Reporter's Diary

Press, 19 April 1980, Page 2

Reporter's Diary

Descriptive? A MEETING ' of -the Rangiora District Council was discussing a report from the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries this week about the different breeds of rabbits that may be kept in captivity. The list included such breeds as angora, chinchilla, Flemish giant, New Zealand white, the Californian and Rex, said the County Clerk, Mr Hamish McKenzie. At the mention of the last name, all eyes turned to ginger-haired Mr Rex William-?, the County Engineer. “The carcase is generally compact and meaty, and the fur can be many colours ...” read Mr McKenzie. “ . . . but mainly ginger,” interrupted the county chairman (Mr Trevor Inch) amid laughter. Cheeky site RUBBER ducks, false mating calls—anything goes at this time of year, when shooters converge on swamps, marshes, and farmland to bag a duck or two, but the ultimate in cheek has been discovered in Ashburton. A mia-mia has been discovered right in the heart of the town’s duck sanctuary—the Ashburton Domain. A council worker discovered the hide earlier this week, overlooking the Domain pjpnd, where hundreds of

smart ducks instinctively start to gather about this time of the year. The shooter will have to find somewhere legal to begin his season, though, because there was no sign of it there yesterday. Agreed HEATHCOTE county councillors showed this week they could agree on at least one thing—they agreed to disagree. A correspondent to the council found a soft spot in members of the finance committee when he fondly recalled “the cut and thrust” of local body debate in Christchurch. The correspondent, a former Christchurch journalist now living in Australia, was asking for leniency from the council over a penalty charge for late payment of rates, and said how-much he missed the cut and thrust of local body reporting. "He doesn’t know: what he is missing,” said the county chairman (Mr John McKenzie) amid laughter. “If he bought nine television sets in Australia and put them all on the same channel, he couldn’t get the same enjoyment.” As the man had been “deprived” of all the excitement at Heathcote’s meetings in the last few months, the council agreed to drop the penalty charge” ... and teend him a few

newspaper clippings,” Mr McKenzie quipped. Two-wheel protest CYCLISTS who are sick of waiting to be allowed access through the Lyttelton Tunnel will be holding a protest meeting this morning outside the Ferrymead gates. And, say the organisers, if the meeting feels strongly enough, "it is very much on the cards” that they will then try to cycle through the tunnel to demonstrate their frustration. At the same time, a smaller group of cyclists will hold a similar meeting outside the British Hotel in Lyttelton, and you guessed it, if they feel strongly enough about being denied access to the tunnel, they too will try to cycle through' it from the Lyttelton end. The organisations involved in the Canterbury Cyclists organisation, and the Friends of the Earth. They want to make it clear, a spokesman said yesterday, that “there are some cyclists in Christchurch who would like to be able. to cycle through the tunnel, or have their bikes taken through on a trailer if they are not allowed to cycle, rather than having to huff and puff over Evans or Dyers pass every time.” Foiled

LYTTELTON cyclists who want to bike into town have been fobbed off with nromises that their problem is being considered by

the Road Tunnel Authority, but so far, nothing has been done, one of the protesters said yesterday. Their predicament was highlighted recently when a Lyttelton man wanted to cycle to work in Christchurch. He knew he was not allowed to cycle through the tunnel, so he got a friend of his to put his bike on the back of his truck and give him a ride as far as the old toll gates, he said. “But when his mate unloaded him and his bike and then turned round to go back to Lyttelton, he got stopped by the tunnel patrol for doing a U-turn,” he said. “It’s not fair. You just can’t win.” Wasted effort THE FIRE department of the Swedish port of Oskarshamn has decided not to bill a young man stuck in an apartment building’s waste disposal chute for his rescue. “After all, it’s spring. He was trying to visit his girl friend. And it was a genuine emergency. He could have starved.” a fire department official said. When the 30-year-old suitor could not get into his girl friend's building, he climbed up through the refuse chute. Trying to soueeze through the small disposal hole on the first floor, he got stuck round his middle. Although the victim owes the fire, department nothing, be will be'billed for the wall they wrecked cutting him loose.