MR SANDYS AT METHVEN

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27150, 21 September 1953, Page 7

MR SANDYS AT METHVEN

ARRIVAL AT WIGRAM ON SATURDAY

VISIT TO GRANDFATHER’S GRAVE TODAY Arriving at the R.N.Z.A.F. station, Wigram, soon after 5 p.m., Mr Duncan Sandys, Britain’s Minister of Supply, spent Saturday night in the homestead built on the Springfield estate, MethVen, by his grandfather, Mr Duncan Cameron. Mr Sandvg was greeted at Wigram by the Station Commander (Group Captain B. S. Nicholl). He chatted with a reporter before getting into the wait-

ing Ministerial. car, but said that his visit was a personal one and*that he had no official business to discuss at this stage of his'visit to New Zealand. Mr Sandys said he had had an excellent trip to Christchurch, with good visibility all the way. He travelled in an R.N.Z.A.F. Devon. He was looking forward to his short stay at Springfield, he said.

Mr Sandys was accompanied in the aircraft and on his trip to Methven by Mr G. R. J.. Hope, second assistant seer retary in the Department of Industries and Commerce. Mr Sandys spent yesterday quietly at Springfield with his host, Mr A. W. Taylor, a Christchurch businessman, who is the present owner. Today he will visit his grandfather’s grave in Methven with a party of Ashburton county councillors and members of other local bodies.

He will be welcomed to Ashburton in the afternoon by the Mayor (Mr E. C. Bathurst) and will later leave for Christchurch, where he will spend tomorrow.