U.S. Visitor Calls On Totem Pole

Press, Volume C, Issue 29435, 10 February 1961, Page 2

U.S. Visitor Calls On Totem Pole

A visitor from the United States with a neighbourly interest in the totem pole at Little Hagley Park, is Mrs Elmer Whitteker, of Oregon City.

She watched Chief Lelooska carve the pole at the Oregon State Centennial Exhibition in Portland, read all that was published about the friendship project, and when she arrived in Christchurch recently lost no time in paying the pole a call with her camera.

Mrs Whjtteker, as Miss Anne Savill, previously worked in Christchurch for more than two years as secretary In a merchants’ firm and is now revisiting the city after nearly 11 years After completing her Second World War service in India as a welfare officer in the British Army, Miss Savill decided to be demobilised in Christchurch, New Zealand.

A Londoner with a yen to travel, she left New Zealand to see Australia, returned to England for three years then emigrated to Canada. Still

wanting to see more of the world she decided to go to the United States, and went to Portland, Oregon. That seemed to be the end of her travels for a while. Working as a secretary there she met and married an

American. Her next journey took her 15 miles south, to Oregon City, where she now lives

With a 10-acre farm as a hobby, Mr Elmer Whitteker works as a maintenance engineer at Marylhurst College (Oregon) a large Catholic university. This fine establishment also includes a large children’s home and a convent. Until her present tour of New Zealand and Australia, Anne Whitteker was a secretary In the Department of Employment. Oregon City.

Like N.Z. Scenically. Oregon State has always reminded Mrs Whitteker of New Zealand with its rugged coastline, little coastal town and beaches, and its rolling inland downs. As a housewife she shops at Lloyds Centre on the outskirts of Portland, claimed to be the biggest shopping centre in the world. "This centre covers the equivalent of 11 blocks and is laid out in a huge cross—one wide main street with two little streets projecting each side," Mrs Whitteker said yesterday. "You can buy everything you want at Lloyds Centre.”

Shops are all canopied so there is no chance of getting wet on a rainy day. In an open part of the site are trees, tables and seats. There are no traffic problems and a huge parking lot for shoppers’ cars After leaving New Zealand. Mrs Whitteker will revisit Australia to see relatives, including her parents, who now live in Sydney. She will return to Oregon in May.