Reporter's Diary

Press, 25 February 1980, Page 2

Reporter's Diary

Bad timing EVERYONE jokes that New Zealand closes at summer holiday time. Some people would even argue that the country is closed for longer than just the holiday period. But according to an exhausted and vexed staff member of Television New Zealand, the rest of the world seems to have closed over the summer holidays, too. “Half the programmes we ordered haven’t arrived yet,” he said wearily. When you are trying to' impress people with a new television structure, which has promised its viewers great things, such delays are irksome.

Honourable mention DAVID JAMES, A new Zealand-born pianist who has been studying in New York since 1971, won favourable comment in the “New . York Times” recently when he made his New York debut at Carnegie Recital Hall. In the last nine years, Mr James has earned a master’s degree from the Peabody Conservatory, and is ' a ■music director of the Sevenars Music Festival, in the Berkshires. The critique of his debut recital said that his programme did not contain enough substance to permit a full assessment of his abilities, but two of the works included in the programme — Rachmaninoff’s Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor, and Prokofiev’s Sonata No 7, Op. 83 — earned him high praise. “Mr James had the full measure of the piece and he gave it a virtuoso workout,” the reviewer said of the Rachmaninoff work. Mr James included a piece by the New Zealand composer, . Douglas Lilburn, in his programme.

The last golds

IN SPITE OF the recent rise in the price of gold throughout the world, there are two pieces of the precious metal that will remain with their South African owners, irrespective of , how high the market soars. One piece is kept permanently in a Blomfontein bank; the other is in a drawingroom cabinet in East London. The gold pieces concerned are the two gold medals won by South Africa in the 1952 Olym‘pic Games at 'Helsinki. The winners were both women and share the distinction of being the last Olympic champions their country will produce for probably a long time. They are Esther Brand, winner of the women’s high jump, and Joan Harrison, winner of the 100 metres backstroke. Two years before Helsinki, Miss Harrison, now Mrs Breetzke, won a gold medal in the Empire Games at Auckland in 1950. She was 14 at the time. She won two more at Vancouver in 1954 before retiring. She says she will pass them on to each of her' four children. Mrs Brand says she intends to bequeath her medal to a South African sports museum that will be established soon. Third time lucky ONE THURSDAY evening recently a reader and two of her friends arrived at the theatre to see “Deathtrap,” starring the popular actor, Norman Bowler. They were shown to their seats, and were waiting for curtain-Hse when the usher told them they must be sitting in the wrong seats. Someone else had tickets for the ores they

were in. They went out to the box office. Sure enough, their tickets were for Friday night. “Oh, dear,” our reader said. “I’m sure 1 didn’t book for a Friday. It’s my , earless day.” Still, they wanted to see the play, and so they arranged for somebody to take them to the theatre the next night. But, as chance would have it, the same thing happened again. They went to the box office again. It was realised then that the tickets were for the next Friday. The woman at the box office was just as embarrassed as our reader and her friends. None of them had realised that the booking was for the next week. But the three theatre-goers finally saw the play, third time lucky. Pride of nation ARE YOU proud of being a New Zealander? Are you 14 years or under? Then you ought to be putting pen to paper and writing down the myriad reasons (using no more than 250 words) why you are so fond of this country of ours and the people in it. It is all part of a “Pride in our Nation” campaign being run this year by New Zealand Jaycees. There are two sections in the essay contest, for those under 11, and for those between 11 and 14. First prize in both sections is a return trip for two . on one of three Mount Cook ■ Airlines routes. (For Christchurch prize winners, the route is to Mount Cook and back.) Entries should be sent to Mount Cook Airlines, Private Bag, Christchurch, by April 16. Love story WRITTEN on a poster in an ante-natal clinic a're these loving words: “Amo, arnas, amama.”