Visitor From Kentucky To Spend Nine Months In N.Z.

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28180, 19 January 1957, Page 2

Visitor From Kentucky To Spend Nine Months In N.Z.

The blue grass of Kentucky was, not blue but a vivid green. The; blueness was only an illusion’ caused by the mist in the early mornings when the trainers were out exercising their horses, said Mrs R. H. Dutt, of Lexington. Kentucky, yesterday. Mrs Dutt is the wife of Dr. Dutt, an American Fulbright scholar, who has come to New Zealand to undertake research work at Can-; terbury Agricultural College. Lincoln.

Lexington, with a population of about 100.000, was the centre of an extensive horse breeding and training industry and it was also a univeristy town, said Mrs Dutt. Besides several smaller church colleges, the University of Kentucky, where her husband was associate professor of genetics, and the 178-year-old Transylvania College were located there.

Dr. and Mrs Dutt and their two children, Philip, aged seven, and Kathleen, aged six, arrived in Auckland on the Oronsay on Tuesday and came to Christchurch yesterday. They will fpend nine months in New Zealand.

A graduate of Bethany College. West Virginia, Mrs Dutt planned to become a school teacher but was married before she took up her profession. There was a great shortage of teachers all over the United States, particularly at the primary school level, se ; d Mrs Dutt. Teachers were not well paid in comparison with other professions, but in some States the salaries were better than in others. The tremendous increase m school rolls also created a shortage of accommodation and m spite of an extensive school building programme in Lexington, the educational authorities planned to use » number of church halls ano other buildings this year.

Integration About one tenth of the population consisted of Negroes and integration in the schools was alow and orderly. Most people

took it as a matter of course and there were no feelings of racial hatred as in some of the southern States, said Mrs Dutt.

Until recentlv there wa.s comnaratively little industry in Lexington. but several large companies had erected or were erecting factories there, said Mrs Dutt. Because of the ready labour market and the cheaper manufacturing costs, industry was moving south. The population —as increasing rapidly and new areas on the outskirts o‘ the town were being opened up for settlement all the time. Tobacco was one of the mam crops of the area and the large warehouses built to store it were a feature of the landscape of Lexington. The tobacco auctions were Quite an event and buyers from all parts of the United States attended, said Mrs Dutt. There was some unemployment m Lexington but it was mainly due to the seasonal employment of tobacco workers and men in the racing stables Mrs Dutt said. Hot Summers Commenting on the climate, Mrs Dutt said that the summers were hotter and the winters colder than m New Zealand. It usually snowed two or three times during the winter and in summer the temperature rose as high as 105 degrees. She was amused to find that the people of Wellington considered that they were experiencing a heat wave when the temperature reached 80 degrees. “Back home we would consider it a cool spell if the temperature dropped to 80 degrees during the summer.” she said.

Most American houses were centrally heated and the temperature was thermostatically controlled. Natural gas, piped from Texas, was also used for heating in Lexington, said Mrs Dutt. “It was quite a problem to decide what clothing to bring to New Zealand. I knew we would feel the cold here during the wint r because of the lack oi central heating,” she said.