CURRENT NOTES

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26031, 7 February 1950, Page 2

CURRENT NOTES

Sir Robert Holland and his cousin, Miss Freda Small (Victoria, British Columbia), who are visiting Christchurch, will leave to-morrow for Dunedin to continue a tom: of the Dominion. Princess Kazuko, a daughter of the Emperor Hirohito of Japan, will become the first member of the Japanese Imperial Family to marry a commoner when she marries in May, according to the Japanese press. Her engagement was recently announced to the former Prince Takamichi Takatsukasa, a son of one of the highest Shinto priests in Japan. All the peers and princes, with the exception of the Emperor’s brothers, lost their titles shortly after the surrender. The Princess will pay her respects to her Imperial ancestors before her marriage. —Tokyo, February 5. Commander and Mrs George Dennistoun (Pee] Forest) will leave New Zealand by the Rangitoto next month for a trip to England. Mrs Vesey Robinson (Blenheim) will leave by the Rangitiki this month ■for a trip.to England and Scotland.

Dr. and Mrs W. E. Minty (Manchester street north) will leave Christchurch on Monday for Wellington, where Dr. Minty will attend the medical conference. They will be the guests in Wellington of Dr. and Mrs Douglas Brown.

Mrs Daniel Reese (Cashmere Hills) wil leave the Dominion in April by the Rangitene for Britain, where she will visit her daughter, Mrs Smail, Berwick. Another daughter, Miss Ann Reese, who left last year for England, has been visiting Paris but will return to England to meet her mother. Miss D. Anderson (“Inveresk,” Armagh street west) wil/leave New Zealand by the Rangitoto for England, where she will visit her sister, Mrs Morris, Emsworth, Hampshire. Mr and Mrs F. W. Freeman (Cashmere), who have been visiting England, are now returning to the Dominion via Australia and are expected in Christchurch on February 28. Mr and Mrs Barrie Philpot have arrived from Sydney to spend some weeks in Christchurch. Mrs Philpot Was formerly Miss Marie jean Edmonds, of Monck’s Bay, Christchurch. Misses Alison Graham (Cashmere Hills, J. Smellie, and R. McKenzie (president, honorary secretary and honorary treasurer of the Junior branch of the Christchurch Ladies Guild of the British Sailors’ Society), have left for a visit-to England. At a meeting of the branch held recently Mrs. Gerald Cleary (formerly Miss Flora McDonald), Miss Lyndal Miller and Miss Margaret Hall were elected president, secretary and treasurer respectively. Miss F, Slote. the new principal of St. Hilda’s Collegiate School, arrived in Dunedin on Friday from England. A bachelor of arts with honours from London University. Miss Slote is 33 years of age, and succeeds Miss M. Dalziel. She also holds the teachers post-graduation diploma from London University, and has varied teaching experience in England, France, and Germany. Her last post was at St. Michael’s School for girls in Limpsfield, Surrey. '

Miss Shona Bell, who has been palaeo-botanist of the Geological Survey, will shortly leave her position to be married to a field geologist, Mr T. Grant-Taylor, who is stationed at Napier. She works on leaf impressions. The survey has only two palaeobotanists—Miss Bell and a man who is doing research on pollen spores in coal.

Mr J. Richardson, the newly appointed lecturer in Education at the University of Otago, Mrs Richardson and their two young children have arrived in Dunedin from England. Mr Richardson took his B.A. with honours in history at Liverpool University in 1937. and after serving in the armed forces and attaining the rank of captain in the Artillery, went to Birmingham University, where he gained a diploma in child psychology. He completed his M.A. in education last year. Mrs Richardson is an international hockey representative, having played centre half for England for three years before the war. She is also a first-class swimmer. Mr Richardson is a cross-country runner of note, having represented his home county. Cheshire, and Liverpool and Birmingham Universities. Other interests are debating and tennis. Mr and Mrs R. H. Wild will this week visit Hokitika. Mr Wild’s birthplace. Mrs Wild, who is on the advertising staff of the Hong Kong “Mail,” was formerly Mrs G. M. Dickinson, of Tauranga. Her second marriage to Mr Wild took place recently in Sydney. Her daughter, Miss Marjorie Dickinson, a New Zealand-trained nurse, who for the last year has been nursing in South Africa, flew to Hong Kong to take over her mother’s position on the Hong Kong “Mail.” One of the 158 water colours in the loan collection of pictures now on exhibition in the McDougall Art Gallery is of very special interest. It is the work of a woman—Amelia Long, wife of Charles Long, who afterwards became the first Baron Farnborough. Mrs Long was the favourite pupil cf Thomas Girtin, whose name figures prominently in every history of painting of the late eighteenth and earlv nineteenth century, although he died at the age of 27. The picture, a Thames scene, now hung at the McDougall gallery, was lent by the Williamson Art Gallery, Birkenhead. It is .small—l 3 inches by 8J inches—and in the top right hand corner it bears a mark-of enemy action, a mark re-, ceived in an air raid on September 30, 1940. On Sunday between 400 and 500 persons visited the exhibition in Christchurch.

The need for additional kindergartens in and around Christchurch becomes more urgent every ye'&r. This is shown clearly by the demand in the Waimairi district. Sixteen months ago —in October, 1948—a new kindergarten was opened at Westholme street in the Waimairi district. This school now has such a long waiting list that the controlling committee has decided to divide the district and open a new kindergarten in the south portion, in Pitcairn crescent. This would serve the area north of Bligh’s road near Wairakei road, where a section has already been set aside as a site for the proposed school. A public meeting will be held to discuss arrangements.