Reporter's Diary

Press, 4 February 1980, Page 2

Reporter's Diary

Potted “I SEE now why they call it pot — it’s grown in pots,” remarked a middle-aged woman to her companion on the steps of the Greymouth Municipal Library on Friday afternoon, where the police had a display of real, live cannabis plants. The display was intended to help the public identify cannabis, should they come across it growing in the countryside,said the head of the Greymouth G. 1.8. (Detective Sergeant T. J.. Gorman). The cannabis harvest season is now at its peak. Several hundred people visited the display of two large plants, three seedlings, and a glass cabinet containing cannabis sticks, cannabis resin, heroin and LSD. In the photograph, Constable-. J. Agnew, of the Greymouth C.LB. (in sports jacket) and Constable R’. Terrey (in uniform) keep an eye. oh the while talking to passers-by. Noone discovered what the woman intended to do with the chainsaw she is carrying — but she didn’t cut down the plants. > ” ' •’/" ''

Artful Dodger? DOUBTFUL initiative was shown at the Marlborough Trotting Club’s meeting on Saturday by a boy whose age was estimated about eight. During a lull in business, the cashier left her desk in the luncheon booth. A woman came in and proffered $3 for two meals, costing $2.80, to a boy standing at the cash desk. He reached into his pocket, handed 20c change, then disappeared. A club official, when told of the incident, said, “He’ll either be a millionaire by the time he’s 20 or he’ll be in jail by the time he’s 16.”

American version EDITH CAMPION, the New Zealand novelist and short story writer, has broken into the United States and Canadian paperback market with her two works, “A Place to Pass Through” and ‘'The Chain.” Both were published in New Zealand •by A. H. and A. W. Reed in 1977 and 1979,' respectively, and now they will be published together in one volume,’ entitled “Back to Back,” r by

Strawberry Hill Press, of San Francisco.

Family reunion THE FIVE brothers of the Bullivant family — all sons of the late Harry Bullivant, of H. W. Bullivant and Company the printing firm — will meet this week for the first, and possibly the last time in many years. The eldest, Cyril, aged 76, still runs the old printing firm and the second eldest, Merton, still works for the firm part-time, in his retirement. The youngest three sons have all moved from Christchurch — one to Surfers Paradise in Australia,: one to Invercargill, and the other to Auckland. All five will get together at Mr Merton Bullivant’s home at Little River on Waitangi Day.

Beating the bank BRIAN Sothcott found the wav to win with the Midland Bank — he sued it. Now, unless the bank navs up in seven davs. bailiffs may move in and seize furniture in pavment of the $6O owed to the Southampton businessman. Mr Sothcott, aged 32, discovered that he could not recover the money he paid into his local branch nine months ago. The money was never credited to. the payee — the Royal Bank of Canada — and he said the Midland refused to pay him back. So he issued a summons. “When I told them I planned to take them to court thev just laughed and said: ‘You can’t sue a bank’. ’ Well I can, and I did,” said Mr Sothcott. •He won his court case automatically because nobody from the bank turned up to answer the summons at Southampton . Gounty Court on Wednesday.

The sound of music A RECENT . edition of “Time” magazine has an article paying homage to Richard Rodgers, the musical half of the Rodgers and Kammerstein writing team, who died recently. It quotes the composer on the subject of how he wrote his music: “When the lyrics are right,” he once said, “it’s easier for me to write a-tune than to bend over and tie my shoelaces.”