Overtime

The Gestetner machine of a favoured university department worked overtime for several nights, the guillotine was blunted irreparably, but, finally. 10.000 "City Council notices" were ready for distribution. Phase Two started about 9pm on Saturday. April 28, 1962: Thirty student's went into action and delivered the little bundles of happiness all over central Wellington and the suburbs.

The notices stated "That the Wellington City Council has decided to offer the citizens of Wellington a new type of rubbish collection service—but only on a trial basis. This service is concerned only with that rubbish which is too cumbersome to be removed in the usual manner. Should you have any rubbish of this nature, we would be obliged if you would place it outside your front gate, in a prominent position for collection." The ever-obliging public co-operated fully.

However, something went wrong! Some fool delivered one of the notices to a city councillor —in spite of the fact that all councillors' addresses had been taken note of. and all participants had been strictly instructed to avoid these houses like the plague.

Councillor Dallard discovered his notice on Sunday, April 29, and the telephone cables in the area started to crackle: the Town Clerk was informed; he, in turn, called on the assistance of 2ZB, with the result that throughout the day disclaimers on behalf of the City Council were broadcast at ever-decreasing intervals.

Retaliatory action was demanded! From within a Hopper Street telephone box a voice, suitably muffled, informed the Broadcasting Corporation that the disclaimer they were broadcasting, ostensibly on behalf of the "Town Clerk" was itself a hoax. The rubbish collection service, they were assured. was perfectly genuine. The result of this thoughtful gesture was a two-hour period with no disclaimers broadcast by Station 2ZB—it should be remembered that this "break in transmission" occurred during the period 12-2 o'clock, that is, at the period of maximum listening. At least a breathing space had been won.

Monday morning brought prominent newspaper comment, a carefully-worded statement from the president of the Students' Association vaguely referring to "disciplinary action," together with some rather less carefully-worded injunctions from the Mayor, the Town Clerk, and more whingeing from Cr. Dallard. Monday also brought piles of other rubbish. By that afternoon the Wellington Branch of the Associated Chambers of Rubbish Collectors had climbed aboard the bandwagon noting how "disgraceful It was that people should be duped into leaving rubbish out." They went on to express the hope that the perpetrators would be forced to clean up the plague that they had foisted upon the city: this cry was gleefully taken up by those unfortunates who had been the victims of this "cruel and thoughtless hoax" [The Dominion.]