Knicker run

FORGET the pub with no beer: it's the town with no knickers in New Zealand's Inglewood.

A year ago, the only clothing shop in town which sold women's knickers stopped stocking these essential items.

The local priest, Gary Husband (soon dubbed the knicker vicar), organised volunteers to do a weekly run to New Plymouth and now his prayers for a bus service have been answered.

A weekly bus run will start on November 1, run by Taranaki Regional Council operations and Land Transport New Zealand.

Council's operations director Rob Phillips says the Tranzit Coachlines trips will be subsidised for a year "to ensure people were really serious about buying those new knickers - and anything else that might take their fancy".

Mr Husband heard about the knicker crisis from his parishioners, decided to practise what he preached and so organised the volunteer knicker-runs.

Mr Phillips said the council had been aware of the need for a public bus service and the crisis, which made international headlines, emphasised that need.