A Danger Spot

The Honours List

"Twice a year I read in the newspapers the list of men and women in New Zealand who have been honoured by the Queen for service to the country, to charitable organisations and to the armed services. In most cases the "service" has consisted in the spending of either time or money, but in a few instances an honour is bestowed upon somebody who has risked his life to save another. I don't know how the honours list is drawn up otherwise I'd write to the people concerned, for I would like to commend to their notice the service rendered to humanity by a Nelson man, Mr John Reid, His exploits in rescuing injured people in sometimes almost inaccessible bush and mountain regions, have been reported on numerous occasions. Some, for a man of his ability, may have been a "piece of cake", but I have heard of one or two others where he has placed his life in Jeopardy to effect a rescue. Surely this man, and others like him, are deserving of some recognition." ("Honour Where Honour is Due", Richmond).

(Ed's Note: We agree with you. As an instance we have resurrected this old picture from our files. It was taken as Mr Reid brought young Lee Marchant back to Nelson in his Sikorsky helicopter, after Lee was seriously injured in a cave fall on Mount Owen. The flight was accomplished in near zero visibility.)

A Post Office "Boob"

Shortly after the new telephone directories were delivered an acquaintance pointed out what looks, very decidedly, like a bad "boob" on the part of the compilers. Pages 2 and 3 con tain a big advertisement on the changeover to decimal currency - useful information. But on turning the page we found the boob. All the toll charges and charges for international calls are quoted in £ S. D. And when we looked further, we found that not one item involving money had been converted to decimals. Evidently the Post Office recognised the boob, too, for a few days later we all received a little booklet on new rates and charges - this time in dollars and cents. What we would like to know is - how much did this boob cost the country? Quite a bit, we would imagine, when the printing and delivery costs of the later lists are considered. One other small complaint about the new directory. Whatever has happened to the little hole punched through the top left hand corner? Economy measure?

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