Reporter’s diary

Press, 5 December 1985, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

Wrenched IT MAY not have been a hardened criminal roaming the Merivale streets the other night, but the loss is no easier to take with that in mind. A beaten metal gate sign has been at a corner of Rugby Street and Repton Street since a house there was built more than 80 years ago. It was untouched even during several years when the house was vacant. Now the sign — The Moorings — has been ripped off the gate. It did not come loose from its moorings accidentally. It was obviously wrenched loose. People who steal signs usually have them where only a few can see them. The Moorings was enjoyed by anyone who passed the gate. The owner would like to wake up some morning soon to find it back where it belongs. As they say, no questions asked. Who did it? A WAIMAIRI councillor,

Des King, was complaining the other day about the state of grass that should be I mown by the council. He was assured that everything possible was being done to cope with the unusually lush growth brought about by persistent spring rain. He I then said he was unhappy I with the untidy way grass • verges had been cut in Cavendish Road. The | trouble is, neither Waimairi I staff nor contractors have [ mown those verges. Now i councillors would like to i know the identity of the r phantom mower. If he could i smarten up his act a bit, ! maybe he could be peri suaded to extend his work i to other areas.- V

Horn hitters PICKETS outside Carruca House, the Christchurch Transport Board’s headquarters, yesterday had a sign asking drivers rounding Cathedral Square to honk if they supported the bus drivers. There was scattered tooting, but if anyone was doing a count of the honks, they would have to take the multiple toots from some vehicles into account. One driver tooted as he pulled away from a bus stop that has become a free parking space during the strike. Once in a while, a taxi-driver honked. A City Council truck and a Cargo truck honked. At one point, a bunch of larrikins shouted abuse from a safe distance across the Square, calling the drivers scabs who should do some work. The

louts were amusing themselves by pulling out the tin liners of litter bins and flinging them against building walls. A worker in a nearby building, still smarting from the time when he was arrested in South Canterbury for misuse of a car horn, said that traffic officers should crack down on the honkers. Foundry A WELLINGTON woman who has been trying to trace the history of a Sydenham foundry and her family’s association with it has found on a trip here that the old foundry buildings, except for an original cottage and a corner building, have been demolished. The woman has rummaged round and found an old Sydenham Borough book in the rubble, along with about 40 photographs and some negatives. She is trying to collect any information she can about the Booth, McDonald foundry in Carlyle Street, and would be delighted to hear from anyone with memories of working there, or with memories of friends and relatives who worked there. The woman’s great-great-grandfather was George Booth, first Mayor of Sydenham. His son, also George Booth, was Mayor of Sydenham three times. The woman can be reached through us. Splashball

A SOCCER game planned for the Avon River in February will be played wet or fine, but mostly wet. The St Albans-Shirley Soccer Club has sought City Council permission, which it will prob-

ably get, to use part of the river on Shrove Tuesday (February 11). That part will be the city centre stretch between the Armagh Street and Victoria Street bridges. The river there has lined stone banks, and its bed is mainly shingle. The water football game would harm neither the banks nor the bed with its scrambling and splashing. No other part of the river is suitable for such a game. It will be played between two teams of five, at lunch-time. Players will be able to use the historic horse-watering ramp to enter the river. Desert ski-ing ANOTHER kind of water sport is being promoted in Jordan, where tourists go mainly for the ruins and the desert landscape. The first international water-ski jump championships were held recently at Jordan’s only port, Aqaba. Even King Hussein participated in the Red Sea festivities by showing crowds how he could ski on one foot. Similar skijump contests will be held in the next two years, and Jordan will try to attract well-to-do tourists to an international water-ski centre. Visitors will be able to wind surf, dive to coral reefs, fish, and ride camels along the shore. For ordinary Jordanians, water skiing is a costly sport which few have taken up. It is often a chore to reach the water, which is at the end of a 300 km road from the capital. The road is often jammed with cars, and is regarded by many drivers as hazardous. -£» —Stan Darling