Reporter's Diary

Press, 9 April 1979, Page 2

Reporter's Diary

Second edition THE HANDBOOK for battered wives by Dr John Church, educational psychologist at the University of Canterbury, is about to go into its second edition. Called “How to get out of your marriage alive.” the book, which sells for $3, is based on the experiences of women who got in touch with the Battered Wives’ Support Group in Christchurch between July and November last year. The first edition of 1000 copies has sold out, and another 1000 will be printed. "The first edition sold in 10 weeks to people from Invercargill to Whangarei,” Dr Church said yesterday. “When they ask for the book to be sent by mail, though, we have to make sure they have a Safe address for it to be sent to. Most of the women who order the book through the mail have given an alternative address for delivery.” Perennial protest STUDENTS’ bursaries are proving to be a perennial problem for university students. This year, in the wake of Education Department recommendations for a S 9 increase in the tertiary bursary for 1980, students have printed a $9 note in protest against the paucity of the rise. “In 1980, this note may or i may not be legal tender

for $9,” the printing on the note says. It has a cartoon of the Prime Minister wearing a striped boater and is signed by the “Ringmaster.” The number on the note is “IQ000001.” On the back, the reasons for the students’ protest are listed. Apart from the mere $9 recommended increase, the Minister of Education has upset the students by ranking his recommendation at number 42 out of 49 new education proposals. A total of 35,000 of the 89 “notes” have been printed by the New Zealand Students’ Association to publicise the bursary protest throughout New Zealand. If inter warmth SPARE a thought for the poor, hard-worked, underpaid students this winter. If you have a house, a shed, or a spare tree that you no longer need, the University of Canterbury Students’ Association winter fuel co-operative would like to hear from you. They are looking for old, unwanted wood, in any shape or size, that they 'can take away and share to keep the home fires burning. An advertisement in a newspaper on Saturday elicited 12 responses from persons most of them with old garden sheds they no longer wanted, and the cooperative will demolish

the sheds and cart away the wood for use during the winter. A spokesman for the co-operative said yesterday that it was made up of tenants of the 50 houses leased from landlords in the Ham area every year by the Students’ Association. “The co-operative is an experiment at the moment.” he said. “If the firewoodsharing scheme works, we hope to expand it to sharing out bulk-bought coal and maybe even meat.” Anyone with unwanted wood to offer should telephone 487-069 or 557-383 after hours. Lofty viewer A ' UNIVERSITY of Canterbury cross-country club runner had the luxury of a well earned rest in the transmitting station at Sugar Loaf on Saturday. The runner had been on a club run on the Cashmere Hills, and timed his run to Sugar Loaf to coincide with the showing of the world cross-country championships at Limerick, Ireland, being shown on “Sport on One” that afternoon. The puffing runner’s request to see the race was so unusual that the staff at the transmitting station let him in to watch it on the monitor. Timely question ANOTHER runner pounding along South Brighton beach during the summer was startled when he came across a shapely girl sunbathing in the nude on the sand. She looked completely untroubled at his «

approach, according to the runner, and asked him if he had the time. The problem, he told friends later, was time for what. Ao o(7 crisis WESTERN Samoa has no oil crisis, according to an article in “Savali.” the country’s official newspaper, on March 26. Nobody in Western Samoa seems particularly concerned about the present energy situation. One of the main reasons for this, according to the report, being that there is no Minister responsible for energy. The Minister of Finance has said that he is not sure just who is meant to look after the energy portfolio, but in the meantime he has agreed to assume the responsibility. He issued a statement saying that “in the foreseeable future, Western Samoa’s supplies of petroleum will not be adversely effected by the situation if Iran,” and there are no plans for emergency fuel-saving measures. Tax destruction? AN ACCOUNTANT who spends some time working with trustee accounts has pointed out a slip by the Inland Revenue Department. On its IRS form, on the part related to “trustees allocation of income” instead of asking tax-payers to list “nondeductible items,” the form optimistically asks for ‘‘no n-destructible items.” —Felicity Price