door. Impractical

WHILE BATHERS throughout the world are getting away with wispy swimming costumes and some are wearing nothing at all in the sea. Iranian women have to go for a

dip covered from head to toe. Under the new, strict, Islamic regime Only men are allowed to wear swimming trunks. Women must remain hidden inside their chador-: a long, veiled costume. Light relief A BRITISH company which started making' gas lamps during the 1974 three-day working weeks has gone from strength to strength. Having cornered the nostalgia market in Britain, mainly in hotels, but also for streetlighting and historic buildings, Sugg Gas Lighting Equipment is looking to overseas markets, including New Zealand. According to a report in London’s “Financial Times” the firm -has sold lamps valued at $6OOO to the New Zealand Railways for use on trains. Well-paid job OPOSSUM hunters can earn between $7OO and $3500 in a good week depending on what part of New Zealand they are

working in, according to a ’■ report in the “New Zealand Herald.” In Dunedin opossum skins have fetched as much as $17.70 ' while in Northland skins average $3.50 each, says the report. “In a good week” a hard-working opossum hunter could average 200 skins,” it says. Tempting ROBERT MCDONALD, . aged 31, an inventorycontrol manager , who has two Children and a njort- . gage on his home, was driving along the road at Weymouth, Massachusetts, when • an arriioured car dropped nearly SUS4OOO in front of him. After a brief bout. with temptation he gave it back. “My. wife . and kids, they’re all pretty • glid I gave the money back,” he said. “They said they’re proud of me.” Bad habits DURING a Foyles literary lunch at London’s Dorchester Hotel recently the actress Googie Withers had a word of advice for actors

on world tours. The luncheon was held to celebrate the publication of “Life With Googie” written bj' her husband, John McCallum. “In England,” she said, “the audience coughs all the time and they don’t know they’re doing it. In America all you see is a sea of disappearing backs as • they ! rush out of the theatre and in Australia they’re always so hungry they eat right - through the performance.” [ Adaptable STUDENTS of the U-turn apd the about-face, will be interested in I.otiisiafia’s ’ plans for turning its sugarcane crop into a petrol substitute called Gasotol, according to a report in a ■ London newspaper. “In the 19605,” says the report, “a fascinating investigation by a Wall Street business, which has just been unearthed today, described how oil could be turned into simple foods, like, sugar substitutes.”