Airport plans and royal robers’ strike: headlines from 40 years ago

A device allowing owners to hear the “music” of their houseplants, royal robers going on strike in London and British MPs getting shirty over barmen’s uniforms made the headlines 40 years ago this week.

March 2, 1980

● A second major international advertising agency announced the signing of working agreements with China. Ogilvy and Mather International had become the “primary agency” for the Peking Advertising Agency and the Guangdong Advertising Agency in Australia, New Zealand and the European Economic Community. Another firm – McCann-Erikson International – had reached a similar deal a month earlier, to cover advertising projects in the US. The China advertising account, though still in its infancy, had become much coveted by international firms.

March 3, 1980

● London businessman Jeremy Lord had set the plant world alight by inventing a device to convert a houseplant’s “feelings” into musical notes. Lord claimed the flute-like sound emitted by the machine could tell the gardener whether the plant was sad, happy or in pain. According to press reports, the device, known as a bio-activity translator, used sensitive electronics to monitor voltages in the plant’s cells and convert them into notes. It worked on a similar principle to that of a lie detector.

● Five men robbed a Yau Ma Tei jewellery shop of $1.28 million worth of ornaments after immobilising staff with gas from a fire extinguisher. The carbon dioxide virtually paralysed the seven employees, allowing the robbers to ransack the shop easily.

March 4, 1980

● Staff at Queen Elizabeth’s robe makers stopped work in the first strike since the firm was established in 1689, during the reign of William and Mary. The workers at Ede & Ravenscroft, London’s oldest tailor, which still holds royal warrants as robe makers and tailors to Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, wanted trade union recognition.

March 5, 1980

● A police van turned into a travelling death chamber when 47 of its 68 passengers died of suffocation on their way to prison, officers in the Nigerian capital of Lagos said. Among the 21 survivors, seven were found unconscious. The group was travelling from St Anna magistrates’ court in Lagos to Ikoyi – a mere 7km journey.

● An elderly widow in Miami, Florida, who lived for years without electricity, gas or a phone because she feared modern gadgets had been found dead at her home during an icy spell. The deceased, in her 90s, died from exposure to extreme cold when temperatures dropped to minus 5 degrees Celsius overnight.

US Marine kicked out of corps after posing for Playboy

March 6, 1980

● Hail hit Hong Kong for the second time in eight days. Hailstones, some as large as golf balls, bombarded most of the New Territories, damaging houses, crops and fish ponds.

March 7, 1980

● White shirts made in Hong Kong and issued to staff working at the bars in the House of Commons upset some members of Parliament. Labour MP John Evans put down a Commons question about “a slap in the face” for the troubled textile industry in Lancashire. His colleague Jack Straw called it an unbelievable gaffe, recalling the crockery scandal a few years previously, when Parliament bought cups and saucers from West Germany and then erased the name of the country of origin to avoid embarrassment.

● One of Hong Kong’s most colourful characters, Noel Croucher, had died of a heart attack. News that Croucher died while waiting in a doctor’s office shocked many of his close friends and colleagues. He was well known for his immense knowledge of companies’ and Hong Kong affairs.

March 8, 1980

● The construction cost of the first phase of the proposed replacement airport at Chek Lap Kok was estimated at HK$6 billion (US$1.2 billion at the time) based on the year-end prices of 1979. The first phase called for the construction of one runway with a terminal building and other facilities to enable the new airport to take over the complete operation of Kai Tak Airport in Kowloon. A source told the Post that if everything went smoothly, work would begin in 1984 and the Lantau airport would become operational in 1990 at the earliest.

Remember A Day looks at significant news and events reported by the Post during this week in history