Reporter's Diary

Press, 26 February 1981, Page 2

Reporter's Diary

Devalued DECIMAL currency has been with us for about 14 years now but it seems -that some of us still cannot learn. Yesterday’s item about the proposed ramp between the Canterbury Museum and the Robert McDougall Art' Gallery gave the cost of the gallery as $25,000 when it was built in 1932. It should have been 25,000 pounds ($50,000). ’ Bowker foimtaiii THE BOWKER FOUNTAIN in Victoria Square has been playing fifty years today. It was officially opened on February 26. 1931. At the time it was built it was one of orily 64 in the world of its kind. There were then 41 illuminated automatically playing fountains in the United States and one in England, at Bournemouth. The Christchurch fountain was the first built in the

Southern Hemisphere. The donor, Henry Layton Bowker, came to Christchurch from England in 1864. He later set up business as a grocer on the site of the present Vacation Hotel in Colombo Street. In his will he left $2OOO for the erection of a fountain or statuary at the front of the proposed town hall or some other place. The fountain was eventually built 10 years later — but it had to wait another 40 years for the Town Hall. English rose LADY DIANA SPENCER will have the honour of being ■ the first English rose to marry an heir to the British Throne in 320 years. If Prince Charles becomes King she will be the first English consort in more than 430 years. The last English girl to marry an heir was Anne Hyde, daughter of the Earl of Clarendon, who married James, Duke of York, in

1660. But by the time he came to the Throne as James II in 1685 Anne had died and he was married to Mary of Modena, an Italian princess. We have to go back to Catherine Parr, Henry VIII’s sixth and last wife, for. another English consort. She married Henry in 1543. Henry VIII, incidentally, went abroad only twice to find a wife. The two foreigners were Katherine of Aragon and Anne of Cleves.

Suspicious THE AUCKLAND POLICE are getting a little embarrassed about one of their well used police vans. When residents of the western suburbs see the weary “white elephant" prowling the neighbourhood they become suspicious that it .might be linked with, the' 2000 burglaries in ‘ the area each month. When they report the activites of the white rusty van to local police there is often an embar-. rassed cough when . the registration number is given. The police have on several occasions had to produce their identi-

fication cards to concerned citizens while patrolling their beat. Shade too early? TREES on the median strip of Bealey Avenue are starting to change colour, their autumn tones giving warning of approaching winter during this last “official” week oY summer. Take-over?

TELEVISION New Zealand’s “Mainland Touch,” to start again on March 2, has had a bad omen for its future in election year. One of those involved in the day-to-day running of the programme was recently sitting at home watching television with his daughter, aged two, when the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) appeared on the screen. The daughter asked who he was. That was Mr Muldoon. "Who is Mr Muldoon?” he asked her. The daughter paused, and then came out with a gem that has the programme crew more than a little worried. “He’s the editor,” she declared, .. .. L