Reporter’s diary

Press, 24 February 1986, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

Saved

THE PRIME MINISTER, Mr Lange, may be interested to learn of a cunning new tactic adopted by the British Secretary for Education, Sir Keith Joseph, in relation to a dispute over teachers’ pay. Sir Keith patiently told the teachers that it was in their own interests that he had refused to give them a substantial pay rise, otherwise "you would be the victims of the inevitable inflationary spiral that would follow such an award, and who would want that?” Hard bargain? A COLLEAGUE left his brolly behind while visit-

ing the Auckland journalism course last October. It was a good one and he badly wanted it back, especially since he had bought it only three hours before he lost it, so a student who is now a reporter with “The Press” was entrusted with the task of bringing it to Christchurch. Unfortunately he mislaid the brolly during the hectic goings-on of the course break-up night, and was mercilessly harangued by our colleague in the following months for falling in his mission. Eventually he was ordered to make what the police would call intensive inquiries as to the brolly’s whereabouts, and found it in New Plymouth, of all places, where it was in

the hands of a young woman member of the course. She had grown attached to the brolly over the months, and did not want to return it to its owner. Would he accept a cheque for it, she asked. Our man reluctantly agreed, and stipulated the odd sum of $22. “That was what I paid for it," he said. Wedding costs BRITISH COUPLES who married in the traditional style spent an average of £3OOO ($7800) on their weddings last year, according to the “Brides and Setting up Home” magazine. This year the same church wedding and reception will cost up to £5OO ($1300) more, the story said. A survey of 800 couples planning to get married this year found that 95 per cent of brides wanted a traditional church wedding. Long engagements were again fashionable, and women were saving for up to two years for a traditional wedding. Not interested BISSER, the new Russian snow leopard at the Bronx Zoo, is all talk as far as sex goes, and what he has to say is just one growl after another. Obtained from the Soviet Union last (northern) summer to mate with female snow leopards at the zoo, Bisser stays in his cage, hissing and growling, whenever a female of the rare species approaches. Sometimes he punches females with a paw in what keepers described as “definitely not a love-tap.” The keepers are concerned about BisSer’s lack of interest in the. opposite sex, particularly since this is the height of the mating season, but they are also understanding. “We think Bisser is having an adjustment problem. It is a new zoo fqr him, new keepers, and ai|Dt of changes,” said

a spokesman. “Once he gets used to things, we think that nature will take its course.”

Alternative use THE HEATHCOTE County Council has been considering the placing of a power-generating windmill on the Port Hills. When councillors were discussing the project at a finance and administration committee meeting, one asked what use it would have. Another replied: "If we put it on full power on a hot summer’s day, you’d have a cool breeze over the city.” That reminded a Christchurch man of the city in America where oldfashioned smudge pots were used during the winter to keep the fruit orchards from freezing. A pall of oily smoke often choked the city, ringed by hills similar to our Port Hills, when there was a temperature inversion. Clear air authorities suggested, tongues firmly in cheeks, that gigantic fans could be built on the hillsides to blow the smoke into the desert Both out

AN ON-GOING raffle at the Avonhead Tavern would have been won by a patron who died recently. Appropriately enough, the winning horse that he had drawn was disqualified. Whoops THE POLICE, who found a large number of cannabis seedlings growing on the defendant’s property, had actually gone into the property by mistake while seeking the defendant’s neighbour on an unrelated matter, defence counsel told Judge Pain in the District Court at Greymouth. “Pot luck,” the Judge commented.

— Peter Conner