Reporter's Diary

Press, 8 September 1979, Page 2

Reporter's Diary

Still making history LORD Mountbatten, maker of history, posthumously added another footnote by appearing in his own obituary on 8.8. C. Television. As "far as 8.8. C. memories go back, no other person has done so. One of the stories Lord Mountbatten told about himself concerned his time at Dartmouth when, aged 14, he was confined to a hospital bed by an ankle which he had broken while skating. To relieve his boredom and loneliness, he put an advertisement in a local newspaper which said: “Young naval officer, injured and in hospital, desires correspondence.” He received 150 replies from women, many of them containing proposals of marriage. Lord Mountbatten maintained an amused silence at this flood of passionate mail and passed the letters on to the officers in his brother’s ship, H.M.S. New Zealand. Rough justice? FROM TIME to time, says a brief report by the Dean of Christchurch (the Very Rev. M. L. Underhill) in the Christchurch Cathedral newsletter, illegally parked cars in the Cathedral grounds are towed away. “Last week,” says the bean, “two car owners came to the Cathedral office, admitted humbly that they had parked illegally, and wanted to know where

their cars had been towed to. The answer was, ’Nowhere.’ The two cars had both been stolen.”

Moving star

WHEN the highly successful season of “Travesties” finishes at the Court Theatre this evening, one of the theatre company’s brightest stars will move from Christchurch for a while. Elizabeth Moody, who has acted in numerous Court Theatre productions, and who has become a familiar face to Christchurch audiences, will act in three plays at the Fortune Theatre, Dunedin. For three months she will work on a part in “The Fat Friend.” After that, she has been engaged for a part in a play based on the exploits of Sherlock Holmes. Finally, she will appear as Judith Bliss in Noel Coward’s “Hay Fever.” Canterbury playgoers will be pleased to know that her absence will be temporary. Postage rates TWO letters this week from readers have complained about the Post Office’s “unpublicised” amendment to charges for sending postcards overseas by airmail. The Post Office, says one letter,' “has removed the classification of overseas postcards from the aerogramme scale of charges and put postcards

into the letter category. It now costs 50c to send a humble postcard to Britain.” The other letter says that before August 1, when postal charges rose, it cost 23c to send a postcard to Britain by air. “Why should it cost twice as much tosend a postcard to Europe as it costs to send one from there?” he asks. According to the Deputy Chief Postmaster at Christchurch (Mr A. McKenzie) the chart put out by the Post Office publicising the new charges was supposed to have had the word “postcards” deleted from the aerogramme section and put in the airmail letter section instead. “But unfortunately, some of the charts got away on us before the correction was made,” he said. The new rates for airmail postcards are: Australia, and the South Pacific, 30c; Asia and North America, 40c; South America, Europe, and Africa, 50c. Proverbial? APROPOS yesterday’s item about the Amuri Ski Club dog-tucker race and veterans’ race, to be held at the ski field today, a reader has suggested this adapted adage: “Old skiers never die. They simply go downhill.” Garden gnomes SOMEBODY in Christchurch appears to have a fetish for garden gnomes. According to a man whose firm sells garden gnomes and ornaments, there has

been a spate of thefts of them recently. They are being stolen from manufacturers and retailers’

yards, and from private gardens. It seems, he says, that people will have 'to keep their gnomes inside in future if they want them to be absolutely safe. The most popular and most expensive garden ornament with the gnome thief is a statue of a small boy holding a tray, which sells for about $3O. “It’s pretty heavy. Whoever is taking them must be pretty strong —- and pretty keen,” our informant said. Hypersensitive A NEW explosives detector in the House of Commons in London has proved too successful — it has been triggered by perfume, aftershave lotion, and even a piece of cheese. The makers proudly claim that it is the most sophisticated security device on the market, and Parliament’s security men will endorse that ' claim wholeheartedly. Even a fungicide used to preserve beams in nearby West* minster Hall has set the alarm off. As a result, security officers have been forced to install their wonder machine elsewhere in the building. Floral quarrel PUPILS at a Surrey School were asked in a knowledge test: “What is crosspollination?” said a report in London’s “Daily Telegraph” newspaper this week. A girl, aged 12, answered: “This is when the female flower is not in the mood.”

'peticify'Pucc