Reporter’s diary

Press, 13 May 1986, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

Parrot fashion MIKE, a bicycle-riding, sun-bathing, 35-year-old parrot, is real. Trained by his owner, Reg Broom, the South American macaw has his own miniature deck chair so he can relax on the beach with Reg. Mike is the lead performer in a parrot circus in Britain, where he rides bicycles, roller skates, does a high wire act, and counts up to 50. Protecting flocks GOAT FARMERS in New Zealand have the choice of 2000-year-old or modem techniques to protect their flocks against predators. Anatolian Karabash guard dogs, which have been used in Turkey for 2000 years to protect flocks against wolf and bear attacks, are being bred by a Western Australian goat and dog breeder, Mrs Sue Freshwater. The modem rustling deterrent is a small radio transmitter attached to a goat. The $l5O transmitter is tuned to a $lO,OOO receiver in a farmer’s home, and an alarm is set off if the transmitter moves beyond a certain distance. The alarm can also be triggered by prolonged fast movement or if the transmitter is removed from the goat. Strange bedfellows WEDGWOOD, the 226-year-old maker of bone china and earthenware, has received a £l5l million (about SNZ377 million) hostile take-over bid from a company best known for Durex contraceptive sheaths. The chairman of London International, Mr Alan E. Woltz, aims to link china cups and condoms in an effort to erase the company’s image as a mere rubber maker. Pa legend LEGENDS which claim that the Canterbury Provincial Government buildings are built on the site of a Maori pa are being debunked. The chief guide at the Provincial buildings, Mr Bill Brittenden, says that to the best of his knowledge there are no reports of builders discovering Maori artefacts, - garden remains, fireplaces, whares or their post holes on the site. The only Wnes were found

there about five years ago — and they were from mutton chops dropped under the ground floor of a building in 1865 when under construction.

Vocation MRS ANN HERCUS proved during the weekend that she is in the right job. Attending the New Zealand Federation for the Deaf conference at the University of Canterbury, Mrs Hercus was perturbed at the absence of her Ministerial colleague, Mr Russell Marshall. In the time-hon-oured Mountie tradition, she returned to the radiotelephone in her car, tracked down her man, who told her he would be at the meeting in eight minutes. Mrs Hercus proudly relayed the

sage to the conference, adding: “I’m not the Minister of Police for nothing.” Police bandbags

GENDARMES do it; so do the Italian police; but British bobbies just will not wear it. A chief constable wants to issue them with handbags. The NZPA reports that the chief, Colin Smith, in London’s Thames Valley, prefers to call them “pouches” — but the ranks are not fooled. He has in mind a smali leather pouch attached to the uniform tunic or trouser belt to allow his men to carry the increasingly bulky documents needed for the job. One Berkshire policeman said: “You can imagine what the villains would say. There’s no way I can

see any policeman walking the streets carrying a continental pouch or anything that remotely looks like a handbag.” ; —Jenny Clark