Reporter's Diary

Press, 10 April 1980, Page 2

Reporter's Diary

No transport. A KAMPUCHEAN refugee who arrived in Christchurch last December is finding it difficult to get to and from work and night classes because his bicycle has been stolen.. Mr Chov Chhoan was given the bicycle by his sponsors, the Dallington St Vincent de Paul Society, which spent many hours doing up a derelict old machine so that he could have means of transport about the city.But on March 31, the bicycle was stolen from outside Mr Chov’s flat at 219 River Road. He and his sponsors would be grateful if it could be returned to him as soon as possible so that he can, once more, transport himself to work in town and to his classes in English language at the Christchurch Polytechnic, which he attends twice a week.One of his sponsors has agreed to lend him a bicycle in the meantime, in the hope that Mr Chov’s own machine will be returned to him. Capped MOVES to get rid of those tiny cardboard caps that perch on Christchurch nurses’ heads have been unsuccessful. The North Canterbury Hospital Board has declined the suggestion, which came from Christchurch Polytechnical nursing trainees, because it believes that the caps are "an aid to identification.’’ The Auckland Hospital Board abolished such 'caps more Shan two years ago.

Starting young

FEARING that he was falling behind his friends in the amount of his pocket money each week, one Christchurch boy, aged nine, told his mother that he would like a rise in pay, That was out of the question, she replied. He knew he got a rise once a year, and he had only recently had his annual rise, she said. “In that case,” he pouted, “I won’t do any more gardening or helping round the house.” “Well, then,” his mother replied, “You won’t get any money while you’re on strike.” The lad could not bear the thought of that. No money meant no ice-creams, no sweets after school, no buns from the school tuck-shop. “Can we talk about it?” he asked his mother — and wage negotiations were resumed. But he didn’t get a rise. Plastic invasion NOT CONTENT with introducing the Chinese to Coca-Cola, Western entrepreneurs are now busy slipping plastic money under what remains of the Bamboo Curtain. So far, Mastercard and Visa Card have made the grade as far as Shanghai, and Peking is marked as being the next city to fall for the fantastic plastic money reports the London ‘Financial Times.” But both credit companies have confessed that' the acceptance of their cards is so far restricted to “major hotels, a few cash advances from the Bank of China, and the Friendship Store.’’

Marriage test? ENGLISH couples get married far too cheaply, writes Canon A. C. A, Smith, vicar of Selby Abbey, in Yorkshire in the latest issue of the abbey’s journal. “At a mere £4.80 for having the banns read in two parishes and £1.25 for a certificate to satisfy the Registrar-General, the Church of England is missing a potentially handsome source of revenue,” Canon Smith says.He has an alternative plan, which would greatly enhance parish funds, for a £2O marriage licence, renewable annually. If men are prepared to pay £34 a year for a colour television licence, and £6O a year for a car licence, they ought not to begrudge £2O for a wife, considering the amount of work that wives do for nothing, he reasons. In the interests of equity, though, during leap years the wife should have the option to renew the licence, he says. But the vicar at least stops short of suggesting that, before a new licence is issued, the wife should be taken to a ministry-ap-proved testing station for inspection and a warrant of fitness. Fooled A WEEK ago, the 8.8. C. Japanese service broadcast the news that Big _ Ben was about to go digital and that the clock hands would be sold to the first four listeners to write in.Within an hour, a Japanese seaman in mid-Atlan-tic had radioed his bid. Clearly he was not wearing one of those clever Japanese watches, that would have told him the date — April 1.