Reporter’s diary

Press, 21 April 1986, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

First anniversary A SOUVENIR table napkin from the First World War has been unearthed by a St Albans woman. Her father returned to New Zealand with the napkin after he had taken part in functions to mark the first anniversary of the Gallipoli landing. He had been wounded at Gallipoli, and died 50 years ago. The napkin, printed on rice paper, describes the procedures for marching to a memorial service in Westminster Abbey, then to the Hotel Cecil for a memorial luncheon. After lunch, the Anzac troops marched to His Majesty’s Theatre for a matinee, where ah unknown Mr Hughes presented medals for distinguished conduct. The King and Queen attended the memorial service, and General Sir William Birdwood, "The Soul of Anzac” was at both events. Dominion status SOME TIME ago the Returned Services’ Association was criticised for calling its supreme body the dominion executive. Such outmoded titles should go, in favour of national, said the critic. Imagine a Wellington R.S.A. member sitting with a copy of the "Dominion” newspaper on his knee, a glass of Dominion bitter in his

hand, watching the InterDominion Trotting Championships on his Dominion Rental television. Outmoded? Washing powder FISH OFFAL could wash whiter, if results from Norwegian tests come up to expectations. Scientists at Marine Biochemicals in north Norway have discovered that enzymes from fish digestive systems give a higher washing activity at lower temperatures than the enzymes extracted from warm-blooded animals and from plants. This means that the washing powder is more efficient at low temperatures, which contributes towards energy savings. Better luck A BRITISH thriller writer who has a successful novelist’s work background — van driver, tractor worker, milkman, art school student, bus driver, and policeman — may be in luck, even through his third novel went nowhere in the bestselling stakes. John Milne’s “Out of the Blue” has won a £5OO prize for young writers of promise. He got out of the police game soon after tie “booked” his chief superintendent’s car. Publishing companies are now vying

for three novels he has not yet written.

No thanks

THE SPECIAL relationship between Britain and the United States obviously has its limits, says a London newspaper reporting on a proposal to have the American state of Connecticut adopt a replica British warship as its official flagship. The idea was turned down flat by the Legislature. The state Government could not forgive the H.M.S. Rose for firing broadsides at a borough in 1775. One senator said it would be like the state of Hawaii adopting a replica of a 'Japanese aircraft carrier as its state ship. Hernias ahoy A CHRISTCHURCH woman had been to a workshop at College House when she discovered her station waggon had a puncture. The seminar was on “holistic healing,” but it did not seem to apply to tyres. She had to enlist the help of five strapping young males who were passing. None had a clue how to work the jack, and earnest discussion and halfremembered Meccano techniques did not help. The solution was simple: with a mighty heave-ho, four lifted up the car while the fifth changed the wheel ... very fast.