Reporter’s diary

Press, 28 February 1986, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

Indefensible MR DAVID LANGE’S sense of humour — lost momentarily when he was confronted by protesting teachers last week — returned after Britain’s new Chief of Defence Staff, Sir John Fieldhouse, apparently suggested at a reception at Parliament that New Zealand could spend a little more money on defence, and, in particular, the Navy. Chatting in private to journalists later, the Prime Minister remarked jokingly: “They say that we’re the weak link in the Western Alliance, but we’re the only country to sink a Russian ship since the Second World War ...”

Man’s best friend THE NEW ZEALAND Kennel Club will celebrate its centenary this year, having been founded in Christchurch in 1886. In recognition of this the Canterbury Museum is holding an exhibition called “Man’s Best Friend,” which looks at some aspects of the relationship between man and dog. The exhibition will open on Monday and run for two months. The dog is thought to have been the earliest animal to become domesticated. Its relationship with man goes back at least 10,000 years, possibly longer. Nowadays it is the most widespread of ' domestic animals, its range extending from Pole to Pole. The first dogs reached New Zealand with the earliest Polynesians about 1000 years ago, but'that breed l&now extinct. The

Canterbury Museum exhibition includes kennel club and breed memorabilia, books, pictures, accessories, and a selection from the museum’s own collection, ranging from a Maori dog-skin cloak to elegant porcelain statuettes.

Arrangements WITH THE price of postage stamps to rise yet again, a Christchurch woman recalled a prized memento that always makes her appreciate the invention of the telephone. It is a postcard that was sent to her mother in Sydenham from her aunt in St Albans in 1914. In the absence of

telephones, even mere shopping arrangements had to be made by mail days in advance. The rose-decorated card read: “My dear Sis, can you meet me on Wednesday at 3.10 p.m. to go on a Shopping jaunt. If you are not there, I will conclude that you have made other arrangements, so do not trouble to write. Hope you are well. So long, with love, Nell.” Well suited WHEN Mr Hugh Lancelot Brown celebrated his sixtieth wedding anniversary in Richmond, Nelson, recently, his loving wife could honestly say that he . had not changed at all. Mr Brown wore the same suit in which he married the former Miss Lucy Buckingham at - Putangahau, Waikawa Valley, in 1926. Mr and Mrs Brown were both teachers, and taught’ at

schools in Southland before shifting to Nelson about 40 years ago. Their three children, their families, and some of Mr Brown’s former students attended the celebrations. At the age of 90, Mr Brown proved that he can still recite many of Banjo Patterson’s verses. Good clean fun WHAT A magnificent sight the old cars have made on the roads round Christchurch since the Pan Pacific vintage rally started. There must be something about motoring as it once was. Never have we seen so many drivers and passengers grinning and laughing as they tootle along. Still, they are not on the way to work ... .... ... and running repairs RELIABILITY was not all it might have been with those early cars, however, and it still isn’t A reader saw a 1922 Oldsmobile heading down the Mein North Road towards Christchurch last Monday with the passenger lying along the front left mudguard, tinkering with something on the engine under the side-opening bonnet Our reader can only presume that the passenger was,. holding something on, or making the odd running adjustment Whatever he was doing was working.' r Alternative use A GENTLEMAN in the

gift trade in Christchurch has a surprising number of gourmets among his customers. One easily identified type has long, lank hair and wears trendily shabby clothes. This type almost always buys parsley cutters. They are apparently just the thing for cutting up marijuana. ■ -’3 . ■■ V ■. = • William Beatson THE DESCENDANTS of William Beatson (18071870), who arrived at Nelson in the Midlothian in 1851 and became a renowned early colonial architect in the region, will hold a reunion. William Beatson had seven sons — William, Robert, John, David Guthrie, Arthur, Charles, and Walter — and four daughters, one of whom died in infancy. The other three were Maria (unmarried), Emma (married William Giblin), and Catherine Alice (married Samuel Drew). Anyone with information may write to Mr Guthrie Beatson, “The Peninsula,” R.D. 1, Motueka. Comparisons A RECENT edition of “Publishing News” in Britain carries a cartoon of a woman in a bookshop that is advertising Keri Hulme’s Booker Prizewinning novel, “The Bone People.” The shop assistant is telling her: “No Madam. -You will find that it lacks, the pace of ‘Gray’s Anatomy’.” —iPeter Comer