Reporter's Diary

Press, 26 January 1980, Page 2

Reporter's Diary

Brunner mine . . . EIGHTY-FOUR years ago, on March 26, 1896, 67

men died in New Zea-, land’s worst mining disaster at the Brunner Mine, on the West Coast. Not

until 1977, though, was long-dormant interest in the tragedy stirred when two Greymouth High School teachers, Susan Battye and Thelma Eakin, wrote and produced a highly dramatic play about the tragedy. It reawakened many’ memories of the Coast’s past. Since then, pupils of the school have . helped to clear the site of the old Brunner Mine, which had gradually been absorbed into the bush. The Historic Places Trust has supervised the work and to mark the occasion of its progress and the eighty-fourth anniversary of the mine disaster, an open day will be held at the site as close to March 26 as possible. . . . revisited

AT THE SAME time, Greymouth High School and’the Repertorv Society will produce the play written three years ago to commemorate the Brunner Mine disaster. The play will be published by Oxford University Press to mark the occasion. Called “Shadow of the Valley,” it will be performed at the Regent Theatre, in Greymouth for three nights between March 26 and 29. But there is only, slight hitch. The much publicised “Confessions of a Window Cleaner” play, which has a British cast and which has one or two scenes containing full frontal nudity, is booked for the theatre in the same week, on March 24 and 25. “It’s a bit of a problem, having two major productions in a small town in one week.’.’ said the chairman of the Greymouth Historic Places Trust (Mr Brian Wood). “Anart from the demands that such a clash places on the public, there are ' also : other problems,

like trying to have dress rehearsals while another company is using the theatre,” he said. “Obviously, we’ll try to have one of the productions change its dates. It would have been nice if the British production could have come to Greymouth a bit earlier or later.” Mr Wood said that those groups working on the local production would meet next week, when the chairman of the theatre trust returned from holiday.

Bone of contention IN BRITAIN last year civil servants spent $3.2 million of public money collecting $2 million worth of dog-licence fees. The release of these figures has sparked another round in the continuing controversy over the fees which, to dog lovers, are more than fair. The cost, of a dog licence is 76c and has been so since 1878. The present-day equivalent of that amount is said to be about sl6. Just kidding AS IS customary at this time of year, newspapers throughout the world have run through the lists of babies born during the last year and picked out common and unusual names. In the London “Daily Telegraph” newspaper, a report said that the names of the new-born announced in its births column in 1979 remained firmly traditional: 65 per cent were biblical and the rest were names of saints or sovereigns. But there were some extraordinary names too. it said. Soine were simply foreign names, like Zvi and Wyjnanda. But others had no such excuse. “This year.” ■it said, "the boys have got off relatively lightly, with nothing worse than Isam-

bard or Quintus. But there are girls called Honeysuckle, Merryleas, Lucky, Savannah and Trinity who will soon be trying to lead normal lives. One little girl will be a memorial to the 70s: she is ' called Quango.” The very next day the “Telegraph,” carried another story. It was, it said, a warning to those who collected, analysed and philosophised about the choice of babies’ names. “Beware, there are jokers about,” it said. The little girl said to have been named Quango was a new-born goat (and a billy-goat at that) whose birth was announced as a jest. Pulp hard to gulp A TIDBIT that health food freaks might find hard to swallow comes from “Choice” magazine, the organ of the Australian Consumers’ Association. The ' magazine reports .from its American sources that the multinational I.T.T. Continental Baking Company of the United States took advantage of the high-fibre diet craze. The company launched a loaf which it said contained as much fibre as 100 per cent all-bran cereal; and it did. But under the terms of an agreement now reached with the Federal Trade Commission, L.T.T. Continental must disclose that the source of the fibre is wood pulp. Dawn of a new era IN THIS . modern age of the silicon chip and supercomputers, B.C. (traditionally an indication for “Before Christ” when numbering the years) has a new meaning in sceintific circles: Before the Chip.