Reporter’s diary

Press, 26 October 1982, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

Full alert! THE ALCOHOLIC Liquor Advisory Council’s Alcohol Alert Week last week was aimed at making people more aware of the amount of alcohol they drank. The obvious intention, of course, was to persuade them to drink less. In Christchurch, liquor retailers responded to Alcohol Alert Week by making it the week during which the liquor price war hotted up again. Ball games ADVERTISING was a completely different ball game nowadays, Mr Cyril Whitty told a committee meeting of the North Canterbury Hospital Board recently. The board-is looking at ways of limiting the amount of publicity a firm can get out of providing equipment free for hospitals. Gifts from voluntary and service organisations are not included, but gifts from commercial enterprises will be. Mr Whitty advised caution before

discouraging too many firms from giving much-needed equipment. “Half the rugby teams in Christchurch have their names allied to a sponsor now,” he said. But, he added, the board had to be realistic about sponsorship. “Or the next thing we know.” he said, "we’ll have the breweries sponsoring the health services.” Not to mention the tobacco companies, vineyards, sugar refineries, etc. Driving test ALL BLACKS and New Zealand World Cup soccer players took part recently in a test drive to compare the fuel economy of petrol with compressed natural gas. Six vehicles, driven by the players, were used in the test — two 1300 cu cm Ford Lasers, two 1600 cu cm Honda Accords and two 3300 cu cm Holden Commodores. One car of each pair ran on C.N.G., the other on petrol. The personality drivers were each given $75 to buy their fuel on the test

route from Wellington to Auckland. The following amounts were spent; Laser using petrol, $42.28 (5.6 c km); Laser using C.N.G., $20.56 (2.75 c km); Accord using petrol, $36.77 (4.96 c km); Accord using C.N.G., $20.95 (2.82 c km); Commodore using petrol, $56.28 (7.44 c km); Commodore using C.N.G., $27.30 (3.6 c km). “Helpful?” A LETTER to the Editor from an Englishwoman recalls some of the stories about the enterprise of New Zealand troops in World War 11. She writes: “I wonder if any of your ‘senior citizens’ were in the Bth Army zone of Riccione in 1945? If so, they may remember the Y.W.C.A. Hotel, Albergo Stella, 16, Viale Dante. I opened that hotel, and the New Zealanders were most helpful. They soon found some furnishings and generally assisted to get the hotel opened as quickly as possible.” Elizabeth Fanshawe (nee Mansfield) says that she is

now a widow. She was looking through some war-time memorabilia and came across a notice which used to be on, the hotel noticeboard, giving meal-times, etc. She also found a copy of the “Crusader,” and books of cartoons of Jon’s “Two Types.” “Memories of those days came flooding back to me,” she says. “Do any of your readers also remember the R.A.F. fly-past in Udine? I was very proud to, be invited to that wonderful show. It would be nice to hear from anyone' who was in that area during the last year of the war.” Mrs Fanshawe’s address is: 13 Marchwood Court, Newcastle Lane, Penkhull, Stoke on Trent, England. Continuing saga THE LONGEST British Act of Parliament was recently unrolled from the Lords’ archives fof a 8.8. C. camera crew exploring both Houses of Parliament for a series to be called “The Great Palace.” The parchment of the Land Tax Act 1791 is

1170 feet long and stretched through the Queen’s Robing Room and right across the vast Royal Gallery. It is entirely hand-written. The 8.8. C. took two years to negotiate the necessary permission to get into all the Westminster rooms they wanted. Who's he? FAME, for Don McLean, could well be dwindling. The singer-songwriter who made his name a decade ago with “American Pie” was in Christchurch yesterday for a one-night stand at the Town Hall. A reporter from “The Press” was trying to get hold of him in the afternoon to arrange an interview. She rang the Chateau Regency, and asked if Benny Levin (Don McLean’s promoter) was staying there. "No,” replied the operator. So the reporter then asked if Don McLean was there. “There’s no-one of that name here," the operator said, blankly. “He’s not staying with the Air New Zealand crew is he?"