Reporter's Diary

Press, 13 August 1980, Page 2

Reporter's Diary

\n the nick of time

WHEN Midland first built its big new luxury Domino Starliner bus, the “City of Christchurch,” which this week entered the Christ-church-Dunedin run, it had a 100 with an unrivalled view anywhere in New Zealand. One-way glass in the window meant that enthroned passengers could view the countryside without having to worry about people on the outside seeing in. But the room with a view did not last long. Midland managerial staff discovered that while oneway glass, lived up to its name during the day, it was far from one way at night. With a light on the inside and darkness without, the one-way glass was reversed, so that people could see in better than those inside could see out. So the coach builders hastily revised their plans for the 100 with a view, and a large chunk of Lamiwall was-soon installed, so that nobody can now see out—or in. Big bus THE MAYOR of Christchurch (Mr Hamish Hay)

said that he was “only too happy to hand over a framed picture of the crest of the City of Christchurch to the bus that was to bear its name. Speaking at the launching of the new. luxury Midland coach, “City of Christchurch,” yesterday, Mr Hay said the enormous new Domino coach, the biggest vehicle legally allowed to travel on New Zealand’s roads, represen-. ted a show, of confidence in the potential of the South Island for both tourism and trade. The new coach will have a fully laden weight of 17.5 tonnes (of people and freight) and is the most fuelefficient, bus for its weight, travelling 9.7 miles on a gallon of diesel.

Not for sale THE SENIOR classes at one of Christchurch’s primary schools had been given the responsibility of looking after some of the younger pupils on the day of the recent school bazaar. It was with great pride that a nine-year-old, in Standard 3, took one of the infants, aged five, under his wing. He led the little boy round the A

bazaar, bought him some sweets, and, at the end of the morning, was about to return his small charge to his classroom, when he thought to ask. him first if there was anything else he would like. “Yes,” said the five-year-old, pointing to the appropriate stall, “I’d like a white elephant.”

Memorial fund SPONTANEOUS generosity from nurses at Wellington Hospital to help a dying colleague has resulted in a trust fund for the benefit of nurses throughout NewZealand. Debi Brook, a staff nurse at the hospital, contracted a fatal illness. Both her parents lived in Britain. Within a short time, her nursing colleagues contributed funds to bring her parents to New Zealand so that they could be with her until her death. In appreciation of this action, a friend of Debi Brook has made a grant to the New Zealand Nurses’ Association to establish the Debi Brook Fund, which will provide money for nurses and their families at times of stress through major illness or death.

Happy cats NOBODY knows for certain, but several readers seem to remember hearing or reading a report some

time ago that the roots of kiwifruit vines, mentionedin the “Diary” on Monday, have a hallucinogenic effect on cats. One reader said she had noticed her cat would come from nowhere whenever she was pruning her kiwifruit vine, and would chew away at the sap with a dopey, blissful expression on its face. She was, she said, quite sure that her cat was “stoned.” Another reader recalls hearing on a radio programme last year that commercial kiwifruit growers soon learned to protect their young vines well, after they had lost several to marauding cats. Both the smell and the taste, it seems, have a soporific effect on cats.

Education cuts A CORNISH schoolteacher who has been unable to find work decided that the only way she could do what she loved best was to buy a school. Miss Veronica Griffiths, aged 35, of Truro, paid $32,000 at an auction for the one-class-room Michaelstow School, which was closed because of falling pupil numbers. “It plight seem extreme to buy a school to be a teacher,” Miss Griffiths said. “But with education cuts, there was no other way.”

Jelicity Price