Reporter's Diary

Press, 2 April 1980, Page 2

Reporter's Diary

Jiift horse?

TO FURTHER its argument in'■'the continuing -battle for a reduction in the 40 per cent sales tax on records, the Recording Industry Association •of New Zealand has been -Sending presents to news media organisations throughout New Zealand. A big package arrived at “The Press” yesterday and, considering it was April Fool’s Day,, was treated with considerable cynicism. But suspicions were allayed when' the contents revealed two records — Sharon O’Neill’s latest album and the Royal New Zealand Navy Band’s “Warships” — plus a copy of the latest “Playboy” magazine. What, you might well ask. has “Playboy” got to do with the recording industry’s case for a reduction in the sales tax on records? “Easter is a time for gift-giving,” explains the accompanying letter. “The two highly successful records, both completely produced within New Zealand, attract a punitive sales tax of 40 per cent. On the other hand, the imported magazine. completely produced outside New Zealand, is considered by the Government as a cultural object and attracts no sales tax whatsoever. It makes one ■think. doesn't- it?” It also knows-how fp find favour with male chief reporters all over New Zealand esnecially those who have -long regarded “Playboy as a cultural object.

banishing breed

NEW ZEALAND recording artists are a vanishing breed, says the Recording Industry Association. “The cost of recording local. New Zealand artists is extremely high compared with pressing records from an imported master tape. In the present economic circumstances. New Zealand record companies are less and less able to support and promote New Zealand artists. Our talent is therefore forced to go overseas, with a resulting loss to New Zealand of valuable royalty export earnings.” it says. “If Kiri Te Kanawa’s current world-wide record sales were under contract to a New Zealand company, for example, instead of the English company she is contracted to, imagine the overseas exchange New Zealand could be earning.” Country cookout AS PART of a campaign .to make Christchurch people more aware of their province, the Canterbury and West Coast branch of the National Travel Association is organising a . high-country cook-out in and around Methven on April 13. The “Fundav Sunday” will be held; wet or fine, with tickets .costing,, $l2 for adults and $8 for children. Included in the cost , is the return, bus trio, lunch at the, Pudding Hill holiday camp at ..the .- bottom of Mount Hiitt, followed by

treasure hunts- and lolly scrambles for the children, bush walks in the Awa Awa Forest Reserve, a bus ride up to the Mount Hutt ski area, canoeing, ,an adventure course, • and trips to a deer farm and a sheep station. Optional extras include a jet boat ride up the Rakaia Gorge ($3) and helicopter rides over the ski-field and the gorge ($12.50). Hosts for the day will be members of the Methven District Promotion Association. The travel association says it plans to make the outing an annual event, at different places in the province each time. “We need to be better informed about this country of ours,” it says, “and that means starting right here in our own province.” Moving out

THE Riccarton Players will move out of their clubrooms, a disused classroom at the Wharenui ■ School, at Easter because the building is an earthquake risk and has to be demolished. The amateiir theatre group has- a lot of props and lighting equip* ment and has permission from the school to store the wardrobe in the hall until it can find a new home. The Ricqarton Borough Council has given the players a section to provide them with a new home, but until they can raise sufficient money to build a permanent theatre on the site, they are on the look-out for pre-fabric-ated -building'; that would’ be .suitable for a temporary home itnd store for all their equipment. The Canterbury Education Board ' is 'trying to help

them out but has had no luck so far. If you know of an available prefab, that the Riccarton Players could borrow for a while, the . players’ president, Mr Douglas Clark (telephone 795-160) would be pleased to hear from you. Moved on A CLIENT seeking the offices of Medi-care, the medical insurance company, was stumped when he went to the Medi-care building in Chester Street, just opposite the Edmonds clock tower. “We have moved,” said a sign. “To Oxford Street.” Well, Oxford. Terrace is long and winding and after walking several hundred metres, without finding the new offices, the client gave up. A quick telephone call to the Medi-care offices brought a hasty apology. The big sign had been stolen from the front of the ’old office building, he was told, and the Medicare had not yet ’ got another one. The new address, he learned, was 68 Oxford Terrace.

International.lady 'IF Christina Chassis, the shipping heiress, marries again, as has been recently suggested, it will be her fourth wedding. Her list of husbands is beginning to take on the look of a mini-United Nations. Her first husband was' ~a Californian land agent; her second, a Greek: her third, a- Rus/sian; and her intended is a ' french lawyer.'