Reporter’s diary

Press, 1 July 1983, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

End of era “GREEN GRUB” converted railcar carriages, which have been used on the Picton and West Coast lines since 1977, have been pulled out of service in the South Island and were yesterday hauled north to Wellington. Nicknamed green grubs because of their distinctive colours, the carriages are old railcars with their engines removed. They have been replaced by refurbished passenger cars. The green grubs had their last run at the week-end when they took passengers to Arthur’s Pass as a fundraising exercise for Telethon. About $2OOO was collected. Mid-winter feast CHICKEN and a few remaining cans of Double Brown were to feature in last evening’s mid-winter feast at Scott Base in the Antarctic. The dinner, an annual celebration for the 11 New. Zealand men and selectedyAmerican guests

wintering over in the Antarctic, was to begin with cocktails at 6 p.m. A piece of holly, which was sent down from Christchurch in last week’s air drop, was to have pride of place in the middle of the dinner table. A quiet day is expected at the base today, apart from a brief sojourn outside for the mid-winter swim. Scott Base is providing a hole in the ice, and the New Zealanders hope the Americans will provide the bodies. The temperature yesterday was about minus 40 degrees C. Tomorrow the New Zealanders will travel to the nearby American base, McMurdo Station, to join in their Independence Day and mid-winter celebrations. Things are not expected to return to normal until next week.

Kenyan connection A STORY in the “Diary” on Monday about a canister of colour film that was found near the mouth ofij-the

Waimakariri River and was developed in an effort to trace the owner parallels, a similar case in Kenya in 1968. Mr lan Hazlehurst, who now lives in Christchurch, was climbing Mount Kenya with three companions when they found some equipment comprising a piton hammer, compass, map, whistle and film cassette. The film was developed and a story was carried in the “East African Standard” along with one of the pictures. “We found the equipment at 14,000 ft so that restricted the number of people who could have left it on the mountain,” Mr Hazlehurst said. As with the photo published earlier in the week, no-one came forward to claim the Kenyan cassette. Midnight madness PERSONS in the vicinity of the Academy Cinema in the Arts Centre about midnight this evening who see goblins monsters and others with bolts in their necks have not

had too much to drink. The Academy is holding a Rocky Horror Picture Party to inaugurate a new film session, the Rocky Horror late nighter, which will be held every Friday and Saturday evening at 11.30 p.m. For the first show patrons will only be allowed in if they are dressed as their favourite Rocky Horror character or in something outrageous. Poisonous plants THE OLEANDER plant whose toxic fumes resulted in 10 Australians being treated in hospital after the shrub was burnt in a fireplace is only one of a large number of poisonous plants and berries which can grow in the family backyard. The Poisons Centre, in Dunedin, said that some of the common plants which are poisonous include rhubarb leaves, the castor oil plant, yew tree berries, datura, Jerusalem cherries, box thorn berries and many members of the lily family. Secret in tea KEEP drinking tea and you may avoid some of the worst heart diseases, a noted Chinese doctor says. Professor Lou Fuqing told the Xinhua News Agency that a brown powder he had developed made from various tea pigments had an 80 per cent success rate on patients suffering from arterio sclerosis, a hardening of the arteries and a common killer among old people. The tea pigments contained an anti-coagulant enzyme which kept that blood flowing smoothly, he explained, and added: “The pigments are especially abundant in green and black tea.” £