Bird Watching Is Couple’s Hobby

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32166, 9 December 1969, Page 2

Bird Watching Is Couple’s Hobby

Bird watching—of the flying variety—is an interest Sir Arthur Galsworthy, the British High Commissioner to New Zealand, and Lady Galsworthy, are looking forward to pursuing in New Zealand.

Wherever they go they take a field binocular. Lady Galsworthy says her husband is the active enthusiast, while she prefers to sit and let the birds observe her.

Already she is taking note of the birds new to her at their Wellington residence, and is planning a trip to the bush. Their interest in ornithology was stimulated when their elder son, Anthony entered boarding school and took up the hobby. They began reading his bird books, and were soon busy identifying any unusual bird life. Sir Arthur Galsworthy is a member of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, and Lady Galsworthy often accompanies him to lectures and film showings. He seldom has time for long birdwatching safaris. “He’s saving that up for his retirement,” said Lady Galsworthy, who was visiting Christchurch for the first time with her husband yesterday. Lady Galsworthy’s love of nature encompasses flowers, plants, and pets. “I’ve got a lot to learn here. My son gave me a book on trees, which I must study up. I bring back a leaf, spend all day looking it up, then forget its name the next day. I always meant to make a collection but Tm not the tidiest of people.” When she has time to spare in a busy life Lady Galsworthy likes to arrange flowers.

“I’m not an expert, I just like a lot of things and am not very good at any of them,” she said. Always used to pets in the home, she is missing the family dog and cat Thirteen-year-old Edward, a cross between a boxer and a spaniel, and four-year-old Trelawny, a Cornish, silver-and-white, tabby cat travelled out in luxury by ship from their home in Surrey. “Thoroughly spoilt” during the journey, they are now in quarantine in Wellington. “I think the sea air did Edward the power of good. He's only deaf when he wants to be now,” she said. Trelawny was named for his Cornish birth place. Lady Galsworthy first saw him on a farm in Cornwall, and fear-

ing he would be drowned took the kitten home. Apart from three years spent in West Africa, Sir Arthur and Lady Galsworthy have lived in England. Sir Arthur Galsworthy was deputy Under-Secretary of State in the Foreign and Common-

wealth Office at Whitehall, before being posted to New Zealand.

“We like the country very much and consider ourselves very lucky to be sent here. The people are much like those at home, kind and friendly, but the place has its own individual personality," she said.

“I’m only sorry I don’t play some sort of sport The water around Wellington would be too cold for me to swim, I'm sure, but I’m toying with taking up riding again.” Her husband has already resumed riding, but it is 30 years since Lady Galsworthy was on horseback, and "the horses all seem so much bigger these days.” Sir Arthur and Lady Galsworthy have two sons. Anthony, who is with them in New Zealand for a short stay, has just completed a course in Mandarin at the language school attached to the University of Hong Kong and will soon go to Peking on a diplomatic posting, and Robert is teaching Greek and Latta at a boys’ school in Surrey