Mr And Mrs L. W. Stewart Met Old Boys On Tour

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28052, 21 August 1956, Page 2

Mr And Mrs L. W. Stewart Met Old Boys On Tour

In Australia and during their tour of the East in the Nieuw Holland, Mr L. W. Stewart, rector of St. Andrew's College, and Mrs Stewart, have been met by old boys of the college, or their relatives and friends. Mr and Mrs Stewart will leave Sydney by the Monowai on August 24. and expect to arrive in Christchurch on August 29. In Sydney on August 15 they attended the wedding in St. Stephen's Church of Beverley Anderson, only daughter cf the late Mr. A. K. Anderson (a former rector of St. Andrew’s College, and later, for many years, headmaster of Scots College, Sydney). Miss Anderson married Mr Harry McMichael. “To me it was rather a sad occasion to see Mrs Anderson escorted by a member of the Scots College Council,” wrote Mr Stewart in a letter to his mother, Mrs S. H. Stewart, Fendalton.

At Penang, when the Nieuw Holland anchored in the stream, one of the first persons to go out to the ship by launch was an old boy of the college, Maurice Kain. He took Mr and Irs Stewart to the terminus of a cable car which rose to a height of 3000 feet, on a sharp incline. “At the top the temperature had dropped so considerably that we might have been in New Zealand,” wrote Mr Stewart.

They were entertained at Maurice Kain’s flat, “a most sumptuous place.” and in the evening had an evening meal on the terrace of a seaside hotel at the advanced hour of 10.30 p.m. This last meal of the day in the tropics was never before 8 p.m. and often much later, said Mr Stewart. The day after their arrival at Penang th£y made a complete circuit of the island, a trip of about 45 miles.

It took only 12 hours to reach the next port of call. Port Swettenham. Because there was no berthage for the ship it had to anchor at the mouth of the river, completelv out of sight of any town. When a launch took them ashore, on the quay was a familiar face—Mrs Fletcher. whose brother teaches at St. Andrew's College, and her husband.

The Fletchers eventually handed tbprn over Co the Chandlers—Mrs Chandler was Katherine Mawson daughter of Mr J. B. Mawson. a former rector of St. Andrew’s College Singapore Visit

The Rev. Mr Cheng, the father of a Chinese boy who had been a pupil at the college, travelled from Malacca, a distance of 151 miles, to welcome them on their arrival at Singapore. He and his wife and family arrived at the ship at 11.45 p.m. Mr Cheng

arranged with Chinese friends to have a car at their disposal at all hours of the day. and he and Chinese friends accompanied Mr and Mrs Stewart on shopping expeditions to see that they were not overcharged. An old boy of St. Andrew's College, Mr Huch Wilkinson, had Mr and Mrs Stewart at his flat for tea, and an uncle and aunt of Malcolm Cessford had them to dinner. They learnt that Malcolm Cessford had married recently and was farming with his parents in Scotland. In Melbourne. Mr Frank Marne arranged a dinner for old boys of St Andrew’s College. “It was a grand occasion.” wrote Mr Stewart. Among those present were two old boys he had not seen for 25 years.

Mr C. M. Gilray, at one time headmaster of John McGlashan College, and for 19 years headmaster of Scotch College. Melbourne, and Mr and Mrs Ziffer, who taught in Christchurch before they went to Australia, were among other South Island friends Mr and Mrs Stewart met in Melbourne. On their way home from church one Sunday they called at the home of the Rev. Alan Watson formerly of Christchurch, only to find that Mr Watson was in Rome on his way to a conference in Prague.

In the photographic record Mr Stewart has taken of his trip there are pictures of many schools, including the dedication of the new chapel at Scots College, Sydney, a visit to Geelong Grammar School, where a former member of St. Andrew’s teaching staff is now a senior housemaster. Michael Spiro showed Mr and Mrs Stewart over Melbourne University.

In Melbourne Mr and Mrs Stewart saw the Olympic village, where all the athletes attending the Olympic Games in November will be billeted It took three hours by tram to visit the Olympic village and another three hours to visit Essendon aerodrome, wrote Mr Stewart.

After visiting Canberra Mr and Mrs Stewart went to Cooma. where they were met by Sir William Hudson, formerly of Nelson, and Lady Hudson, formerly of Fairlie. South Canterbury, and were taken to see the Snowy Mountain hydro-electric project, of which Sir William Hudson is engineer-in-chief. It was snowing when Mr and Mrs Stewart stayed in Sir William and Lady Hudson’s private chalet in the mountains. They covered 409 miles on their tour of the project. In Jahore. Mr and Mrs Stewart met Miss Richards, a missionary, who is a sister of the Rev. M. W. Wilson’s wife.