Reporter's Diary

Press, 18 August 1979, Page 2

Reporter's Diary

The way to travel ALAN WHICKER. of “Whicker’s World” fame, is due in Christchurch. on Wednesday morning at the

beginning of a month-long visit to New Zealand as a guest of Air New Zealand. Apparently, ,the famous television interviewer thinks that Air New Zealand is one of the best airlines in the world — and he should know, considering the millions of miles he must have travelled in the course of his work. Ai - New Zealand will neither confirm nor deny it, but Mr Whicker may even do some publicity work for the airline during his visit. Poor relation? A RETURNED tourist has some words of advice for Air New Zealand — he thinks it is about time the airline spruced up its image in Canada, especially in Toronto. The tourist was trying to persuade his brother and sis-ter-in-law to make a trip to New Zealand and so he coaxed them into a travel agency in one of Toronto’s biggest department stores. They asked for informa-

tion on tours and flights to New Zealand, much to the utter confusion of the young woman working in the agency, A long search eventually yielded a couple of moth-eaten, elderly pamphlets, which were almost worse than useless. But the young woman’s final contribution was the most crushing of all. “Now,” she said, “if you had asked me about Australia;. “Whodunit” THE RANGIORA' Dramatic Society has planned a novel event to take place at the Rangiora Town Hall on September 6. The society will present a live '“Whodunit” play, based on the popular television series whose host, is John Pertwee. It will involve an original play and a panel of guest celebrities, including Ray Columbus, the Wizard, Alex Wylie, a radio announcer, and a policeman (a real one), plus a member of the audience chosen by a lucky ticket number. The panel then has to try to guess the “murderer.” At this stage, even the cast don’t know who the murderer is, how the dirty deed was committed, or even why it was committed. It is likely that they won’t know even during the performance (except, of course for the murderer). Bowing out LOVERS of Gilbert and

Sullivan and fans of the t D’Oyly Carte opera company, which visited i Christchurch recently, will j be saddened to learn that John Reed, the company’s principal comedian for 20 years, will leave when the tour of Australia and New Zealand ends on Septem- ! ber 6. He announced his retirement during the company’s celebrations of ; Sts centenary in Melbourne recently. Reed is the longj 1 est serving member of the ‘ company, having spent a total of 28 years with 1 I ’Oyly Carte. His followers will be sorry that he will not have a big send- ■ off at Sadler’s Wells, but as he said, “I want to go quietly, without any fuss.” Tram nostalgia THE TRAMWAY Historical Society is looking for former tram drivers and people who were employees of the tram transport business in its heydey in Christchurch. The society plans a special week-end of activities on September 8 and 9 to ■ ommemorate the twentyfifth anniversary of the end of the tram era in Christchurch. (The actual anniversary day, though, is September 11). Old tram drivers and associated workers are all in- < vited to Ferrymead to take a nostalgic trip on the trams, drive them again, and tour the tramway. So far, the society has traced a few such people, but hopes to find more. Any interested tram ....

veterans are asked to get in .touch with the society at P.O. Box 1126, Christchurch. Shiver me timbers! SHIVERING will become the subject of a serious study by a senior lecturer in physiology at the Auckland University Medical School. The Lottery Board’s medical research distribution research committee has granted almost f 13,000 to Dr J. N. Dawson to allow him to study the whys and wherefores of shivering. He will look at the ways in which some cells at the base of the brain control the starting and stopping of shivering. His tests will not involve making people stand in the cold until they start shivering: he will do his experiments on rats. Ouch! A REPORT in “The Press” earlier this week that, once again, someone claims to have discovered Oliver Cromwell’s skull, this time in Lincolnshire, brings too mind an earlier claimant to such a find. He took his find to the Royal College of Surgeons, where it was carefully examined and declared to be far too small to have been that of Cromwell. “Ah,” the finder insisted, “but this is Cromwell's skull as a boy.”