YESTERDAYS 1981

FOUR stowaways were last night taken to Barry police station after being found aboard the Geest Crest at Barry Dock.

Barry Dock police said the banana boat came in about 9pm and police and immigration officials boarded the ship and took the men away.

The four are believed to have come from Colombia. PRINCE Charles and Lady Diana will not be getting an official wedding present from the people of Cardiff – because the city’s Labour Party thinks the money can be better spent.

Labour councillors who control the authority will be told: “Do not spend any money on civic celebrations.”

The move is bound to cause a huge row and some Labour councillors will resent being told how they should vote on the issue.

But the decision was overwhelmingly backed by a meeting last night of Cardiff Labour Party – and councillors should follow their local party policy.

The meeting was attended by about 40 delegates representing the four Cardiff constituencies and trade union branches in the city. A SOUTH Wales handyman who caused £10,000 fire damage to his home when he illegally restored a gas supply with a hosepipe, warned other householders: “Don’t do it – the consequences could be tragic.”

The couple from Gelli, Rhondda, fled for their lives when a makeshift gas fire exploded in the living room of their terraced house. The contraption had been set up to dry damp.

He said: “It’s been a nightmare. I fancied myself a bit of a handyman and tampered with the gas supply without realising how lethal it could be. My home was almost gutted.

“To anyone tempted to try what I did I would say: ‘Don’t do it. The consequences could be tragic’ – as I know to my cost.” PASSERS-BY in a street in Canton, China, were surprised when Welsh visitor Mr Fred Dodds, of Grangetown, Cardiff, produced a copy of the South Wales Echo and began telling to them about Cardiff.

“I pointed to an item in the paper and said, ‘Look. Canton, Cardiff, like Canton, China’ and before long, there were scores of people around me,”

Mr Dodds said: “I don’t know how much they understood, but those who could speak a little English were

passing the conversation on to the others.”

Mr Dodds took the paper along with him when he made his recent trip to Hong Kong and China and believes he made some progress in publicising South Wales there.

He was prompted by a recent report that Cardiff City Council was planning a twinning link with a Chinese city and the odds were on Canton – now called Hangchow. A CRAZE for playing Space Invader machines, like the one pictured above, led a 15-year-old boy to commit a string of burglaries. stealing goods worth more than £1,400, a South Wales court was told.

After pumping the money he earned on his newspaper delivery round into the machines in a local cafe, the Rhondda schoolboy looked for other ways to satisfy his habit.

This caused him to burgle a Penygraig farm and – in three separate raids – he stole jewellery and other valuables worth a total of £1,360.

But the boy had no idea what the items were worth and only received £70 for them, most of which went into the machines.

Later the boy lost his delivery round, which earned him £3 a week, and when he saw a door open at a house in Penygraig he ran off with rings worth £50. In a voluntary statement, the boy admitted he stole to pay for bouts on the machines. WELSH international referee Clive Norling gave a “watch your language” warning to both teams in Penarth’s 24-14 home win over South Wales Police at the weekend.

“I don’t want to see rugby go the way of soccer,” said Mr Norling, of Swan-