Reporter’s diary

Press, 10 December 1981, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

That’s nothing THE CONTROVERSY over the bells of St Mary’s, Merivale, reminds a reader of a similar incident when he was visiting a Moslem country recently. He assures us that 10 minutes of church bells on a Sunday is nothing compared with 48 hours of amplified prayer calls from a mullah in one of the mosques during a Moslem festival. At dawn on other mornings, mullahs recite prayers through amplified speakers at the mosques. If you don’t wake up at the sound of the prayer call, it’s doubtful you ever will, he says. Rubbish bags A GROUP of Australian local body representatives who visited Christchurch early last month ;may have an odd view of New Zealand hospitality. Mr W. J. Baker reported to last Monday’s Paparua County 1 Council meeting that he ’ met the visiting officials r . at

Christchurch Airport. Transport for their luggage was provided by the council’s rubbish van. Clubbing together GOLFERS have long been regarded as conservative, and golf clubs as bastions of male control. The end, however, may be nigh. At the Windsor Golf Club’s annual general meeting it was resolved that ladies be eligible for election to the general committee. This was promptly followed by, the ultimate coup de grace when Mrs Margarette O’Neill was voted in as club captain. A semblance of order was restored when Mr Rex Burrell was elected as club vicecaptain. Even in this age of equality, however; the ladies retain their advantage of teeing off from their own separate, and forward, markers. Poppy picker A MYSTERIOUS poppy thief

is at it again, this time in Linwood. The front garden of this particular house was in full unattended bloom. The occupant arrived home one day to find four large red poppies ripped up and taken. But the thief is either a poppy fetishist or very disappointed. On both occasions, he or she has whipped off with old-style large poppies, not at all renowned for their opium production. Kitchen council THE ORDINARY meeting of the town planning committee of the Heathcote County Council began somewhat extraordinarily on Tuesday. The council chamber was being used for planning hearings on the liquid petroleum gas storage facilities in Lyttelton, so the committee had to meet in the staff kitchen of the council rooms. All managed to sit around the two tables in the kitchen with “The Press” reporter sharing the corner between the fridge and sink with a

rubbish bin. Once firmly established in the kitchen, the committee and staff discovered that they did not have a quorum. Anxious minutes ticked by and the third member finally arrived with apologies for being delayed in traffic. But the committee was still without a chairman. The chairman had telephoned to say that he would be about 20 minutes late and the deputy chairman was away. Not to be deterred, the committee elected a new chairman to remain in office until the original chairman arrived. Tanked up A TALE with a happy ending, for once. A car was stolen from outside a house in Christchurch recently but was discovered the next day, undamaged. When the car was stolen it had about a gallon of petrol left in the tank. But when the owner, got her car back she found the tank miraculously hall full.