All Blacks take time out for planting

Press, 20 November 1989, Page 6

All Blacks take time out for planting

By

NIGEL MALTHUS

The All Blacks will take a break from their rugby schedule today to plant trees at the County Antrim, Northern Ireland, birthplace of a former New Zealand Prime Minister, John Ballance. The tree-planting will be one of the first stages of an ambitious project to restore the old Ballance family farmhouse, now a crumbling ruin, into a New Zealand Centre. The project has the backing of

both the British and New Zealand governments as Ulster’s contribution to New Zealand’s 1990 celebrations. When completed, the farmhouse, with its outbildings and orchard — restored and replanted with fruit tree varieties popular in the 1800 s — will provide a focus for educational and cultural links between New Zealand and Northern Ireland. It will include a boardroom and gallery for lectures, exhibitions and conferences, a

museum, and a tea house offering New Zealand and Ulster foods. The project’s estimated cost is $675,000. The 12 trees being planted today by the All Blacks are being sponsored at £250 (about $675) each, by sponsors including Steinlager, Te Mata Estate Winery and the “Belfast Telegraph” newspaper. John Ballance was born in the house, at Glenavy, County Antrim, in 1839. He emigrated to

New Zealand in 1866 and founded the “Wanganui Herald” newspaper before entering Parliament in 1875. In 1890 he led the Liberals to power for the first time, and, although he died just three years later, his term as Prime Minister was seen as heralding a new era in popular democracy. He introduced major land reforms and the first Welfare State, and paved the way for women’s suffrage.