Reporter's Diary

Press, 28 August 1980, Page 2

Reporter's Diary

Passport... JUST FOR fun, a Christchurch typesetting firm has printed a. South Island passport, which is reported to be selling very .well so far. Quickset Platemakers printed an initial run of 1000 copies of the “passport” and most of them have been sold. So, another 1000 will be printed this week, said the firm’s manager (Mr John Holden). The passports are a clever copy of the New Zealand passport, but they differ in several significant ways. The cover of the South Island passport has, instead of the New Zealand coat of arms, a specially designed South Island coat of arms, depicting two keas surrounding symbolic designs for each of the provinces — grapes for Marlborough; mining for the West Coast and Nelson; sheep, the Alps, and the Cathedral for Canterbury; power pylons for Otago; and crayfish for Southland.

... for Mainlanders INSIDE , the South Island passport, the layout is very similar to that of the official New Zealand passport. There is a'page for a personal photograph, another for a description of

eyes, hair, profession, etc., and several pages for visas. One significant difference from the official version, however, is that most of the details are written .in both English and Maori. The South Island passport is issued (at $3.50 each) only. to. South Islanders, it says, and is valid for life. But •it warns: “South Island passports are published as a novelty item and are not intended to be used in any legal or quasi-legal form.” Drawback

SEVERAL readers expressed concern yesterday about the suggestion by Mr Gordon Oldham in yesterday’s “Diary” that elderly or disabled people have a small asterisk by their names in the telephone book. It would, he said, let callers know that they should wait a little longer than usual for them to answer the telephone. It was all very well warning people that some folk took longer than others to answer the telephone, our readers said, but surely such a warning would also let potential burglars and other undesirable callers know where disabled or elderly and infirm people lived, should they want to take advantage of them.

Careful drivers AS THE road toll continues to rise every, year,' the Institute of Advanced .Drivers continues to push for more '■ > members. If there were more drivers around who were able to drive in an accident-pre-ventive way,' then there would be far. fewer fatalities on New Zealand’s roads, .says the publicity officer (Mr Ron Sheppard). To further’.publicise the cause, the Institute of Advanced Drivers will hold an open night at the Bishopdale Community Centre next Wednesday.

Formed in 1958, the institute has about 35 members in Christchurch and about 720 in New Zealand. Anyone interested in the work of the institute is welcome to attend on Wednesday at 7.30 p.m. Space mouse AN INSPECTOR from the Royal Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Ani-' mals, Mr Gary Wragg, could go down in history as the man who stopped a giant leap forward in Brit-' ain’s. space programme. The trouble is that he does not think Anatole the mouse is up to it. And he plans to go down to N.A.S.A. — well, at least to its British branch in a Darlington back street — to put a stop to Anatole’s career as an astromouse. According to an amateur inventor, Mr Arthur Harrington, aged 39, Anatole has already had one journey into space. Last Sun- ' day, he shot 244 m up in a one metre long aluminium rocket. “He seemed all right after the test flight — just a bit dazed,” said Mr Harrington. But now he wants to send his son’s pet hurling 610 m up from a secret North Yorkshire launching pad next Sunday at a speed of more than 322 km/h. The scheme is planned with military precision. Mr Harrington’s wife is responsible for retum-to-earth procedure — a radio-operated parachute. His sons, David, aged eight, and Peter, aged 12, act as ground crew and also help their father film a record of the giant step for mousekind. But the mouseflight could be stopped in its tracks if Mr Wragg his his way. “I’m going round to discuss it with him. I hope he will change his mind. Why send .it up?” said Mr Wragg. "It is not as if there is any scientific purpose.” ■ .