THE REBUS CLUB OF PALMERSTON NORTH, NZ

THE REBUS CLUB OF PALMERSTON NORTH, NZ
                                                         Founded in 1984

President: Dean Halford, 10 Redwood Grove, PN 4410. Ph 354 5795.
Vice-President: Yvonne Parkes, 9 Hillgrove Place, PN 4410. Ph 356 5503.              NEWSLETTER
Secretary: Sue Eckworth, 13/78 Queenwood Road, Levin 5510. Ph 06 363 8629.
Treasurer: Adrian Turner, 82 Florence Ave, PN 4414. Ph 355 5203.                        2021
Club E-mail Address: rebuspn@outlook.com                                           No. 9 September
Mobiles: Dean 021 054 8611, Sue 021 947 667.

NEXT MEETING: TUESDAY 5 OCTOBER 2021 at 9.30 am, PN Community Leisure Centre, 569 Ferguson St.
Club Speaker: Milton Pedley.
Guest Speaker: Lesley Courtney (City Library), PN 100 Years Ago.
Door Greeting: Jeff and Decima Baty.
Kitchen Duty: Dave Hardman and Ian Andrew.
Morning Tea: Ladies to bring a plate of food, please: Ngaire Finkle, Rosalie Heckler, Lorrene Langer,
Sandra Pedersen, Ursula Schneider, Margaret Stephenson. Phone Val 359 0274 at least one day before
if you cannot attend. Thank you.

Robin Rush. With much sadness, we record the passing of Colin’s wife, Robin, on 30 August 2021. Our
deepest sympathy, thoughts and love are with Colin and family. Colin is at Chiswick Park Lifecare.

                                         From the President
                   I hope you are all well after the COVID-19 Levels 4 and 3 lockdown periods in which we
                   were prevented from holding our 7 September meeting and some other Club activities.
                   Since Wednesday 8 September, we have been back in Level 2D and enabled to
                   recommence our Club programme. We look forward to more activities this month. After
                   the Club meeting on 5 October, there will be a joint lunch at the Manawatu Golf Club with
                   members of the Mid-City Probus Club. It’s a great opportunity to meet another club in the
                   region. Those of you who can, please support this venture. See the Notice Board, page 2.
We can be glad of the change to lower restriction levels. Hopefully, Level 1 isn’t far away. However, like the
rest of the world, we should be prepared to live with the ongoing presence of the coronavirus. Our best
protection is vaccination. It is encumbent upon the whole population to realise this and act responsibly.
Thank you to our Committee for keeping things ticking over during the lockdowns. We made decisions by e-
mail and are now preparing for the October meeting when we will draft the programme for 2022. If you have
suggestions for guest speakers, outings, trips or anything else to do with Club activities, please contact a
Committee member before 5 October. At the
December meeting you will be given a printed
copy of the final programme.
Thanks to those of you who have sent me
messages, jokes and videos during the last
month or so. I have shared some of those
with you in earlier communications. I look
forward to seeing you all soon.
Best wishes,
Dean.

NOTICE BOARD                             You May Like This …
                   Happy Birthday                           John, a Dublin University student, was on the side of
                                                            the road hitchhiking on a very dark night and in the
                   Raewyn Hardman, Cherrill                 midst of a storm. No cars were travelling that night.
September          Suckling, Dave Marshall,                 The storm was so strong he could hardly see a few
                   Lorrene Langer, Neil Andrews.            feet ahead of him.
                                                            Suddenly, he saw a car slowly coming towards him
ERIC’S CINEMA: Thursday 23 September, 1.30 p.m.             and stop. John, desperate for shelter and without
50 North St, Feilding. $5 entry. The Railway Man            thinking about it, got into the car and closed the
(2013 USA biography, drama, romance. Colin Firth,           door, only to realize there was nobody behind the
Nicole Kidman, Stellan Skarsgård.) Lunch at KR’s            wheel and the engine wasn't on!
Café, Feilding, at 12 noon.                                 The car started moving slowly. John looked at the
                                                            road ahead and saw a curve approaching. Scared, he
CAFÉ GROUP: Tuesday 28 September, 11.30 a.m.,               started to pray, begging for his life. Then, just before
at Joe’s Garage, 38 Princess St. Enquiries to               the car hit the curve, a hand appeared through the
Cherrill 354 6805.                                          window and turned the wheel. John, paralyzed with
                                                            terror, watched as the hand repeatedly came
                                                            through the window, but never touched or harmed
JOINT LUNCH WITH MID-CITY PROBUS: Tuesday 5
                                                            him.
October 12.15 p.m. at the Manawatu Golf Club,
                                                            Shortly thereafter, John saw the lights of a pub
Centennial Drive. Please contact Sue by email
                                                            appear down the road. So, gathering strength, he
rebuspn@outlook.com or phone 06 363 8629 by 29
                                                            jumped out of the car and ran to the pub. Wet and
September if you are coming. Normal café menu.
                                                            out of breath, he rushed inside and started telling
                                                            everybody about the horrible experience he had just
DINNER GROUP: Saturday 9 October, 5.30 p.m. at              had. A silence enveloped the pub when everybody
the Navajo Restaurant, 22 Fitzherbert Ave. All              realized he was crying and wasn't drunk.
members, spouses & friends welcome. Enquiries               Suddenly the door opened and two other people
to Adrian 355 5203. Numbers at the 5 October                walked in from the stormy night. They, like John,
meeting, please.                                            were also soaked and out of breath. Looking around,
                                                            and seeing John sobbing at the bar, one said to the
OUTING: Wednesday 13 October. PN Hospital                   other, 'Look Paddy...there's that freakin' idiot that
visit. More about this at the 5 October meeting.            got in the car while we were pushin' it!’

