Reporter's Diary

Press, 6 February 1981, Page 2

Reporter's Diary

Take a bow VAGUE or badly written addresses fake things difficult for the Post Office, but it did a piece of detective work with a letter from the United States recently. Certain Christchurch students, on holiday there, wanted badly to get in touch with a former flatmate who now lives at Taupo. Not knowing his address, they wrote on the envelope: “Miles Stretton. His father is an accountant in Taupo somewhere, New Zealand.”: It got there. Whoops . . ... WHILE the New Zealand Post Office deserves a pat on the back for the above effort, the United States mail appears to need a geography lesson, A : ristchurch family ths week received an airmail letter from the United States, but had g-ne a roundabout way to ge there. Posted in January, the envelope was correctly and clearly addressed.- Stamped in Spanish on the outside was the message: “Not known in El Salvador, '- Central America,” !No wonder.

Fiery amnesty A FLAMING RED dragon able to “snap out’ overdue books will be the prime weapon in a campaign by the St Martins Library to refill its depleted shelves. The library has announced an amnesty for the week from February 16 to February 21.The leering dragon will be on prominent display in the building. The children’s librarian; Mrs Helen Constable, said the “dragon” was aimed at the children, who frequently borrowed books, especially non-fiction works for school projects, and forgot to return them. In a library was small as St Martins. she sail, the situation had become serious. Older people are also included in the truce. The committee arranging the amnesty is looking for a horse and cart to carry the message to the streets. An adult theme might be, “Bring out your dead (books),” said Mrs Constable. ‘ Rubbished A STAGGERING number of blue plastic bags sat forlornly on Christ-

church footpaths all day yesterday, in spite of widely publicised warnings that they would not be collected. At least 60,000 household's are affected by the strike by Christchurch City Council refuse collectors and other manual workers. Householders were told via newspapers, television, and radio to retain their rubbish until further notice, but thousands of blue bags still appeared on the streets. The strike continued yesterday, and rubbish will not now be collected before next week. Raft race FOUR DISABLED persons will take part in the annual raft race down the Waimakariri River from Woodstock to the Gorge bridge on Sunday, February 15. Organised by the Oxford Jaycess, the race is expected to attract entries . from all Christchurch chapters and other organisations. To mark the International Year of the Disabled Person, the Paparua- Jaycees decided to approach Peter Dalton, Neil Tomkin; Graham Congdon, and Roily Creighton to see if they, would, take: part. All are well known disabled sportsmen, Condon having,.represented New Zealand in inter-

national events. The only, other crewman is Wally Hunt, convener of the Paparua Jaycees. Their raft will be built this weekend. "• . Exhibition AN ART EXHIBITION with an unusual twist will open at the Canterbury Society of Arts Gallery, Gloucester Street, on Monday, February 16.. All the paintings — more than 60of them —will come from private collections in the homes of pupils, old girls, and others associated with Selwyn House School. Fifty different artists will be represented, including Sir Henry James . Warre, J. C. Clarke, Frances Hodgkins, Van der Velden, Nerli, Doris Lusk, Colin McCahon, William Sutton, Brent Wong, and Raymond Ching. “We think it is a special sort of exhibition, because these paintings would otherwise be closeted in private homes. They would never have been available to the public.” said a spokesman for the organiser, the Selwyn House Old Girls’ Association. Some paintings will be for sale, however. The proceeds from these and the entrance charge will go towards a new class-room-library block at the school. The exhibition will run for three days. _