Reporter’s diary

Press, 21 July 1982, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

No triffids, please THE CARNIVOROUS Plant Society will hold its first annual general meeting at the Horticultural Hall tomorrow night. The society invites members of the public to attend (7 p.m.). It aims to promote the cultivation of ‘‘these exciting oddities of the plant world.” At present there are more than 100 species in Christchurch private collections. Perhaps they have something to take care of the Australian redback spider, now in Central ' Otago?

What’s in a name? THE FRONT page of the Hornby Anglican parish magazine is devoted almost entirely to seven predictions, based on Bible study. The last four offer hope. The first three are: "We will face a deeper economic and political global crisis”; “A dictator will arise out of the E.E.C. and will trigger the collapse of the world’s economic civilisation”; “Israel will be brought close to annihilation,” The name of the magazine is “Good News.”

Now then .

TWO YOUNG men in a stolen car could not believe their misfortune when they were arrested one evening last week. The car’s owner was visiting a girlfriend when the theft of the car was noticed; she telephoned her husband, who fortunately had had a quicker-than-usual thirst quencher at his local hotel after rugby training. "Phone the police and I’ll drive over," he said. He jumped into his own vehicle and had not driven far when he saw his wife’s car coming towards .him. He flung round to begin the chase. What does one do when tracking a pair of strapping youths? The options depend on whether one is the hero type. Our man decided he definitely was

not. After trailing the car through the city and into the northern suburbs, he began to eye with concern his diminishing petrol supply. Then came his second stroke of luck. He saw a policeman getting into a police car. He shouted to the constable: "Those fellow in the car ahead — that’s my wife’s car.” The chase continued* with the husband leading the police car until the constable had radioed for assistance. Near the Styx bridge the surprised pair were stopped by the constable. They were heading for a joyride on the West Coast, and could net understand how the long arm of the law had overtaken them so soon.

Chain letter

LAST WEEK’S cry for assistance with regard to the “standard chain” formerly in the quadrangle of the Provincial Government Buildings, brought a very quick reply from Mr Derek Brown, a Lands and Survey Department officer, who has researched much of the story. So far nothing is known of the Provincial Council’s facility for checking the accuracy of surveyors’ chain measures, but the Government, in 1877, laid a wooden bay which was converted to concrete in 1896. The links of the chain (or the rarer “broad band") were laid on this kerbing as the instrument was checked between the two terminals. The eastern one of these, with its brass plate and boss, is still on site ready to be reinterred. Mr W. J. A. Brittenden (557-610) would be delighted if any of the Workmen who were deputed to smash the concrete kerbing could let him know when this was done. There was a chain measure on the footpath kerbing of Armagh Street. It was not outside the Provincial Buildings. It was a fivechain bay from Durham Street to Montreal Street. Installed in 1891, it was useless by 1917'because of

the metallic telegraph poles placed on the edge of the footpath. The measure was then laid in Cranmer Square. The chain measure, with its steel links, is now a thing of the past. Even the “steel band” has had to bow to technology. Today, electronics are taking over in this field. Key note

LINCOLN COLLEGE now has a grand piano, and an inaugural recital on it will be given today at 12.45 p.m. by the New Zealand pianist, Maurice Till. The Yamaha baby grand is in the Memorial Hall at the college. The works to be played today will come from those of Schumann, Scarlatti, Chopin, Verdi and Lizst. The piano cost $5BOO. Of this, $2OOO was made available by the college students' association, the rest coming from the Lincoln College Council. Beehive baby,

BETHANY Maternity Hospital in Paparoa Street has provided a splendid service for a good many years: it is certainly nothing to laugh about. A Christchurch woman was entertaining some friends on a recent evening. They began discussing a mutual acquaintance. The hostess, who'has a penchant for the faux pas, said: “You’ll remember her, she had a baby at Bellamy’s.” . Crisp patriot

BRITAIN’S rejuvenated patriotism, after the Falklands crisis, may have extended to that favourite of old, the Smith’s Crisp. The product appeared in a new packet on supermarket shelves this week. Instead of the old red “rustler,” the packet is now mostly white, and dominated by a Union Jack. Perhaps significantly, the chips ’. are not crinkled, but flat. Are Smith’s hoping that the Falklands problem has been ironed out?