Reporter’s diary "

Press, 2 June 1984, Page 2

Reporter’s diary "

So near... WHAT IT must have been like to win New Zealand’s first million-dollar lottery was the talk of the country yesterday. We wonder how many spared a thought for the wretched souls whose tickets were one off the big one... ... but so far PERHAPS it is just as well that there were no prizes for being one off the winning number, since the novelty of instant millionairism has prompted some flights of fancy. Mr Ossie Anderson, the well-known seller of Golden Kiwi tickets in Armagh Street, was told by no fewer than four people at different times yesterday morning .that a relative of theirs had missed out by one digit on becoming a millionaire. Dart attempt “HOPE,” the support group for children suffering from cancer, will benefit from the money raised when Mr Dennis Murray tries to set a darts record at the Avonhead Tavern today. Starting at midday, Mr Murray, aged 34, will try to score as many points as he can in the following hours. “I’ve always wanted to set a record, and if I can help a good cause at the same time, so much the better,” said Mr Murray. Eight dart players from the *Royal Hotel, Huddersfield, Scored

1,358,731 in 24 hours in 1981, but the Guinness Book of Records does not have an entry for a single player’s highest score. For Mr Murray’s effort to qualify as a record, identical tapes from two adding machines must be produced. Almost boned out LAWRIE THIN counts himself lucky that he will still be able to take the bids at the auction after the Associated Bottling Company’s ninth annual bottle show this week-end. Having contracted a “bug” during the week, he had been told by his doctor not to eat anything for 24 hours. On the very first bite of the first thing he ate after the fast — a piece of fish — he got a bone stuck in his throat. “I was at the hospital for three hours while they got the thing out. I didn’t think I would be in any shape to do the auction, but my voice seems to have come right,” said Mr Thin, himself a bottle fancier and a member of the organising committee. The public will be admitted free to Pioneer Stadium from midday to 5 p.m. today, and from 10 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. tomorrow. The antique bottle show is being held in conjunction with an antique dealers and collectors’ display. Railway outing THE FIRST passenger train to run on the Weka Pass Railway Society’s line will

leave the storage depot at McKenzies Road at 11 a.m. on Monday. Adults and children may ride to Frog Rock and back for $4 and $2.50 respectively, with an hour’s stop for lunch. The afternoon “service,” leaving at 2.30 p.m., will travel to Weka Pass and back. The train will be pulled by a diesel locomotive. Corporate jungle THERE IS no simple recipe for success in the corporate jungle, according to the president of Shell Canada, who assessed the situation thus: “The aggregate capability in a major, integrated petroleum corporation is constructed from the skills of a large number of persons with widely varied training, aspirations, and commitments. Through the exercise of effective and sophisticated management skills, these individual capabilities are so confined that they achieve maximum effectiveness. The result is a company such as Shell Canada.” Ancient operation? IT IS often said that ancient races knew more than we were aware of, but a Christchurch woman was nevertheless surprised to be told by a friend that her newlyborn granddaughter had been delivered by Syrian section. -H'Peter Comer