Reporter’s diary

Press, 29 August 1981, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

Pink billy goat

A BIG billy goat grazing outside the Bradford dyeworks, in Sumner, has turned into a walking advertisement for the place and its products. While not exactly a goat of many colours, this goat has .managed to dye himself a ■ shade of vivid pinkish-purple. According to the dyeworks staff, the goat was grazing, next to a dye stall beside The dyeworks a few weeks ago and brushed up against the vat. The rain did the rest of the work, distributing the powder dye evenly all over his coat. The staff say that the dye will eventually wash out. A Trojan camel? A CAMEL, it is said, is a horse designed by a committee. So begins am article in the latest issue of the monthly “Standards” .magazine, commenting on the revision of the fire by-law (New Zealand Standard No. 1900, chapter five). Carrying on from the comment about

committees, the article says: “Some people feel that the committee that designed NZSI9OO, chapter five, had a particularly malevolent intention for their creation, arming it with hidden traps for unwary users. Unreliable reports tell of innocent architects marching confidently up to the building inspector’s counter, having carefully unravelled the true intent of the multitude of cross-linked clauses, but emerging hours later with a glazed look, tending to foam at the mouth and nervously shredding their copy of chapter five. More seriously, one user group recently indicated that it thought the by-law was written by “local body and central government employees, with a vested interest in making more rules for them to administer.” Australian opinion HOW DO Australians see New Zealand and New Zealanders these days? Market research by the New Zealand Touricl and Public-

ity Department held group discussions in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane, trying to find the answer, and it has produced a report of its findings., “New Zealanders are usually seen as being like Australian country dwellers were 20 years ago — dignified, co-operative, but friendly in a reserved kind of way, conservative and slowpaced,” the report says. “Many wished Australians were like that now, instead of being selfish, materialistic, and hooked on fhe fastpaced commercial rat-race.” Most Australians expected there to be “no raging night life” here. They still thought of New Zealand as a place that goes to bed at 9 p.m.

Ma in land touch MAINLANDERS will hardly be surprised to learn that it is the South Island that has become better known to Australians. About 80 per cent of all the discussion time on New Zealand related to the South Island, the report said. Three years ago, . when a

similar ' survey was held, Australian knowledge of New Zealand could be summed up as “pretty scenery, bubbling mud holes, Maoris, and sheep.” Now, Australians generalise less. “Pretty scenery” is replaced by specific names: Mount Hutt, Coronet Peak, Mount Cook, Franz Josef, Tasman Glacier.” Lakes and towns, too, are known by name. “The main things known about the North Island were that Auckland was on a big bay and had lots of sailing boats; that Rotorua was full of mud, geysers, hot sulphur pools and Maori villages; and that Wellington was windy, like Hobart.” Instant spinach THE INVENTIVE Japanese have come up with yet another technological masterpiece, destined to make an, expert chef out of the most inexperienced apprentice in the kitchen. According to “Sanyo Global News,” Sanyo is about to release a microwave oven that tells you how

to cook. Voice simulation, combined with a read-out memory function, even kitchen bumblers who have difficulty boiling an egg, should have no trouble whipping up a three-course dinner.. For example, if you push the “spinach” button, a female voice will say: “Stack leaves and stems together and wrap firmly. Lay them on a dish and put the dish on the oven’s revolving plate. Add heat.” Simple. Caveat emptor! ACCORDING to the latest newsletter of the Canterbury branch of the Royal Society of New Zealand, the following was discovered in an instruction manual of a colorimeter made in a developing country: “Guarantee and service after sales: This instrument carries with it. a year’s guarantee against latent defects in material other than semi-conductors, photocells, lamps, meters, filters, electrodes, batteries, or workmanship."