Reporter’s diary

Press, 6 May 1983, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

Can’t bear it

SEVERAL reports about the attack on Australia’s famous koalas by the Australian Minister of Tourism, Mr Doug Brown, have referred to the creature as a “bear.” A reader points out that the koala is, in fact, a marsupial — “and has been for quite some time.” The reader said that she and her husband had been “gently rebuked” for calling the koala a bear during a recent visit to Australia. Even so, “koala bear” is still a commonly used name for the small grey marsupial in both Australia and New Zealand. This is hardly surprising, since the Concise Oxford Dictionary, as well as describing the koala as “a tail-less arboreal marsupial,” calls it “a native bear of Australia.” Gobbledegook A DARFEELD reader has been battling manfully with an Inland Revenue Depart-

ment information bulletin in the 1982 legislation amendments. While realising that such a volume is not meant for light holiday reading, he thinks that the following passage would be hard to beat: “Note that an activity categorised under sub-para-graph (1) of paragraph (B) of the definition of ‘specified activity’ can only be related to an activity within the same sub-paragraph. Paragraphs (B) (1) and (B) (2) are separate and distinct categories for the purposes of determining whether activities are related activities under paragraph (A) of this definition.” , Noisy chimneys THE HUNTLY power station chimneys are humming like a giant tuning fork in the wind. A public meeting in Te Kauwhata this week was told that a number of residents in Huntly had been disturbed by the noise. Mr Stan Wong, from the Ministry of Energy’s

head office, said that the noise problem occurred because of a “natural frequency” (noise frequency) in the huge chimneys. “The phenomenon was unforeseen and we are working on it,” he said. Royalty THE APPEAL of the British Royal Family is as strong as ever in the Antipodes, as evidenced by the flag-waving throngs which turned out during the recent visit by the Prince and Princess of Wales. However, a colleague was still a little surprised to see in Cathedral Square a “boot boy” — complete with heavy polished boots, dirty jeans, leather jacket, chains, and spiky mohawk haircut — sporting a lapel badge with a picture of Prince Charles.

Akaroa march THE WOMEN of Banks

Peninsula will have the chance to take part in their very own “Mother’s Day Peace March For Nuclear Disarmament” in Akaroa on Sunday. A big Mother’s Day march will be held in Christchurch, and several Akaroa women had planned to drive over to join it. “But we thought: ‘why travel so far when we can have Our own march in our own town?’ ” said a spokesperson for the organisers. The march will start at the Akaroa Hospital at 2 p.m. and finish at the recreational ground. Bottom prices THE LONDON “Daily Telegraph” reports that a young assistant with less than perfect spelling stacked up the empty pate bowls in a delicatessen together with a card, on which she had printed: “bowels 50p.”