October 22, 1986

WITH the leaves adrift, the weather cooler and the price of gasoline more bearable, the countryside beckons. Within the most resolute urbanite there is often a yen to watch the swift descent from summer to autumn, and New Yorkers are well placed to observe the fall spectacle. Motorists can head toward the hills and waterways of New York, New Jersey and Conneticut. For those less inspired by autumnal views, picking apples or shopping for antiques and crafts can be part of a foliage field trip. The impulse, though, is to get out and about before the last flaming leaf has fallen.

A bill to open the Police Department Civilian Complaint Review Board to members from outside the department - an issue that prompted a citywide referendum two decades ago - was approved yesterday by a City Council committee. The Public Safety Committee's 5-to-2 vote sends the measure to the full Council. It was taken after Mayor Koch had urged the panel ''not to wait for an incident'' to approve the bill, which has been under consideration for several years. ''This is the time to do it,'' the Mayor said. He added that although people on the ''extremes'' would not like the legislation, ''the broad middle will feel better if there are people who are not in the Police Department that are making the judgments.''

The Mobil Corporation, hurt by the depressed price of crude oil, reported yesterday that its third-quarter operating profits dropped 15.3 percent, to $332 million, or 82 cents a share, from $392 million, or 96 cents a share, in the comparable period a year ago. Mobil, the nation's second-largest oil company, after Exxon, said its revenues were down 23.7 percent, to $11.18 billion, from $14.66 billion a year ago. The company said that it would take a $150 million charge against earnings from the sale of its packaging unit, the Container Corporation of America.

Richard L. Rubin, a special counsel to the New York State Assembly Speaker and the former executive secretary of the Queens Democratic Party, was indicted yesterday by a Federal grand jury in Brooklyn on 14 counts of mail fraud and tax evasion. The indictment charged Mr. Rubin, who is 46 years old, with defrauding the state of more than $49,000 by inducing two members of the State Assembly to put two secretaries in Mr. Rubin's law firm on their state office payrolls. The two Democratic legislators were granted immunity from prosecution and cooperated with the grand jury, said Andrew J. Maloney, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. The two secretaries also cooperated and were not charged, he said. $1.56 Million in Fines But in response to questions from reporters, Mr. Maloney said the legislators ''didn't behave properly.''

A three-year-old state law that prohibits nude sunbathing was unanimously upheld yesterday by New York's highest court. In its ruling, the State Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction of a 39-year-old computer analyst from New Rochelle, Robert Hollman, who was fined $140 in a Queens civil court in 1984 for removing his clothes at Jacob A. Riis Park in Neponsit in the Rockaways, Queens. Mr. Hollman had challenged the law on the grounds that it violated his constitutional right to freedom of expression, that it was too far-reaching and that it infringed on his ''fundamental right to appear nude in public.''

After the United States Congress imposed sanctions on South Africa, overriding a Presidential veto, something here seemed to change, as if the measures, far from frightening an embattled white regime, stiffened its resistance. In fact, within days of the Congressional decision last month, Pretoria's white rulers seemed to revert to a traditional imagery of bullying and bluster that they had previously sought to avoid. Now, over the last two days, both the General Motors Corporation and the International Business Machines Corporation have announced their withdrawal from South Africa through the device of selling subsidiaries to local employees. And, if the past is any measure of predictability, much the same kind of defiance could be forthcoming.

Wometco Cable TV Inc. signed a definitive agreement yesterday to sell its cable operations for $625 million in cash to a group that includes the Taft Broadcasting Company, the Robert Bass Group and executives of Wometco's cable operation. Wometco Cable is currently owned by a group of investors organized by Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Company, the leveraged buyout firm that took the company private three years ago. With 348,000 subscribers, the Wometco operations are viewed by some analysts as particularly attractive because there are systems in the suburbs of such Southern cities as Atlanta, Columbia, S.C., Charleston, S.C. and Raleigh, N.C. Paul Kagan, a media analyst, estimated that Wometco's 1987 cash flow would be about $60 million. Noting that the Taft group was paying about 10 times that amount, he said the purchase price was very good for the buyer. 1987 Subscriber Estimate Estimating that the company would have about 360,000 subscribers next year, Mr. Kagan said that the purchase price was about $1,730 per subscriber.

BETWEEN the king of summer - sweet corn - and the prince of autumn - the apple - stands the neglected, misunderstood pear. Long live the pear. Around here the main pear crop, Bartlett, comes in around the end of August, a full month before the main-season McIntosh apples. But don't berate the pear for its precocity. It's got staying power: the Seckel and Anjou toward the end of September; the Bosc toward the middle of October, and in between a host of lesser known varieties - Gorham, Flemish Beauty, Clapps Favorite, Kieffer - all with distinctive flavors and very touchy personalities. More than anything, the pear believes in individual differences. Take a dozen McIntosh apples. Large and small, they all look the same. Take a dozen Bartlett pears. Some are sleek and slender, some have plump middles, some have complexion problems, some have long noses.

After two days of sales, the American Eagle, America's new gold coin, has proved a success of embarrassing proportions. The supply has run out. The 800,000 coins offered by the United States Mint beginning Monday have been snapped up, and the West Point Depository, where the coins are minted, is working seven days a week, three shifts a day, to turn out more. The Eagles, the first investment-grade gold bullion coins minted by the United States in more than 50 years, have face values of $5, 10, $25 and $50, but will sell for more because of their gold content. The $5 coin contains one-tenth of an ounce of gold, while the $50 coin contains a full ounce. Gold closed at $425 an ounce in New York yesterday, but the one-ounce coin was selling at $450.50, a 6 percent premium over the value of its gold content.

Buoyed by a strong performance at its Allstate Insurance subsidiary, Sears, Roebuck & Company today reported a 25.1 percent increase in third-quarter net income. Sears's net income rose to $328.1 million, or 88 cents a share, from $262.2 million, or 71 cents a share, in the 1985 period. Revenues jumped to a record $11.17 billion, up 11.3 percent from $10.04 billion. The Chicago-based retailing and financial services giant was also helped by a small rise in profits in its merchandising operations. But losses widened slightly in its Dean Witter Financial Services Group, mostly because of costs relating to the nationwide introduction of its Discover card.

Seats for Sitting More and more suburban rail commuters are finding a seat on the train in the morning. On Metro-North, the number of morning standees dropped from 4,100 in 1983 to 550 last May. In 1987, 54 new M-4 cars are to go into service, and the railroad says it hopes to cut the number of standees to zero by year's end. On the Long Island Rail Road, the number of morning and evening standees east of Jamaica has been cut from 7,600 in 1981 to 4,200 today. The prediction for the end of 1987: 2,300. But L.I.R.R. officials do not foresee eradicating the problem. On weekday mornings, the railroad carries 112,000 riders - almost twice Metro-North's 62,000 riders. There are only two westbound approach tracks to Penn Station and several platforms are too small to accommodate the railroad's longest trains, composed of 12 cars.

OPEC Agreement After a marathon meeting that lasted into the morning, OPEC oil ministers agreed to extend output controls in an effort to strengthen prices.