Reporter’s diary

Press, 25 October 1985, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

Glass top

THE NEW high-rise building going up in Victoria Street, north of Salisbury Street, is already an imposing presence, rivalling the recently completed Bishopspark apartment tower in the same block. Designed by Alun Wilkie Associates, the building has just been capped with a distinctive feature. The protruding lift well on the seven-storey building has a glassed-in machine room at the top.’ Regional offices of the Education Department will move into the open-plan building some time next year, bringing together activities now going on in seven buildings round Cranmer Square.

Christmas appeal BRIAN TURNER, director of Christian World Service, the aid and development division of the National Council of Churches, said that the annual Christmas appeal for global aid could help service the promotional needs of any New Zealand group that wants to raise money for Africa on

December 21. He was referring to a call by the Tamworth Ethiopia Appeal network for countries outside

Britain to hold Mini-Aid concerts on that date. It might be possible to link such efforts with the normal

New Zealand fund-raising event at that time. Such efforts would use Christmas appeal channels to get their funds to Africa. That would not be difficult for Christian World Service, which was one of six participating agencies in the New Zealand Live Aid for Africa televised appeal in July. The agency also worked with community groups that wanted to run associated activities in Christchurch. Sold out GETTING TICKETS to a Sydney concert can be a wicked business. An announcement is made about a coming attraction, and you have to stand back or get trampled. In Christchurch, concert-goers might be squeezed in for the March Dire Straits concert, but they will at least get in to the Showgrounds. In the same month, Dire Straits has 10 Sydney concerts at the Entertainment Centre. They were sold out within a few hours of the announcement. Wem is it BACK IN July, an Upper Riccarton man sent in an English pub drinks coaster advertising tasty New Zealand lamb specials. A woman from Montreal had seen the coaster in a pub at Much Wenlock, Shropshire. After a story and photograph of the coaster were printed in “The Press,” the local man, Pat Bretherton, sent a copy to the Wem Brewery. He had been born in Wem, a village where brewing had been started on a large scale in 1583. In return, he was told that the brewery’s Wem Special Bitter was named as the overall best cask-conditioned draught beer in Britain. It won the championship trophy at the brewing industry international awards in May. The brewery’s product has been well known for many years. Mr Bretherton says it has been said that “there were many people outside Shropshire who only knew Wem alcoholically.” When he was born, the small village had 26 pubs. Mr Bretherton has been making beer and wine at home for about 18 years. His beer won first prize in the lager class this year in the Canterbury Amateur Winemakers’ Club competition. |

Two on one ;

THE ST JOHN Ambulance Association was interested to hear about the sale of the Ohoka country church to people who intend converting it into a house. St John owns a section at Waddington, just this side of Sheffield, and has it on the market at $15,000. The section holds two old wooden churches. They have been used as bunk accommodation for St John cadets. Enterprising BUSINESS enterprise schemes, such as the one approved by the Canterbury Development Corporation, are the going thing in Britain, where they were started at Scotland’s Stirling University. Bull Tudehope, a New Zealander, participated in the first Scottish scheme. He has been marketing a novel form of gift soap in England since early last year, and his customers include the large Boots Chemist chain. He is also expanding into the hotel and motel industry. His soaps are shaped like beans and bean pods. Another young man has developed a lightweight bicycle that can be folded up and either carried under an arm or wheeled along like a child’s pushchair when traffic gets too heavy. There is no danger ■ of oil stains from a cycle chain. The triangular bike is powered by a dry glass fibre-reinforced belt, which is faced with nylon. A young Scottish photographer turned a seven-year, hobby into a successful business, taking “Scanograph” panoramic photographs of landscapes that are selling well. He has faced some tricky circumstances. He and his fiancee were climbing to the top of a remote area on the island of Rhum during the rutting season when stags almost butted them over the edge. Thinking ahead HISTORY does not, relate whether a Hornby worker who went to a twenty-first birthday function recently was a former boy scout, but he certainly was prepared. He took his caravan to the party hall in Linwood, had a rousing good time, slept overnight in the caravan, and was up the next morning to help to clean the hall. —Stan