Reporter’s diary

Press, 15 January 1982, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

Good service ONE READER believes that the action of a Christchurch motel, which has taken the telephones out of some of its rooms, is a bit “on the nose.” Our informant says that guests can use a telephone at the reception desk. Beside the telephone is a money box and a sign reading “Phone from here if you will, but don’t forget who pays the bill.” He believes this will give a bad impression to the many tourists who use the motel and says it is the first time he has seen anything like it in New Zealand. There is, apparently, no difference in the charge for rooms without a telephone. Old and true AN OLD fly with a rusty hook caught the winning rainbow trout in the Turangi Ten Thousand Association 17day trout fishing competition. Mr Bill Wright, of Palmerston North, found the fly-on the bank of the Tau-

ranga-laupo River, just north of Turangi. three years ago. Last Friday he returned to the mouth of the river and used his find to . catch the 4.5 kg trout which took first prize — a trophy and a $lOOO travel voucher. Cold comfort SOME readers may have felt a sympathetic shiver when they read on Tuesday the story of a Scottish motorist who was found with his lips frozen to the door of his car, after trying to thaw the door lock by breathing on it. The painful tale caused one reader to recall finding a bird in a similar plight when she lived in Central Otago. She was in the habit of putting out a tin filled with honey for the birds. On one chilly morning, she woke to the sound of a young bird’s mournful twitter. It had been eating the honey and its beak had been frozen to the edge of the tin. After careful efforts the bird’s beak was freed.

Understated BRITISH people are famous for the art of understatement. A January issue of a parish magazine reported on the activities of the local Women’s Institute. “Inclement weather was the only thing that marred the birthday party at the December meeting. Apologies were received from all invited guests," the report said. New faces

TWO WOMEN took their 50-year-old friendship one step further last week. They met for the first time. For "half a century Mrs Rosanna Fortune and Miss Olive Meyer, both aged 62. have been exchanging letters and photographs.' They' became penfriends in 1931 when pupils of . Tweed Council School in Berwick, England, wrote to pupils at- Berwick State School in Victoria, Australia. Their meeting came about because Mrs Fortune, whose son lives in Auckland, came to New Zealand from

England to see him. Her son wrote to Miss Meyer in Australia and asked her to come to Auckland. Book worms A BOOK collector, who is interested in India, regularly receives lists of second-hand books which are available from a shop in Calcutta. Some of these books are described as having “pinholes" or "negligible pinholes," as the case may be. These are caused by a kind of worm or lavae, which thrives in the Indian climate and which could be said to have an appetite for literature and books. “Pinholed” books look just as though they have been attacked by the timber pest, borer. While New Zealand may have its share of human bookworms, we have heard no cases of the animal variety. The Canterbury Public Library reports that its biggest book pest is silverfish, which can cause bad damage to the glue and binding of books.