‘Rotary Projects Effective’

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31375, 22 May 1967, Page 1

‘Rotary Projects Effective’

Rotary was achieving a great deal by means of support for various aid programmes in developing countries, said Mr T. H. McCombs, of Christchurch, who has returned from a Rotary conference of all incoming governors at Lake Placid, New York.

He is the new governor of Rotary District 298, which covers most of the South Island. Such projects included the establishment of.

schools, libraries and medical clinics, Mr McCombs said. Among aid projects, discussed at the conference was the establishment of clinics to give help and advice for small businesses. Rotarians who had just retired, or who were in a position to do so, went to developing countries and spent some time giving help and advice based on their own experience. "I spoke to an American who had spent some time in Nigeria helping to reorganise a cosmetics business with spectacular results,” Mr McCombs said.

There were many schemes such as this, including the good neighbour programme in

Thailand which New Zealand Rotary supported, which were achieving a great deal, he said.

District governors from 135 countries attended the conference and simultaneous translations were made so that addresses were in English, French, Spanish and Japanese. The aim for the coming year, as expressed by the international president, Mr Luther Hodges, former Secretary of Commerce in the United States Government, was that the internal organisation of clubs be improved so they would be ready for more effective action in both

community and international service, Mr plcCombs said.

While at the conference he also had useful talks with a district governor from Japan. The machinery for further projects such as the exchange of children’s paintings between the two countries had been discussed, and improvements suggested. Mr McCombs, who is headmaster of Cashmere High School and pro-chancellor of the University of Canterbury, said he visited the University of Hawaii, and had informal talks with officials of other American universities as well as with school authorities in eastern states.