Reporter’s diary

Press, 9 December 1983, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

Sectarian strife

AN INTER-DENOMINA-TIONAL church conference to be held in Wellington soon did not get the theme first suggested for it. One of the organisers wished to emphasise the ecumenical nature of the conference and to encourage the particpants to come together. But his fellow, organisers througijt his proposed theme just a little too much. It was: “These capricious and competing sects, The maggots of corrupted texts.”

Leaking the story WHISKY is not the national drink of Scotland; rather it is claret, if a book published in Edinburgh recently is to be believed. “Knee Deep in Claret,” by Billy Kay and Cailean Maclean, dates the flourishing wine trade between the French and the Scots from the twelfth century when Bordeaux was regarded as the “bloodstream of the Auld Alliance.” So strong was the belief in whisky as the prime evil that claret was considered the acceptable drink of the nineteenth century temperance movement, with Alexander Carlyle, a pillar of the kirk, suggesting the cure for one alcoholic as “a pint of claret a day and long rides on rough country roads.” During total abstinence a rural minister who quietly ordered a case of claret while attending the General Assembly, was told by a church elder that a wooden box awaited him at the local station. “Quite so. Tammas. Just a few books I was buying while in Edinburgh.” “Ah, weel sir. I wadna be ower lang. They’re leakin’.” Reprints HODDER and Stoughton, the publishers, have decided to revive several children’s classics at the suggestion of Mrs Betty Gilderdale, who wrote a book abut New Zealand’s children’s books to 1980. The first three titles have already been published. They are “Silver

Island” by Edith Howes, “Rifle and Tomahawk” by Mona Tracy, and “Six Little New Zealanders” by Esther Glen. Mrs Gilderdale would like to hear from anyone with information about the first two authors. She can be contacted care of Hodder and Stoughton, Auckland. Reunion

FORTY or more descendants of Thomas Grainger and his uncle, Matthew, blacksmiths, will gather at the Allandale Domain near Governors Bay tomorrow to mark the 120th anniversary of the arrival of their forebears. The two men arrived at Lyttelton on December 10, 1863, aboard the Brothers Pride. The ship had had a bad voyage; 46 adults and children died from scarlet fever and typhoid on the way and when she arrived she was put in quarantine at Camp Bay near Diamond Harbour. The two men prospered as blacksmiths for many years in Methven. Members of the family are coming from Australia for the reunion and Thomas Grainger’s last surviving child, Mrs J. D. Pryce, of Auckland, who is in her 80s, will also attend. Bridle Path

THE annual .Bridle Path commemorative walk will be held this Sunday beginning from Ferrymead at 1 p.m. and finishing at the Borough Council Chambers in Lyttelton. A certificate will be issued to all who complete the walk. Buses will leave Cathedral Square at 12.30 p.m. and Lyttelton at 1 p.m. for Ferrymead. They will return from Lyttelton to Ferrymead and the Square from 3.15 p.m. on. Christmas tree THE ANNUAL service for the blessing of the Christchurch Cathedral Christmas tree will be held on Sunday at 11 a.m. The gifts placed under the tree will be distributed by the Save the Children Fund. The presents»are collected for most charges

who request them, including the City Mission, the Salvation Army, Social Welfare, Prisoners’ Aid, and Burwood Hospital. The wrapped presents are undone to ensure an equal share for each recipient and organisation. Small toys, colouring books, and pencils are serit to Lesotho. The donations are shared between the National Council of Churches and the Save the Children Fund.