Repprter’s diary

Press, 29 October 1981, Page 2

Repprter’s diary

Cash slash

Cuts are going to be made at the new Canterbury Public Library which opens on January 11. Very'/expensive cuts actually. The new building will house a new power guillotine to replace the existing item which was purchased nearly 30 years ago for about $l6OO. The new guillotine will cost $25,000. The city librarian (Mr John Stringleman) said that quotes had yet to be called, but expected that one would have to be imported if there were none “spare” in New Zealand. They are not made in this country. These models are .a long way from the humble school chopper. They are used to cut board and paper for rebound books, and to trim the books. Mr .Stringleman said that the library would attempt to sell the present guillotine, but perhaps it could be retained as a threat to slack returners of books. Pride, and fall “AVON PRIDE Week,"

which has been plugged by the National . candidate for Avon, Mr Colin McNicholl, is not going to hold the front page, it seems. The candidate sent a letter around .’ the electorate calling for support for a week (October 31November 7) dedicated to “Avon pride,” to show that it was a "tremendous district to live in.” Everyone must be tremendously , busy because the response to the call to the patriotic was two replies: one suggesting a cycle tour of the electorate (pedal to those marginal polling places, perhaps?); another saying that because Mr McNicholl was National, “we are not interested, thanks." The scheme was news to the Avon Loopies, but then they’re based in the Christchurch Central seat anyway. They had their own pride activities, said a former chairman. Mr McNicholl is undaunted, however. He says that he expects plenty of electorate residents to be doing their own pride "thing.” People should not have to rely on one person to organise everything, he said.

Pig pen again

LAST WEEK’S item about the autograph fashion of the turn of the century, which was blindfolding your subject and making him or her try and draw a pig, has resulted in a "find” of a book containing several such attempts. A reader telephoned to say that she had such an item which was passed to her mother-in-law by a family friend some years ago. The autographs date from 1898-1921. There are some definite pig shapes, says our reader, but “some bisons and Picassos too.” All the blobs are in Indian ink on art . paper. The book is only slightly larger than the autograph diaries of today. Slimmer Eiffel

THE EIFFEL Tower in Paris, is getting a £l9 million facelift and slimming treatment, which is expected to lighten its weight by about 1000 tonnes. Engineers are repairing the ravages of time to ready the structure for the twenty-first century. The loss of that weight, which is about one eleventh of the

total, should prolong its life considerably, although the tower sways by no more than about 20cm in a strong wind. To equate the weight loss to humans, it is all coming off the legs (the first level of the tower). The existing concrete platform is being replaced with thinner and lighter steel. Ten tease

THE BEER market is about to expand with the release of a new- variety by Lion Breweries, called, we think, “Ten” or “10.” The brewery was tight-lipped about the product yesterday, as it has not been launched officially yet. But those big numbers which have been appearing on the bottom of newspaper pages for two weeks are part of the promotion. Lion won’t yet say whether it’s a lager or “normal” beer. A veteran drinker recalls that the last “new” beer on the local market was “Lucky Lager” a few years ago. That product was not true to its name and it has long gone from the shelves.