Reporter’s diary

Press, 20 February 1986, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

The Lermontovs THE END of the Russian cruise liner Mikhail Lermontov was as violent and untimely as that of the man after whom she was named. Mikhail Lermontov, soldier, and probably the greatest Russian poet after Pushkin, was born in 1814. He was a descendant of a Scots adventurer, Learmont, who arrived in Russia in the seventeenth century. Of rather fiery temperament, the young Lermontov was in a fashionable hussars regiment stationed at St Petersburg when an “inflammatory” poem that he wrote about the death of Pushkin in a duel resulted in his being exiled to the Caucasus for a few months to cool off. Apart from his poetry, for which he is best known, Mikhail Lermontov wrote one novel, “A Hero of Our Time.” The death of Pushkin in a duel failed to dampen Lermontov’s - enthusiasm for settling matters of honour in such fashion, which proved unfortunate for him. In 1840 he survived a duel with the son of the French Minister in St Petersburg. The next year he fought one with another soldier, a major, over some trivial insult, and was killed on the spot. He was 26 years old. The ship that bore his name was 13 years old when she sank in the Marlborough Sounds last Sunday. Richard’s Alfa THE ROW about whether Richard Hadlee should keep the Alfa Romeo car he won has probably had more publicity in Australia than in New Zealand, judging from newspapers we have seen. The general view in Australia seems to be quite strong that Hadlee won the car fairly and squarely, and that he should keep it. Whether he does or not, the Alfa Romeo people there are not slow in getting their mileage out of having given the car away. An advertisement in red ink on the front page of the national daily, the “Australian," trumpets: “Richard Hadlee: You have won three cars

and kept only one, the Alfa 90. You are not only a good cricketer, but you also have great taste in motor-vehicles.” The equaliser? A GENIAL Kaiapoi man who used to be quite well known to the police, as they say, has done the constabulary a couple Of good turns recently. First he found a bag containing about 30 sticks of gelignite beside the road through the Hundalee Hills. Like a good citizen, he turned the explosive in to the Rangiora police. Three months later, since no-one had claimed the gelignite, he went to the police station and asked was he not entitled to have it?” “No,” said the police, politely but firmly, but they would make sure that he got a mention in the next New Year Honours List. Then, while driving in New Brighton on Monday, he found a police baton lying in the road near what appeared to be a stolen car. It was of the short variety, but it would have made a nice souvenir or a handy weapon in a “blue.” Then he thought better of keeping it. What would the police think if they stopped his car and found one of their batons rolling round the floor? So he handed it in, and was assured that the constable who lost it would get a good-natured “hard time” from his colleagues. (Losing one’s baton is apparently a very personal thing — a bit like losing one’s false teeth.) Could it be that these responsible deeds were a form of insurance for any future brushes with the law? “Certainly not,” said the reformed burglar. “They’re more of an equaliser for the past.” Rangi Ruru OLD PHOTOGRAPHS of Rangi Ruru Girls’ School are needed by the producers of a booklet that will be used for fundraising leading up to the school’s centenary in 1989. The organisers of the campaign have set an ambitious target of $750,000 for new building including a

School of Music. Old photographs of buildings at Rangi Ruru would be especially welcome, since old photographs of pupils seldom mean much except to the pupils concerned. Anyone who can help should telephone 556-048. Mad dogs and ... THE DOG-OBSESSED English are planning an auction soon of what they call “dog memorabilia.” High on the list of items for sale will be a selection of brass and leather dog collars which belonged to Lord Byron. (The great poet was sometimes painted with his dogs.) Among them, and expected to fetch up to $4OOO, is a brass collar with a serrated edge which belonged to Byron’s mastiff. Nelson, an animal so ragingly devoted that he had to be shot. Little devils AMERICAN JARGON has got so bad, it seems, that children there no longer just play. A reader recently returned from the United States reports that a group of five-year-olds climbing on frames and swinging on swings were said by their teacher to be “heavily involved in uninstructed motor activity.” Merging traffic DURING the Auckland rush hour recently a car was seen merging very slowly and not too wisely across lanes of the Southern Motorway. Then it dawned on motorists just behind that the merging car had no driver. A man could be seen chasing it as the car finally hit the centre strip and rolled on to its side. The car had been parked near the top of the Khyber Pass onramp while its driver talked to occupants of another vehicle. Not surprisingly, traffic stopped as it started to roll. New beast? A BIG white van lumbering round Christchurch the other day carried a sticker across the back declaring that it was "the abominable slow van.” —Peter Comer