TOUR BY ENGLISH SCHOOL BOYS

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22308, 24 January 1938, Page 19

TOUR BY ENGLISH SCHOOL BOYS

SIX WEEKS' STAY IN NEW ZEALAND TRAMP OVER ALPINE PASSES Arrangements for the third tour of New Zealand by a party of English Public School boys are at present being made throughout the Dominion by Lord Malcolm Douglas-Hamilton, advance agent for the tour, who arrived in Christchurch by aeroplane on Saturday afternoon. In an interview with "The Press" yesterday, he stated that the tour was the twentieth to various parts of the Empire which had been arranged by the School Empire Tour Committee, which had been set up in 1927.

The party would spend some six weeks in the Dominion, and it was hoped that the members of the party would have the opportunity of living on farms for a few days so that they might gain some idea, he said, of the work on which the main industry or' New Zealand was based. They also looked forward to visiting some of New Zealand's famous schools, at which they could compare the life of a New Zealand schoolboy with their own.

Early m the party's itinerary is planned a three days" walk across the Southern Alps—to give (he party "an idea of primitive life in alpine huts, and to enable it to appreciate the beauty of the Southern Alps."

The" party was also keen. Lord 'Malcolm Douglas-Hamilton said, to make the acquaintance of the Maoris, the history of whose tribes read to Englishmen rather like the Jtory oi Scottish clans. Loyal co-operation followed bitter fighting until, as the Scottish did about 100 years earlier, the Maoris became useful members oi the British Empire.

The boys in the party come from most of the bit; public schools, ho added, the lift including Blundells. Branston Charterhouse, Clifton, Eton, Lancing, Radjey. Rugby, Stowe, Tonbridge and Worcester. The director of tne party was Mr A. E. C. Cornwall, a housemaster at Marlborough, and he had as an assistant. Mr A. F. Philpotts The High Commissioner for New Zealand. Mr W. J. Jordan, was taking a keen interest in the tour, and much help in the making of the arrangements had been given by both Mr Jordan and Mr C. B. Burdekin.