Scottish Visitor Finds N.Z. “A Land Of Kindness”

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29017, 5 October 1959, Page 2

Scottish Visitor Finds N.Z. “A Land Of Kindness”

New Zealand is a land of kindness. according to Mrs Ethel Noble, of Eskbank, near Edinburgh, who left Christchurch on Saturday to continue her Dominion visit in the North Island. She has enjoyed the South Island immensely. Mrs Noble, who had spent some months in Australia on a health trip, felt almost at home when she arrived in Christchurch, with snowy mountains, green and clipped lawns, and spring flowers, though the city itself reminded her of Cambridge, England, with even more bicycles. She saw country more like Scotland when she crossed the Mackenzie Country on the way to Mount Cook. Only the colour of the heather of the Highlands was missing. Round Christchurch she was charmed and surprised by the profusion of blossom on the flowering trees. A forsythia hedge she found very different from the small shrubs in her own country.

Though she had only 12 days in the South Island Mrs Noble had to squeeze in a trip to Dunedin. where she was fascinated by the familiar place names—and their unfamiliar pronunciation as with Corstorphine. Back in Christchurch again, she had time for morning tea with members of the committee of tue Canterbury branch of the Overseas League. She had been entertained by the Otago branch in Dunedin. It was. in fact, the Overseas League that really brought Mrs Noble to New Zealand. When a party of New Zealand schoolboys went to the United Kingdom las* year under an Overseas League scheme two of the boys were billeted with her for their Edinburgh visit. John Fox, of Christchurch, and Ronald Crawshaw, of Gisborne. When she was as close to New Zealand as Australia she

thought she would like to visit them in their homes. While she was in Christchurch Mrs Noble learned of the appointment of her niece. Miss Marjorie Noble, of Edinburgh, to the staff of the Christchurch Girls’ High School as a physical education teacher. She was therefore interested to meet the principal, Miss R. F. C. Tyndall, and look over the school and the hostel, where Miss Noble will live when she arrives in Christchurch. Although a stranger in a far country Mrs Noble had no trouble making friends wherever she went, in ships, buses, trains, hotels, shops and ofllces. From her talks with them, visits to their homes, and her observations, she is taking back to Scotland a surprising amount of information considering the shortness of her stay.