Reporter’s diary

Press, 10 September 1984, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

Super trees

IMPORTED German sausage skins are playing a key role in a Forest Service programme to develop a radiata pine “super-tree.” The sausage skin bags, made of cellulose, are put over the female flowers of selected trees in the Forest Service’s seed orchard at Amberley, in North Canterbury. This is done near the end of July, when inferior pollen that could contaminate the “super tree” starts to fly on the wind. The elite trees of the orchard are pollinated by windblown pollen from high-quality trees in the orchard or nearby shelter belts. “We aim to produce a large quantity of genetically superior radiata pine seed from Amberley in the next two years,” said a Forest Service scientist, Dr Tony Firth. New approach? RATEPAYERS might be forgiven for thinking that the Rangiora Borough Council has money to burn. In an advertisement calling for tenders for the supply of new plant, the council said, “Highest or any tender not necessarily accepted.” The Town Clerk, Mr Frank Rapley, has confirmed that the council is not using ratepayers’ money to try to set some sort of record. The advertisement should have said, “Lowest or any'tender not necessarily accepted." Tuning out

SATURATION television coverage of the Los Angeles Olympic Games is believed to have been responsible for a drop in radio audiences for the last two months. Statistics gathered by the Broadcasting Corporation’s

audience research unit show that Christchurch radio audiences between June and August were the lowest since early 1980, averaging 16.9 per cent of the entire population aged 10 and over. Radio audiences usually range between 17 and 19 per cent of the population. The trend was similar in other parts of New Zealand. 100-hymn album MR JOHN PHAIR, of Christchurch, is looking for a choir with plenty of stamina and a liking for religious songs. He wants to record an album of 100 popular hymns for sale in New Zealand. Mr Phair is convinced that there would be a market for the record. He

has had inquiries from three choirs so far.

Extended season

BECAUSE of popular demand, the Court Studio’s guest production, “Conversations with a Fainthearted Feminist,” has had its season extended until the end of this week. The play is a dramatisation by the New Zealand actress and television presenter, Heather Lindsay, of a book entitled “Letters from a Fainthearted Feminist” The book, by ah English writer, Jill Tweedie, first appeared as a weekly column in “The Guardian,” and takes a humorous view of feminism. Miss Lindsay plays Marth, a second-time-married house-

wife and mother of two teen-agers and a newish baby. Marth is 38, and longs to put into practice the precepts of the women’s movement, but is thwarted at every turn.

Ice circus CANTERBURY people will have the chance to see The Great Moscow Circus on Ice in Hagley Park from January 25 to February 3 next year. The ?5 million circus will be shipped in its entirety from Russian. Seventy-five humans will perform on ice in the 5500seat big top, but the most engaging act is said to be skating bears playing ice hockey.

—Peter Corner