EXCHANGE OF GIFTS

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31196, 21 October 1966, Page 2

EXCHANGE OF GIFTS

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, October 20. President and Mrs Johnson left New Zealand this afternoon with a range of gifts to remind them of their brief visit. Cr. J. H. Turk, chairman of the Wellington City Council’s traffic and transport committee, had a coloured photograph of the Kelburn cablecar for Mrs Johnson as a memento of her ride on it this morning. Cr. R. L. Archibald gave her a copy of a book on New Zealand’s national parks and reserves as a reminder of her inspection of the gardens of Wellington.

Earlier, at Government House, there was an exchange of gifts between the President and Mrs Johnson and Sir Bernar ■ and Lady Fergusson. Sir Bernard Fergusson presented a specially bound set of the three-volume “Encyclopedia of New Zealand,” prepared by the Parliamentary historian (Dr. A. H. McLintock) and not yet on public sale. In return, President Johnson gave a replica of George Washington’s sword and a silver framed photograph of himself. Lady Fergusson’s tribute to

Mrs Johnson was a New Zealand landscape painting, a water colour called “Spring in the Orchard, Gisborne,” painted by Mr S. B. MacLennan, director of the National Art Gallery. It was selected by Lady Fergusson and originally appeared in the recent spring exhibition at the gallery of the Zealand Academy of Fine Arts. Mrs Johnson replied with a silver cigarette case bearing a United States Red Cross decoration. The President and Mrs Johnson also saw a special display of Maori carvings. They included a whare huia, a carved box to hold the feathers of the huia bird, and the short-handled war club, the mere.