Reporter’s diary

Press, 24 September 1983, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

Flagged away SOMEONE at the new Canterbury Savings Bank, at the corner of Cashel and High Streets, is confident of the Ranfurly Shield match result today. The holder, Canterbury, has the match well under control, they believe. The bank flew two flags yesterday, one red and black, the other blue and white (pictured). The former flew at the top of the flag pole, the later at half-mast.

Rent-a-vine RENT-A-VINE and produce your own red Bordeaux is the offer made to enthusiastic wine drinkers by two

vinegrowers in the Cotes-de-Bourg region of south-west France. For 2490 francs (about $486) a year, you can rent 100 vines which will produce between 100 and 180 bottles, depending on the year. Mr and Mrs JeanYves Bechet, owners of the Chateau Fougas, a 10-hec-tare property at Lansac, offer to tend the vines throughout the year and bottle the wine. But the “tenant” can help with the harvest and have his name on his own bottles. Diplomatic dog THE GOVERNOR-GEN-ERAL»|§ir David Beattie, is

thinking of applying for diplomatic immunity for one of his dogs, named Doris. Doris frequently ends up in the pound in Newtown, Wellington. Sir David said that Doris had cost him quite a considerable amount of money to gain her release from the pound. She would leave Government House, go to a nearby high school and sniff around, he said. If she was not caught she would go on to a local hospital kitchen where, if she was lucky, she would get a bone. From there it was off to Newtown, and probably straight to the dog pound. Shell mystery IT SEEMS the mystery of the shells found in Christchurch earlier this month has not been solved after all. A former staff sergeant with the Royal Regiment of the New Zealand Artillery, has written to Reporter’s Diary to say that the 18pounder shell was not an anti-aircraft weapon. With a maximum elevation of 20* degrees it could not have been fired against aircraft, he says. The 3.7 in practice shell found in a neighbouring garage, was an antiaircraft weapon. The gunners’ motto was “Übique,” or everywhere, the former gunner says. Time lag SEEN in a London bar: “Lower inflation hasn’t helped me. Things are the same as ever — too much month left over when I.get to the end of my