Dame Flora MacLeod May Revisit N.Z.

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30313, 13 December 1963, Page 2

Dame Flora MacLeod May Revisit N.Z.

The head of the MacLeod clan, Dame Flora MacLeod, hopes to visit Australia and New Zealand next year, according to two Canadians, Mrs Edith McLeod and Miss Sue Brushett, who are visiting Christchurch. The New Zealand correspondent to the Clan MacLeod magazine in Edinburgh (Mrs W. S. Mac Gibbon, of Christchurch) said yesterday that Dame Flora MacLeod hopes to attend MacLeod week in Sydney next October, and would probably come to New Zealand after that.

Mrs Mac Gibbon said that: Dame Flora MacLeod, who is R 5, is at present travelling in India. The two Canadian women are touring New Zealand after attending “MacLeod Week” in Sydney. They were the only Canadians present and the first to attend a gathering of Australian clansmen. Mrs McLeod, who belongs to a clan society in herj hefne town, said in Christchurch that about 200 members from throughout Australia attended. A function was arranged for each day of the week, which began ■with a church service and picnic and ended with a ball knd a beach barbecue. During the week there were luncheons and receptions. It *as the ninth week to be held in Australia. f Mrs McLeod is particularly interested in New Zealand's garden city, as she comes from another garden city— Victoria, B.C. Inspiration for this reputation came from a sunken garden built when a huge hole was gouged in the landscape for a lime quarry. J “The landscape was beautified as it was destroyed," Mrs McLeod said. At night it was Illuminated, and on its upper

level symphony concerts were held during the summer. The scheme had been expanded to include rose gardens and an Italian garden. It had inspired the people •f Victoria to take a great pride in their own gardens, the women said. The climate —the mildest in Canada—was also conducive to plant growth. Temperatures ranged from 90deg. in summer to about 38deg. in winter, only occasionally reaching freezing point. Miss Brushett, a retired elementary school teacher, lives in Edmonton, Alberta. Making the trip to New Zealand partly to avoid a prairie winter, she is a little disappointed in the weather she has encountered so far. But she had a good word for the 1 reputedly cold Canadian winters. “We do have snow, but with it we get the brightest sunshine you would find anywhere.” she said.