NZ QUIZ
MAIL SERVICES in NZ began with the early settlers. The first official post office was opened at Kororareka (now
Russell), with William Hayes as Postmaster. Hayes holds the distinction of New Zealand's first civil servant to be
dismissed—he was continually inebriated. In 1842, postage for inland letters was 6d a half ounce and
newspapers were sent free. Of the 286 mail services operating in 1874,
137 were carried on horseback, 83 by coach or mail cart, 43 by water, 13
on foot, and 10 by rail. Horse-drawn mail coaches played an important
role; the last main service ran between Arthur's Pass and Otira until
1923, when the railway tunnel was opened. In 1878 the first Railway
Travelling Post Office began between Christchurch and Dunedin. By
1881 the railways were providing 50 mail services. A parcel-post service
was introduced in 1887. In 1905, mails were first delivered to rural
areas.
In 1900 a mechanical date-stamping machine was installed in Mail coach, Dunstan, Central Otago 1880s.
Wellington. In 1903 trials were made with a stamp-selling machine.
New Zealand's first mechanical sorting machine was brought into service in September 1961. The first regular
overseas-mail service began in 1854; it ran monthly between Auckland and Sydney. In 1919, the first
experimental airmail flight occurred, from Auckland to Dargaville. Overseas airmail services began in 1934.
(1) When was “Universal” penny postage introduced?
(2) When was the Post Office Department (later NZ Post & Telegraph Department) abolished?

THANKS, WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE                                    the expression is synonymous with goosepimples, or
                                                               gooseflesh as it is known in the USA.
Phrases in common use today
                                                               3. Wild goose chase.
1. The world is your oyster.                                   “Nay, if thy wits run the wild-goose chase, I have done,
“Why then the world’s mine oyster,                             for thou hast more of the wild-goose in one of thy wits
Which I with sword will open…”                                 than, I am sure, I have in my whole five.”
The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act II Scene II, 1602.             Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene IV, 1592.
You’re most likely to see this Zen-sounding phrase             Despite the images the expression may conjure up today,
written on the cover of every London commuter’s lifeline,      it is believed that in Shakespeare’s day this expression
the Oyster Card. An expression that appeals not just to        related not to hunting but to horse racing. A ‘wild goose
globetrotters but to positive-minded people across the         chase’ was a chase in which horses followed a lead horse
world, ‘the world is your oyster’ shows that Shakespeare       mimicking they way wild geese would fly in formation.
has had not just a literary influence over us, but a           Today, the notion of a wild goose chase goes more hand
spiritual one too.                                             in hand with a futile act, or time wasted rather than its
                                                               earlier association with the erratic and the chaotic.
2. Make your hair stand on end.
“I could a tale unfold, whose lightest word would harrow       4. Method in my madness.
up thy soul, freeze thy young blood, make thy two eyes,        “Though this be madness yet there is method in it.”
like stars, start from their spheres, thy knotted and          Hamlet, Act II, Scene II, 1602.
combined locks to part and each particular hair to stand       In this famous line, the politician Polonius, convinced that
an end, like quills upon the fretful porpentine”
                                                               Hamlet is truly mad, recognises some “method” i.e. reason and
Hamlet, Act I Scene V, 1602.
                                                               meaning, to what the prince is saying. Polonius considers
Shakespeare has used a wealth of imagery in his works;         Hamlet’s madness as “love-melancholy”, a genuine disorder in
but few are more menacing than a fretful porcupine. Of         Shakespeare’s time, which today has lost any association with
course, while the ghosts that appear in Hamlet are more        romance.
than enough to make your hair stand on end, these days

    THINKING CAPS ON …
    (1) A mobile phone and its case cost $110 in total.          (3) In the diagram, there are five squares formed with
        The phone costs $100 more than the case. How                 20 matchsticks. Move two matchsticks to get
        much was the phone?                                          seven squares.

