Governor three times bogged

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32666, 23 July 1971, Page 14

Governor three times bogged

(New Zealand Press Association)

WAITANGI (Chatham Islands), July 22. Three times today the vehicle carrying the Governor-General (Sir Arthur Porritt) over the Chatham Island swamps became bogged.

Twice the four-wheel drive utility vehicle had to be winched to firmer ground. The other time the Resident Commissioner for the Chathams, (Mr D. Reid) was able to drive it out of trouble after some passengers, includSir Arthur Porritt, had climbed out. At the outset, Sir Arthur Porritt requested the company of one of the Chatham’s eldest residents, Mrs Ruth Cannon, in his vehicle. Mrs Cannon had arranged a lift in one of the escort vehicles so she could visit her daughter and son-in-law at Wami, 30 miles from Waitangi. Where she goes, so does her canary. So there she sat behind the Governor-General holding a little box with the canary in it. Mrs Cannon said what she thought. “You’re a nice Governor,” she said at one stage. “Not stuck up at all.” Later she rebuked him when he took out a cigar-

ette to somek. Sir Arthur Porritt came back with the stock answer about one vice, and Mrs Cannon, a nonsmoker and teetotaller, did not seem over impressed. Sir Arthur Porritt and his sons attended a social in the Waitangi Hall, and he opened the Chatham Islands Museum. The party is due to fly back to Wellington tomorrow aftei a hangi at Hapupu Airport.