Reporter's Diary

Press, 12 April 1979, Page 2

Reporter's Diary

One in a million A CHRISTCHURCH bank clerk was thrown into confusion yesterday when a yachtsman asked her for several hundred dollars worth of traveller’s cheques. “Could I see your air ticket, please?” she asked the customer. “I’m not going by air,” he replied. “Oh, ’then could I see your boat tickets?” she asked. “I don’t have any boat tickets, either,” he said. “I’m going by yacht.” “But you can’t go without tickets,” she insisted. “You must have tickets. It says so on the form.” Eventually, bureaucracy was satisfied and the “yachtie” was allowed to have his traveller’s cheques. Well read

HOW well read can a well-read newspaper be? Readers may remember an item last Friday about the difference between the daily circulation of “The Press” (76,000 plus) and its estimated daily readership (220,000 plus). Well, just to illustrate the reason for the difference a man from Ikamatua, on the West Coast, has written in with this interesting saga — a day in the life of a copy of “The Press.” “I pick up a copy of ‘The Press’ on my way to work in the Forest Service,” he says. “Pat is reading it when he hands it to me. (He is waiting for the Browns Creek Mill bus). Peter, who travels with me. looks at it on the way to Totara Flat. Rubberneck, Mouse, and Len scan the sports page, while I read the news. At Ngahere, Brent gets on. He reads

the news and I hope to get the sports. At Nelson Creek, Coko gets on and reads the sports while the rest play forty-fives until we arrive at Lake Hochstetler. At smoko, Lackey, Digger, Tom, Yubby, Crystals, and Bill read it. I bring the paper back to Hukarere, where I have my evening meal with the Wilsons. They, too read the paper, which I pick up a few days later and bring it up to Blackwater for fire-lighting.” In all, 16 persons read the one paper. One wonders if the McNair Print Readership Survey took this into account when working out its estimated audited readership figures? Outplayed THE ENGLISH, it appears, are miffed at being beaten at their own game. According to an item in the “Daily Telegraph,” in London, “It is sad to report that in the latest competition, the British Test Croquet Team were consistently outplayed by the New Zealanders, who won, 6-0.” The British team returned home recently, after losing the Macßobertson Shield to the New Zealand team. The shield is competed for every four years in a tripartite test — between Britain. Australia, and New Zealand — and in 1975, Britain won outright. This time, to add insult to injury, New Zealand was the outright winner. Ceasefire THE WORD, ’‘creche,” has recently been a signal for drawn swords across the

Christchurch City Council table, but it seems the combatants are occasionally able to call a temporary ceasefire and joke about their differences. When the parks and reserves committee met to discuss an increase of 20c an hour in the charge to users of the Queen Elizabeth II Park creche, two Labour councillors, Vicki Buck and David Close, — although not members of that particular committee — were there to add a dissenting voice. With a grin, a raised eyebrow, and a glance in her direction, the chairman (Mr Peter Blaxall) announced, “Item 17 (d), creche . . . Cr Buck?” Later, the Mayor (Mr Hamish Hay) in support of a proposal to hold the immediate increase to 10c, said, “After all, I am patron of International Year of the Child.” Cr Buck’s response was immediate. She threw back her head and laughed. “Well,” she said. “He’s noticed at last.”Eventually, the committee decided to recommend a 20c increase in creche fees with a concession for families with more than one child. Close to home THE NUCLEAR accident in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, was not a disaster for everyone. In New York, proving the old adage that one man’s meat is another’s poison, queues for the film, “The China Syndrome” — which is about a near-disaster at a California nuclear power station — have been stretching around the block outside the cinema. On the share market, Columbia Pictures rose from $23 before the accident to $26.50. -—Felicity Price