Tensing Will Miss Hillary

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30066, 26 February 1963, Page 12

Tensing Will Miss Hillary

(HZ. Press Association) WELLINGTON, Feb. 25. The Himalayan guide, Sherpa Tensing, aged 49, will make a three-week New Zealand visit soon after Easter—but his fellow conquerpr of Everest, Sir Edmund Hillary, will not be here to greet him. Sir Edmund Hillary will be away on his latest expedition to the Everest region. - When he tuned the New Zealand tour with Tensing in Darjeeling last December, “he seemed keen to be coming," Sir Edmund Hillary said.

“He speaks English quite well, but would have trouble lecturing fluently.”

Sir Edmund Hillary said he thought the visit would be taken up with trips through mountain areas.

Sir Edmund Hillary will leave New Zealand on Thursday on his second “Schools for Sherpas” mission to the Everest region and will be away till July. Today he was appointed president of the Council for Volunteer Service Overseas.

The organisation was established last March to give young New Zealanders an opportunity to work and assist in underdeveloped countries.

Sir Edmund Hillary said his expedition to establish schools in the Himalayas was an indication of his interest in the type of aid the organisation could give.

He was keen to persuade people and organisations throughout New Zealand of the need to help underdeveloped countries.

Sir Edmund Hillary will arrive in Katmandu, Nepal, on Sunday. On the following Friday, be plans to begin a 17-day walk to Khuriijung, where he has already established a school. Sir Edmund Hillary will this time set up two further schools—at Thami, where Sherpa Tensing was born, and at Pangboche. Leaving Katmandu with tiie American-financed expedition, which includes five New Zealanders, will be 250 carriers bearing building supplier and equipment. The New Zealanders in the party will be fed, clothed and equipped—but not paid. They include Dr. M. Gill and Dr. P. Houghton, who will perform clinical work and research, J. Wilson, a noted mountaineer, and M. Ellis, who was base construction engineer on Sir Edmund Hilary’s expedition to the Antarctic.