Reporter’s diary

Press, 2 May 1984, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

Not weather-wise MANY CITY-DWELLERS’ comparative ignorance about the weather is notorious among country people. An extreme example was that of a woman who was sheltering on the wrong side of a tree in St Albans from the cold sou’-wester yesterday morning. No doubt she eventually realised her mistake and moved to the sheltered side, but the incident prompted a quick survey of confirmed “townie” colleagues. Although all had noticed the particular boisterousness of the sou’-wester,

which gusted to 40 knots about 7.30 a.m., few had any idea of the direction of the wind. Answers ranged from “easterly?” and “northwest?” to an honest “haven’t got a clue...” Gathering leaves THE GOLDEN carpets of leaves which lay in many city streets after big winds are the subject of strict demarcation as far as the Christchurch City Council is concerned. While the parks and reserves department is happy, indeed proud, to own the autumn leaves while they adorn its trees, as soon as they fall they become the responsibility of the street works division. “Even if they blow out of the (Botanic) Gardens on to the street, we have to carry the can,” said a street works spokesman yesterday. Mild weather with little wind means a slow fall of leaves and a clean-up job lasting for weeks. “What we need now is a few good frosts to knock the leaves off the trees and get it over with,” said the spokesman. Play it again, Sam A MAN waiting to tee off at the Greendale Golf Course last Saturday was approached by another player who said that they were down to play a handicap match, and that they might as well get it over with there and then. The first player agreed, and they set off. After nine holes heavy rain began. It did not let up before a result was reached at the nineteenth. Less determined golfers had long since given up. Cold and soaking wet, the pair even-

tually gained the warmth of the clubhouse to find that each had played the wrong person. Profuse apologies on the second golfer’s part did not quite do the trick. Headmaster remembered THE CENTENNIAL celebrations of Rangiora High School at Easter, followed by Anzac Day, recalled memories of the school’s cadet corps established in 1904 by T. R. Cresswell, the headmaster from 1899 to 1917. Dick Cresswell, scholar, sportsman, and, in the words of one old pupil, a beloved dominie, was interested in all things military. The disbanding of the school’s cadet corps in 1967 must, says that school’s history, have made him turn over in his grave. Although Cresswell wanted a great gathering of old boys at his farewell during the First World War, he was proud that this was not possible because more than 150 of them were serving at the front. He was terribly saddened by the death of Rangiora’s and Canterbury’s first Rhodes Scholar, Henry Stokes Richards, who was killed in the fledgling R.A.F. before setting foot at Oxford to take up his scholarship. Soggy business PERHAPS the Australians should be told that the much-vaunted closer economic relations (C.E.R.) will not enable them to walk on water. An editorial in “The Australian,” in pointing out that Australia could learn valuable economic lessons from New Zealand, and praising the “economic

triumph” achieved by the wage freeze, said that “many Australian firms have considered moving to New Zealand on an offshore basis.” Flexible necks? OVERSEAS tourists, eager to get their hard-earned money’s worth out of the sights and scenery, have earned a new nickname on the West Coast: “Swivelheads.” Big potato PREPARATIONS for President Reagan’s visit next month to his ancestral village of Ballyporeen (population 300) in Tipperary belie the meaning of the village’s name — “the place of small potatoes.” To cope with an invasion of 200 secret servicemen and 2000 journalists, the main street has been tarsealed, an automatic exchange has replaced the crank-handle telephones, and the church where Reagan’s greatgrandfather was baptised in 1829 has been repainted. There is wild talk of building a public convenience; an illicit still preparing a celebratory brew has been reported as being discovered on a nearby hillside, and O’Farrell’s Bar has, of course, been renamed as “The Ronald Reagan Lounge.” Above the pub a souvenir shop has opened, selling everything from Reagan T-shirts and driver’s licence covers to sachets of clay from the Reagan ancestral home at $2 each. That the “big potato” himself will be in Ballyporeen for barely two hours seems to matter not one whit -jPeter Comer L