Reporter’s diary

Press, 19 October 1987, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

Two-sided WHEN Ernest Rutherford died 50 years ago today the world had not yet realised the devastating implication of some of the great physicist’s work. A biography written by A. S. Eve two years after Rutherford’s death said: “All his life he played not with atoms but mainly with the nuclei of atoms; radioactivity was systematised, the nucleus discovered, and transmutation achieved. With the death of Rutherford a great epoch in science came to an end.” As is common, the picture of the great man on the home front had a different angle. H. Wyndham Boyle wrote: “Lord Rutherford is untidy and forgetful. A nuisance in

the house, I suspect. He litters papers about and behaves just as a great man ought. And Lady Rutherford tidies up after him and wonders why so much untidiness is really necessary, which is all as it should be.” Good news GOOD news is not necessarily no news, according to a reader. Sketching in the Botanic Gardens recently, Mr Cliff Potts was asked by a young German woman if she could watch while he sketched. They began talking and in a short time, writes Mr Potts, , they had moved from painting to graphics, and from New Zealand art to German art. From there, they went on to discuss the position of

Germany today and the state of New Zealand. “She was intelligent and articulate,” he writes. “And in those few minutes I was transformed, brought out of my usual dull, stodgy life. She was working her way round the world as young New Zealanders do, and for the time I realised how many of these young people there are. Unselfconscious, a credit to their country and their folks. We don’t read about them. They are not news.” A going concern BRIERLEY Investments has competition as New Zealand’s largest industry — from shoplifting. The managing director .of Loss Prevention Services, Ltd, Mr Mick Hubbard,', says

that shoplifting is estimated to cost New Zealand retailers $3OO million a year. Rabbiting on FANS of Beatrix Potter may be up in arms about the decision by Ladybird books to rewrite their best-loved tales, but Miss Potter’s publishers are positively glowing. Sales of the original “Tales of Beatrix Potter” have shot up since the latest literary vandalism was announced. There have even been instances of panic buying reported. How very reassuring. Damitawl A visitor from Florida bought some kiwifruit wine at a Christchurch

wine shop. He wanted the wine cartons mailed home but he had to produce a letter as proof when the disbelieving shop owner saw the address in Boca Grande: Damficare Street. The man also claimed that the street next to his was called Damfiknow — but he had no proof of that one. —Jenny Feltham