Odd Requests Made At N.Z. House

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30278, 2 November 1963, Page 2

Odd Requests Made At N.Z. House

(From the London Correspondent of "The Press”! LONDON, October 22. A woman visitor to London approached the reception desk at New Zealand House in the Haymarket the other day, beamed at the staff on duty, and asked whether she could have a room at the top.

She was under the impression that it was, among other things, a hotel.

An odd request, but no mare so than the demand from anoitiher woman visitor at the old New Zealand House in the Strand for the ironing-room. Here, also, another visitor was suspected of rinsing her husband’s drip-dry shirts in the women’s wash-room.

So the girts, at the desk—among them the head receptionist, Jean Abbey, and Elsie Todhunter, and Mary Lynch —have become perfectly attuned to the unusual.

Miss Abbey is an Englishwoman who, between 1951 and 1960. worked in Auckland, first for the Union Steam Ship Company and then for the British Overseas Airways Corporation. Miss Lynch is a New Zealander, daughter of Mrs K. Z. Lynch, of Levin. Miss Todhunter, also an Englishwoman, was with the Social Security Department in Wellington from 1953 to 1955. During the season these receptionists have hundreds of questions a day to answer, and as one of them said today: “Here we are much more a gathering of nations than we were in the Strand building.”

Disappointed Applicants

For the reception staff the pleasantness of the day is

sometimes tinged with sad-ness-induced wholly by their having to explain to some New Zealanders, often quite young girls, that neither the Royal garden party season at Buckingham Palace nor the Trooping-the-Colour ceremony is open to them because they have left their application for tickets too late. “I wish it were more commonly known,” said Miss Abbey in discussing the number of disappointed applicants, "that applications for consideration for the garden parties dose on March 31 and for the Trooping-the-Colour on April 30, and that friends travelling together should apply separately. Sometimes it has happened that applications sent by surface mail have arrived too late. Had they come by air all would have been well. "Moreover, only two members of the same family, who must be over 17 years of age, may apply.” Not Transferable

Miss Abbey emphasised that invitations were not transferable and that cancellations not only were an embarrassment to the New Zealand High Commission but also de. pnved other New Zealanders

of the opportunity to attend. Questions an many matters ranging from Royal Ascot to international driving permits are likely to come within the purview of the New Zealand House receptionists. “Giris wanting jobs as

teachers—and there should be no difficulty in getting positions—might have to wait a month or so as their qualifications are being checked,” Mias Abbey saiid. “Teachers hoping to work in Britain should, before leaving New Zealand, apply to the External Relations Branch of the Ministry of Education in Curzon street for recognition of their qualifications, and it is always a help if they bring with them evidence of their qualifications.”