Reporter’s diary

Press, 10 April 1987, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

Weather or not IN THESE far-flung corners of the Pacific, where the weather is an inconstant constant, we regard our meteorological records seriously. A Chatham Islands farmer, who takes readings for the local met station, tells of a series of disasters with the thermometer he was using to get maximum temperature readings. The gauge has to be shaken down to be reset. While doing the shaking one morning, the thermometer got away and shattered on the head of his faithful dog, Wai. The replacement thermometer suffered a similar fate, breaking on the farmer’s boot. The next replacement had a bubble in the mercury, and after departmental advice, the farmer tried to fix it by dipping it in a cup of coffee. Mercury, broken glass and coffee mingled in the cup. His wife is now looking after the thermometres. Loony victory MORE THAN 25 years of lost deposits and abject failures have ended for the Official Monster Raving Loony Party with the election of its chairman to a county council seat in Devon, says a report from London. A publican, Mr Alan Hope, aged 44, was one of a dozen candidates contesting 12 seats on the Ashburton Council, so he was declared elected unopposed. Now facing the full responsibility of public office, Mr Hope was elated by his success. "There is a definite swing

towards lunacy in this country," he told reporters. “I intend to take my duties very seriously.” Urgent efforts were being made to get the news to the party’s founder, a pop star, Screaming Lord Sutch, who was holding

election talks in France with his foreign spokesman, Mr Tarquin Fintimlinbinwhinbimlin Bus Stop E’Tang Ole Biscuit Barrel, the unsuccessful veteran of many British by-elec-tions. Selfscape BILL SUTTON’S self-por-trait (pictured), presented to Canterbury University last week, mixes curiosity and artistry. He was a lecturer at the School of Fine Arts for more than 20 years and acting head of the department for a year, and has now retired. He was commissioned to do the self portrait after painting several portraits of university vice-chancel-lors. He painted himself looking into a mirror that

reflects the inside of his studio. And the background, outside the mirrow, is a Canterbury landscape. He also decided that there had to be an element linking the studio and the landscape, so he painted a slip of paper pinned to the mirror’s frame, rading, “Painted for the University of Canterbury, by W. A. Sutton,” and giving the date. Once bitten IT SEEMS the nation’s men of substance favour a certain brand of fast-food. One of ‘.‘The Press’s” Wellington reporters spent two unsuccessful days this week trying to contact John Fernyhough, the millionaire Auckland businessman who heads the Electricity Corporation. Calls to Mr Fernyhough in Auckland and Wellington failed, and the reporter headed out for a Jate snack. En route, he saw the Prime Minister heading to an automatic money machine. Mr Lange was back at the wheel of his Sigma car, which was involved in an accident with a pedestrian last week. Mr Lange did not follow the reporter to the hamburger store he has been known to frequent. But in the queue, after a long day of negotiations, was Mr Fernyhough, who provided an interview between mouthfuls of burger and french fries. Expo logo KZ7’s battle flag apparently made quite an impression on the hearts and minds of young New Zealanders. When school

pupils were asked to design a logo for the New Zealand pavilion at the World Expo in Brisbane next year, many of the ideas incorporated a Maori motif similar to the KZ7 flag. An Auckland designer, Roy Good, had. no qualms about using it as the basis for the finished logo (pictured). The colours are green and black on a white background. The green symbolises the bush and coun-

tryside of New Zealand, but the black is there for a rather less nationalistic reason. It contrasts with the white. Foul fuel FRANCE, crusading to defend its language, has issued regulations banning almost 100 foreign economic terms from official documents and textbooks. On the list of banned words is the term “fuel oil,” for which a French equivalent “fioul” must be used. The word “fioul” does not yet exist in French dictionaries.