DESCENDANTS OF N.Z. PIONEERS

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29368, 22 November 1960, Page 24

DESCENDANTS OF N.Z. PIONEERS

Three Generations At London Cavalcade

[From the London Correspondent of “The Press”]

LONDON. November 15.

In the audience at the first of the presentations of the “Cavalcade of the Commonwealth” in London today were representatives of three generations of the descendants'of pioneer settlers in New Zealand.

They are three members of the Ross family, daughter-in-law, grandson and 10-year-old greatgrandson of Mr George Arthur Emilius Ross, who arrived in Canterbury in 1851, and his wife. Sibella Wilson. She was 10 when she arrived at Lyttelton in the same year, having sailed with six younger sisters in the sixth ship to reach the colony, the Isabella Hercus. Her father became Archdeacon of Christchurch. Mr Ross farmed at Waireka and was also clerk of the Provincial Council.

Today, Mrs C. V. Ross, wife of his medical scientist son, the late Philip Hedgland Ross, her son, Mr lan, Ross, a London patent agent, and his own son, lan, watched the Mermaid Theatre presentation of Commonwealth songs and dances. There was also a dramatic presentation of Commonwealth history and cultural links devised and directed by Mr Richard Campion of Wellington. The Cavalcade was sponsored by the joint Commonwealth Societies as part of Commonwealth Weeks in the city of London. Twelve countries contributed to the occasion.