Reporter’s diary

Press, 11 February 1986, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

Pie dish

DENBY Dale is a West Yorkshire village that does not rest on its piemaking laurels. A story in “The Press” last week said that villagers plan to bake an even larger pie than the world-beating meat and potato project they took on in 1964. The pie dish for that effort now sits outside the Denby Dale Pie. Hall, filled with a colourful bed of flowers. A Christchurch man whose wife’s mother was from the village took this photograph of the flower-filled dish on a journey through Britain in 1982. Spoon bender AFTER meeting at the University of Canterbury on Friday to form the New Zealand Skeptics (spelled with a “k” instead of a “c”), a steering committee of this country’s branch of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal repaired to the Staff Club for a drink. The Skeptics want to give New Zealanders a better chance to study pseudo-scientific claims made by a variety of people for a variety of reasons. David Marks, a University of Otago

psychologist who has specialised in the field, was discussing the paranormal with university staff members. Several of them asked about the techniques of Uri Geller, the spoon bender. They asked if it was possible to convince people that you could bend spoons. Dr Marks, with apparently no pressure at all, proceeded to bend a spoon in a way that seemed to defy known physical laws. The gathering was in awe of his feat, which is really just a magic trick. According to an observer, only one person, a professor of engineering, appeared to be unfazed. Unfortunately, the spoon finally broke. The club may send Dr Marks a bill for the damage. 24-hour stamps ONE OF 23 new Swiss stamp-vending machines being installed in New Zealand will be open for business from 8 a.m. on Wednesday at the Chief Post Office in Christchurch. Blenheim, Nelson and Timaru will also have the modern machines, which will be available to the public 24 hours a day. Postage labels from the value of one cent to $99.99 can be purchased" from the machines, which

are operated with a key punch. In return for the amount of money inserted, as many stamps as are required are dispensed. The remaining change, shown on a display, can be claimed in the from of an additional label, which can be used or redeemed for cash during Post Office trading hours. More machines will be installed throughout the country when they become available from the manufacturer. Pen pal THE YOUNG Christchurch man who corresponded with a young woman in Breslau, Germany, before World War II has been found with the help of several people who knew where he might be. The woman will be visiting New Zealand soon, and wanted to locate her former pen-friend. The Alan Burnet she knew through his letters turned out to be Dr Alan Burnet, a Timaru G.P., who was sent the woman’s letter. Invitation

Any members of the “In the Footsteps of Scott Expedition,” or anyone associated with the recent South Pole expedition, is welcome to visit the Kaia-

poi Working Men’s Club, which had its centenary last year. In the early 1900 s, the club entertained the crew of the H.M.S. Discovery, the expedition ship of Captain Robert Falcon Scott, with a musical evening and refreshments of bread, cheese and sandwiches. A focal point of the club is a set of skis and poles hung on the wall. They were a gift from Discovery’s crew. A photograph of Scott hangs below them. The haka

FOUR Maoris who viewed the haka performed at Okains Bay on Waitangi Day wrote to “The Press” to say that it must have been tongue-in-cheek for members of the Pages Road National Marae, which has heavy Ngaitahu associations, to have performed a haka of the Waikato people, whose chief, Te Rauparaha, came down with his people to kill members of the Ngaitahu on Onawe Peninsula, across the hills

from Okains Bay. They say it was “rather like the R.S.A. belting out ‘Deutschland Über Alles’.” But Hori Brennan, who taught the haka and has been writing hakas for many years, said those were naive comments, and the protesters did not know what they were talking about. Some of those performing the haka would have Waikato connections, and many protesters had similar connections. He had heard similar comments before. Cancellation WEEK-END cancellations are usually caused by bad weather. Last week-end, things were a bit different for a group near Oamaru, which had to call off its planned barbecue and boating outing because the weather was fine. The Papakaia Barbecue and Boating Society is in a farming district, and the harvest weather was too good to pass up.

—Stan Darling