Reporter'S Diary

Press, 20 February 1980, Page 2

Reporter'S Diary

First hotels WITHIN a few months of the arrival of the First Four Ships at Lyttelton in 1850, hotels started springing up in Christchurch. Hotels had been in existence at Lyttelton for some time, of course, butwith the arrival of the settlers, Christchurch became the • new ' watering hole for the people of the plains. A Spreydon reader has written to ask if anyone knows the names of the first hotels built in Christchurch and if any of them are still in existence. ■ According to Mr R. C. Lamb, a Canterbury historian, the first hotels to be built in the city'all started in 1851 — the White Hart (where the White Hart Arcade is) in High Street; the Golden Fleece, at the corner of Armagh and Colombo Streets (where the Sanitarium shop is now); and the Royal Hotel, in Oxford Terrace. Of the three, only the Royal Hotel 1 is still trading, but under a new name, the Grenadier. Mr Lamb said that all three hotels were built in the same year, but that he had not been able to discover which was built first. As a matter of?

interest, he said, the White Hart Hotel (pictured as it was in 1860) was built by Mr Hart, who came out in the Cressv, and whose son, George Hart, 1-ter became chief reporter of “The Press.” Meeting places

NOT ONLY did these early hotels have bars and accommodation, albeit fairly primitive, but they also provided the citizens of ■ Christchurch with meeting halls, Mr Lamb said. “In the early days, they would have been the only places where the people could have got together for a meeting,” he said. “There were no town halls, or even churches when the hotels were built.” Mr Lamb said that plans were made to build the first churches in the province at meetings held in those hotels.

House for the chop THREE martial arts enthusiasts will try to demolish a house in Mowbray Street, Waltham, this week-end — using only their heads, hands, and ■feet — to raise funds for the Laura Fergusson

Home for the Disabled. The stunt is promoted by Radio Avon, whose evening announcer, Wayne Hunt, will be one of those taking part. The house, at 12 Mowbray Street, will have brick chimneys, roofing iron, and windows removed before the team begins demolishing it at 10 a.m. on Saturday. It hopes to finish by 5 p.m. on Sunday. In Bradford, England, in 1972, 15 members of the International Judo association demolished a six-room Victorian house in six hours. On completion, they bowed to the rubble. Mr Hunt says he is not out to try to beat that achievement.

Collector’s item A SEFTON collector of militaria is curious to ascertain the origin of a cigarette he has been given. Mr G. C. Bliss said the cigarette had the collar badge of the Ist Canterbury Regiment printed on it. “The design is of an Indian crane, which came from the coat-of-arms of the unit’s first commanding officer, Major Wool-aston-White,”' said Mr Bliss. Underneath is printed the regimental motto, “Ake, ake, kia kaha.” Also printed on the cigarette paper is the name, “Isherwood Bros.” Mr Bliss would like to hear from anyone who knows more about the cigarettes — to whom . they were sold, when they were introduced for sale and withdrawn, if they were on sale to the general public, if they were made in New Zealand, and who the Isherwood brothers were. Fringe hingers ALTHOUGH it will have the appearance of being spontaneous, the Arts Festival Fringe Binge, mentioned in the “Diary” last

week, will, in fact, be well organised — up to a point. Mr Murray Ireland has been planning the Fringe Binge for six weeks now and he has worked out a basic programme. “We must have some sort of organisation” he said yesterday, “or people might turn up to watch the Fringe Binge and there might not be anyone performing.? So he’ has drawn up an outline, using eight 'groups of ethnic singers, dancers, and musicians as a basis. They will perform each night during the Arts Festival, from March 8 to 22, on the grass and plaza beside the Town Hall fountain. Other groups and individuals are being encouraged to join in, to add a spontaneous touch. Quack, quack!

THE FORMER Californian Governor, Mr Ronald Reagan, has been asked to apologise after a news report that he told an ethnic joke about Poles and Italians. Mr Reagan apparently got a good reception when he told the joke to aides and Senator Gordon Humphrey while travelling between Keene and Milford during his campaign for the New Hampshire presidential primary. He later repeated the joke to reporters. However, the Republican chairman of Manhattan has said that the joke was in bad taste and that Mr Reagan should publicly apologise for it. The joke at the centre of the debate was: “How do you tell the Polish one at a cockfight? He’s the one with the duck. How do you tell the Italian? He’s the one who bets on the duck. How do you tell when the Mafia’s there? The duck wins.”