Reporter’s diary

Press, 12 June 1986, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

Happy unbirthday A PRACTICAL JOKER managed to wish her friend happy birthday, stop the traffic, and raise some laughs — all on the wrong day. Mary Eason, of Bishopdale, woke to find a large "mouse,” a sign, and Union Jack outside her house, courtesy of her friend. The flag symbolised the fact that the receipient has the same birth date as the Duke of Edinburgh, which the joker also got wrong. Kemp's Deed ON THIS DAY, June 12, in 1848, 40 leading members of the Ngai-Tahu tribe signed over about 20 million acres to the New Zealand Company for £2OOO. The territory extended from Old Kaiapoi (near the Ashley River), in the north, to the boundaries of the Otago block, in the south, but excluding Banks Peninsula, and right across the South Island. The docrument is known as “Kemp’s Deed,” after H. Tracey Kemp, Assistant Protector of Aborigines. Kemp became unpopular with authorities because, in spite of instructions, he bungled the transactions. Among other errors and omissions, Kemp did not survey or define lands to be set aside as reserves for the Maori. He was still unpopular 100 years later when an act was passed, ordering compensation of £lO,OOO to be paid annually to a Ngai-Tahu Trust Board for 30 years. As pointed out in "A History of Canterbury, Volume 1,” commissioners investigating the deed in 1920 said that the grievance "was created in the first instance out of misconception, prolonged through misunderstanding, and magnified by neglect.” Absence minded IN THE ABSENCE of the

Mayor of Greymouth, the Deputy Mayor, Cr Russell King, took the mayoral chair at a meeting of the borough council this week. Apologies from the Mayor and one other councillor were tendered and adopted. “Hello,” said Cr King, “Someone else is absent. Who normally sits

there?” pointing to a chair to his right. “You do,” chorused his fellow councillors. Lost relatives AN AUSTRALIAN man is looking for descendants of Mr George Parke, who came to New Zealand at the turn of the century. He would especially like to contact his cousins, Doris Bowden (nee Nelson), Elsie, and Frank Parke. The inquirer, Mr

Wes Sharrock, of Castlemaine, in Victoria, wrote to Mrs Bowden’s address in Tainui Street, which was 40 years out of date, and got no reply. Mr Sharrock can be contacted through us. End of the lino LINOLEUM is usually displayed rolled up tight, standing on end. So it was in the Pacific Flooring ’B6 shop in Edgeware ... until this week. Readers

may have seen the “domino theory” demonstrated on lino in a television advertisement, but nothing beats the real thing. A customer accidentally bumped one roll, and subsequently all eight rolls tumbled down, in spite of desperate attempts to hold them. The last roll (and the most expensive) fell through the shop’s plate glass front window, breaking the glass and ruining the roll itself. The customer walked away without buying anything.

Men will be boys A POSTSCRIPT to yesterday’s diary item “Up and away”: we received a number of calls from men, obligingly pointing out the apparent “misprint” in the introduction which read “A small boy and his son”; we also received calls from women who all realised it was a tongue-in-cheek reference to the tendency of men to remain children at heart. Readers who do not know the difference betweeen little chaps and big chaps are referred to a sign in a Manchester Street toy shop window which reads: “The difference between men and boys is the price of their toys.” That, in a nutshell, is that. —Jenny Clark