Reporter’s diary

Press, 21 May 1987, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

Pull the ... TROUT with fur? Rabbits with antlers? A suit of armour that isn’t? These and other unlikely items are the subject of an exhibition, “Fakes, Forgeries, and Facsimiles,” which will open today at the Canterbury Museum. The whole spectrum of deception will be on show for the next few months, incorporating ways in which man fools man, and animals fool other animals by using camouflage. It makes a rare combination: false teeth, wigs and furniture side by side with forged paintings done by “C. F. Goldie,” fake coins, ceramics, and even a mermaid the very stuff of nightmares for any museum curator. .., other one A “MERMAID” — in reality a composite beast made from the head of a monkey and the tail of a fish — is among the curiosities in the museum’s “Fakes, Forgeries and Facsimiles” exhibition. The mermaid is on loan from the North Beach Aquarium and Zoo where it has been for at least the last 30 years. It is thought that it may have been made py Italian fisher-

men, capitalising on the gullibility of tourists during the early part of this century. Nothing changes.

Please touch

TO MARK International Museum Day, the Canterbury Museum will also hold a “Hands On" day today, giving visitors the chance to touch something from every department of the museum. Exhibits — not staff, naturally. Apt anthem NOW IS the time for Commonwealth countries to be singing fervently the

second verse of “God Save the Queen.” The four lines which seem especially apt in view of Fiji’s torment, are: “Scatter her enemies, And make them fall: Confound their politics, Frustrate their knavish tricks ...” Oh, all right VIVIAN RICHARDS, probably the greatest batsman in the world, has played his first game for Rishton, a small Lancashire village. “The Times” reports that the demigod’s new colleagues include a toolmaker’s rep., a fund raiser, a teacher, a brewery branch manager, and Maz

Iqbal, who works in a stationer’s shop. Uncowed by the prospect of the great man’s presence, his colleagues considered the matter carefully. Said one, “It’s really a question of whether he can get into the side. He might make it if he’s prepared to bat No. 4.” Natty Nats IT’S NO longer under wraps — the New Zealand Young Nationals policy conference at Akaroa next week will include a toga party. Presumably the young Nats will don tunic and toga for an evening’s classic

festivity and jollification. With recent events in Fiji in mind, Mr Bolger might be relieved to hear that the Ides of March are well past.

It’s a smell world IS IT a cunning marketing ploy or mere coincidence that the first prospectus of the New Zealand Rural Property Trust smells deliciously of feijoas? Compulsive book and pamphlet sniffers will recognise the attraction of an appropriately aromatic paper, so perhaps it really is the latest gimmick in the advertiser’s armoury. —Jenny Feltham