“MY MOTHER’S DAY”

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28413, 21 October 1957, Page 17

“MY MOTHER’S DAY”

Japanese Awards To N.Z. Children (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, October 20. Five New Zealand children have won prizes in a wo rid-wide competition organised in Japan to celebrate “my mother’s day.” The children were asked to draw a picture of their mothers. New Zealand winners announced by the Japanese Minister to New Zealand (Mr H. Shimadzu) were: Cherrill Robertson, aged 11, 28 Bremner avenue, Mount Roskill, president’s medal and certificate of merit. Mother’s Society medal and certificate of merit winners were Geraldine Leighton Jones, aged eight, Kawatiri avenue, Gonville, Wanganui; Christopher Armstrong, aged eight, Halcombe School. Feilding; Judith Ann Cann, aged six, Aramoho School, Wanganui; and Judith Ann Swainson, aged eight, Opotutama School, Hawke’s Bay. Forty-five nations were represented by more than 4800 drawings by their schoolchildren. About 600 New Zealand schoolchildren took part in the competition. The competition, prompted by the Morinaga Society for the Praise of Mothers and the Federation of Japan U.N.E.S.C.O. Unions, was supported by the Japanese Ministries of Education, Public Welfare, and Foreign Affairs.

The children’s drawings were judged by both Japanese and foreign experts, and were subsequently placed on exhibition, first in Tokyo and then in other centres.

A total of 150,000 people visited the exhibition during its six-day showing in Tokyo.