Reporter’s diary

Press, 1 April 1989, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

Conscience-striken TORMENTED by his conscience for 74 years, Mr Harry Swaine has returned his dux medal to Hagley High School where he won the medal in 1915. Mr Swaine was awarded the dux of primary boys but 74 years later he “feels he was not right to accept the medal as he had difficulty with mental arithmetic and received help from his seat mate,” writes his wife from Australia. Mr Swaine, who lives in an Adventist retirement village at Victoria Point, suffers from Parkinsons Disease and cannot write for himself. He will doubtless be greatly relieved to have got his almost life-long burden off his chest. Hagley High School, for its part, will frame the medal and return it to Mr Swaine with its blessing. “We’re sure that the school knew what it was doing in those days, and they really did know he deserved the medal,” said a spokesman. You can relax now, Mr Swaine. Happy-ish ending FOR the record, Roly Chisholm’s stolen trailer (see yesterday’s' column) was spotted by an observant reader in Yaldhurst Road, where it had been dumped. He is delighted to get the trailer and rubbish back, but it’s ta-ta to the bright-red wheelbarrow and the tools. Sigh. All F 0015...

ALTHOUGH April 1 has been known as a morning of practical jokes for centuries, the origin of the day is not known for certain. One contender is the tale that when the New Year was changed

from April 1 to January 1, in the sixteenth century, jokes were played on those who had forgotten the change of date, and the custom continued long after its origin had been forgotten. Another theory ties in with the Rape of the Sabine women, soon after the founding of Rome; while yet another suggests that it was the one day the- court jester was allowed to rest so ordinary people could make jokes until he came back at midday.

. Day today

CONFUSION about the origin of April Fool’s Day goes back at least as far as a verse from “Poor

Robin’s Almanac” of 1760, which went: “The First of April some do say, is set apart for All Fools Day; but why the people call it so, Nor I nor they themselves know.” Whatever the history, Michael de la Cour, of 6b Harvist Road, London, is writing a book about April Fool’s Day and jokes that have been perpetrated over the years. “Any contributions will be rewarded with a tin of elbow grease,” he writes. Faint spirits A reader has produced a delicate carved ivory Heike crab which he had noted showed the faint impression of a human

face on the shell. The Heike crabs are supposed to contain within their shells the spirits of the samurai slain at the battle of Dan-no-ura in Japan, and for centuries sailors avoided the Dan-no-ura area, frightened off by the ghosts seen in the shells of the crabs. The carver has faithfully etched the faint face which characterises the Heike, although forced to work on a small scale. Yeh

SEEN in Auckland, a greying middle-aged executive driving a convertible Mercedes, with the number plate “NEAT AY.”

—Jenny Setchell