Reporter’s diary

Press, 30 December 1985, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

Fenced out

AN ASHBURTON manufacturer is producing a flexible fence designed to keep small children from wandering to the sides of swimming pools. The kitset Flexi Fence is being sold as a child-resistant safety measure which cannot be climbed or penetrated by toddlers, but which can be easily stepped across by older swimmers. The fence is also to be sold to people who what to protect young children and pets from traffic or other hazards. The fence is made of treated polypropylene mesh. Hightension elastic is used to provide “drop down” access at one end. Adults can unlock it for easy access. Once the pressure is released, the fence snaps back and locks into place. John Welsh, the manufacturer, says that 40 per cent of sales are being made for uses other than swimming pool safety. Making waves WARM WINDS were gusting across the Canterbury Plains on Saturday, but none of the picnickers seen by a Christchurch family on

a trip south from Christchurch seemed to be taking much notice. Campers and day trippers at Chamberlain’s Ford, south-west of Springston, were just setting up shelters and going about their business, trying to keep their places in holiday books as the wind kept flipping pages for them. The normally-shallow Selwyn River was fast and brown because of rain in the hills. Young swimmers and floaters were enjoying the opportunity to skim along without scraping bottom. Younger children were standing on the stony bank, tossing rocks and sticks into the flow. Then came an end to civilisation as we used to know it. A jetboat, also taking advantage of the extra water, came down the river at a fast clip, taking no notice of the other activities. Another followed. After a while, they came back upstream the same way, as if no-one else was there. A woman said it seemed the same as riding a motorcycle through a playground -- not safe, and far from civilised behaviour. No platform ELEPHANTS could not be used as a highly visible

convenient political platform in one Indian state during its recent election campaign. Assam lost a traditional form of transport for election officials because the elephant was the symbol of the Assam People’s Front, one party contesting the election. The election commission said that the continued use of elephants this year could stir controversy. Elephants had been the best way for officials, ballot boxes, and papers to move through the region’s swamps and jungles. Jeeps were used as much as possible. The Assam People’s Front was not hurt by the restriction. It won the election. Cave outlook A NORTH New Brighton man had his memories jogged on Friday by Rosemary Britten’s feature on Canterbury coastal cave dwellers. The Worgan family, who had The Hermitage cave on the way from Taylors Mistake to Boulder Bay, were friends of his family, and he spent many cave week-ends along the cliffs. After he was married in 1930, Vai Beaumont and his wife used to sleep in a

bed inside a small cave beside the main cave. It was a roof over their heads. Since there was no door, they had an unrestricted view to the sea. Mr Beaumont had one frightening experience in the cave. He thinks he must have been dreaming because he felt the sea beckoning to him, and the pull was strong. He decided not to go. He and his wife had many visitors in their sheltering place. Most of them were penguins, bobbing in and out all night, even going under the bed. Mr Beaumont remembers the man who rowed the Worgans’ piano across from Sumner to the cave. Cecil Champ was a Canterbury rower, a big man who was able to toss hay bales with one hand. He died about two years ago, in his ninety-fifth year. Steady job IF NAMES mean anything, the editor of the “Santa Claus” movie should have a job for life in the film industry. His name is Peter Hollywood. Great-grandson ROBERT TODD Lincoln Beckwith, the last direct descendjjnt of Abraham Lin-

coin, told “Life” magazine last year that he was a spoiled ferat. He died, at 81, on Christmas Eve, in a Virginia nursing home. He was the great-grandson of Abraham Lincoln, the son of the youngest child of the only son of the American President. He had been married three times, but never had children. Mr Beckwith had a law degree. Aside from that and a few details about his early life, little is known about him. He did not attempt to trade on his heritage. He never discussed his feelings about his family background, said a lawyer. Socially, that was not the done thing. Crackdown IN ETHIOPIA this festive season, people had to be careful when buying Christmas trees. The Government had controlled sales centres and said it would prosecute both sellers and buyers who completed tree transactions anywhere else. The move against illegal sales was made to help prevent deforestation and more severe drought which had been aggravated by unauthorised butting of young conifers. — Stan Darling