    (2) When you have three, you have three. When you
        have two, you have two. But when you have one,
        you have none. What do you have?

Quote: ‘Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.’
Albert Einstein.

Laugh with Lorrene                      After reading these you'll begin to think you're a genius…
• "I love California. I practically grew up in Phoenix." Dan Quayle
• "Half this game is ninety percent mental.” Danny Ozark
• "Smoking kills. If you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your life." Brooke Shields
• "I've never had major knee surgery on any other part of my body." Winston Bennett
• "It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it." Al
    Gore
•   "We don't necessarily discriminate. We simply exclude certain types of people." Colonel Gerald Wellman
•    "Traditionally, most of Australia 's imports come from overseas." Keppel Enderbery
•   "The word ‘genius’ isn't applicable in football. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein." Joe Theisman
•   "Outside of the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the country." Mayor Marion Barry

Alan’s Antics            T-SHIRTS FOR SENIORS

                          Regent on Broadway
                          Book at EventTicketingCentre at the Regent or online https://premier.ticketek.co.nz/shows
                          Friends The Musical Parody. Thu 30 September 7.30 p.m. Tickets from $71.40.
                          Hotel California—The Eagles Experience. Mon 11 October 8 p.m. Tickets from $34.40.
                          A Midsummer Night’s Dream—RNZB. Thu 11 November 7.30 p.m. Tickets from $31.50.
Centrepoint Theatre Performances Wed 6.30 p.m.; Thu, Fri, Sat 7.30 p.m. Matinee Sun 4 p.m.
Bookings 354 5740 or at Box Office 280 Church St, PN or email hello@centrepoint.co.nz
Little Red Riding Hood. Tue 12—Sat 16 October. Performances 11 a.m. & 1 p.m. Tickets $15.
Cringe Worthy 80s. Sat 6 November—Sat 11 December. Senior $42 (show only).
Operatunity Life Church, 590 Featherston St. Bookings 0508 266 237 or bookings@operatunity.co.nz
 There's No Business Like Show Business. Wed 13 October 11 a.m. $37 pp incl lunch ($34 pp group 5+).
Globe Theatre Bookings 06 351 4409 or https://www.globetheatre.co.nz
Chamber Music New Zealand presents Fantasy and Romance. Sat 2 October 7.30 p.m. Senior $34.
Pantoloons presents Jack and the Beanstalk. Fri 8 October 2 p.m. Tickets $15.

PUZZLE ANSWERS:               (3)
                                                              COMBINED CLUBS WEB SITE www.sema4manawatu.com
                                                              is run by Richard Scott (Fitzherbert Rebus Club) for the 14
(1) $105.
                                                              clubs in our local area. There you can find newsletters,
(2) Choices.
                                                              information and links to other relevant web sites.

                                                               CLUB BANK ACCOUNT              REBUS NZ INC. Web site
                 Andrea O’Donnell                                    NUMBER                   rebus.nz for newsletters,
                 Residential Sales Consultant                   11-6900-0960629-11            club news, travel insur-
                 Palmerston North                                                             ance information, events,
                 06 351 2825 , 027 483 4211                                                   official documents.
                 Property Brokers
                 240 Broadway Ave Palmerston North
                 www.propertybrokers.co.nz                    NZ QUIZ Answers:
                                                              (1) 1 January 1901. The rate applied inland and also to all
                                                                   British and many foreign countries.
Thanks to Property Brokers Real Estate for sponsoring our     (2) 1 April 1987. Three state-owned enterprises (SOEs) were
newsletter. If you would like information about the                formed: NZ Post, Telecom NZ and the Post Office Bank
property market or some tips on selling and getting your           (later renamed PostBank).
home ready for the market, Andrea would love to assist.
Also, if you know of anyone looking at selling, Andrea will
                                                                      Good health and best wishes,
give a $200 referral fee back to the Rebus Club of
Palmerston North. Please give Andrea a call on 351 2825.              Dean Halford.