Links With Other Methven

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31628, 14 March 1968, Page 8

Links With Other Methven

There are links between Methven in Scotland and Methven in New Zealand. The town guide set up in the last year by the Methven chapter of the Junior Chamber of Commerce notes that Methven was founded in 1878 by Robert Patton, who named it after his hometown in Perthshire in Scotland. The Methven Women’s Institute has been “linked” with Methven in Scotland since its establishment in 1931. This was because of the enthusiasm of the institute’s first president, Mrs J. F. Stone, who now lives in Christchurch. The institutes in the two parts of the world

have regularly exchanged Christmas gifts and journals. But the contact has gone further than this. On at least two occasions Methven in Canterbury has had visitors from the other Methven and on each of these two occasions it was the same people. This was Mr and Mrs J. Galloway. Mr Galloway is now a retired customs officer. They visited the local Methven nine years ago and again last year. They have special ties with the local Methven because before retiring to Perth, only six miles away from the other original Methven, they lived in the house where the founder of New Zealand's

Methven came from. They also have a son living in the North Island. In 1960, on the other hand, three women from Methven in Canterbury visited the other Methven and were entertained by members of the Women’s Institute at a special meeting and were shown around the district One of these women was Mrs R. Ireland, the present president of the local Methven Women’s Institute, and travelling with her was Mrs J- Dolan. Another Canterbury Methvenite Mrs G. Callaghan, was also there at the same time. Apart from attending the special meeting, the Methven visitors were also entertained by the Scottish institute president at her farm home.

Mrs Ireland recalls that members of the Scottish Institute came along to the meeting with postcards of local interest with their names and addresses on the back, and the New Zealanders brought these home so that the local members could establish a penfriendship if they wished. Three or four members of the Canterbury institute have since maintained a regular penfriendship.

Mrs Ireland remembers the Scottish Methven as being very old. She says that it goes back to 1200. Lying in rolling country it was a typical one-street village with a population of about half the local Methven. The houses were all of stone and very few were new. It was mid-summer when they were there and there were roses over the frontages of the houses which were close up to the street.

The New Zealand visitors were shown the town and district of Dunkeld, which Mrs Ireland says is very famous in Scottish history. Scotland, she recalls, is steeped in history and people seem to know their history so well. The cathedral at Dunkeld, she says, was quite unforgettable—only a half was kept in repair and the rest was a ruin. They also visited a famous school for the sons of lairds at Glen Al. mond, about seven miles from Methven. This was Trinity College, where two busloads of Methven women go daily to perform the various duties including cleaning and preparing and serving meals. They subsequently motored through Sma’ Glen.