INTERLUDE IN VICEREGAL TOUR

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 136, 5 March 1941, Page 8

INTERLUDE IN VICEREGAL TOUR

Children Captivated STOP TO SPEAK WITH WAYSIDE GROUP (By Telegraph Press Association.) AUCKLAND, March 4. In a few minutes of delightful informality, during which he addressed a red-headed girl as “ginger hair," and asked a small boy how he had come by an obvious mark of combat on his face, the Governor-General, Sir Cyril Newall made firm friends with the pupils of Hobsonville School this morning. Sir Cyril entirely captivated his youthful audience when he laughed and joked with them, thanked the children warmly for turning out to greet him, and called upon the head girl and head boy to come and shake hands. On the off chance of catching a giimpse of the Governor-General during his drive from Hobsonville air base to that at Whenuapai, the Hobsonville school children, under the care of a mistress, had assembled at the roadside between the two stations. A small girl carried a flag and in trying heat the little group waited patiently for the vice-regal cars to pass. Two Air Force ears, bearing Sir Cyril and his suite, approached smartly, and as soon as he saw the children the Governor-General had his chauffeur stop. The boys and girls had begun to cheer, but this died away in awed surprise as his Excellency, in the uniform of a marshal of the Royal Air Force, stepped smiling from his car and said, “Thank you very much.”

Girls and boys alike were tonguetied, but not for long. His Excellency glanced at the nearest child, a redheaded girl, peeped under the brim of her hat and hailed her as "ginger hair,” to the delight of both children and the official party. With ■ the ice thoroughly broken by the shout of laughter that followed, Sir Cyril moved slowly along the line, smiling broadly and now and then stooping to catch the hesitant reply of some child to whom he had put a question. A Maori lad in the front rank came in for a moment’s special attention and a boy bearing a scratch on his face was also singled out. His Excellency wanted to know how he had got it, and suggested with evident truth that there had been a fight somewhere. The boy’s reply was inaudible to everyone but his Excellency, who shared the joke with the lad. After shaking hands with the mistress in charge, Sir Cyril called for the head girl and head boy in the group. He shook hands with them both, offered a few words of advice, and then again thanked the group for waiting to greet him. His Excellency then re-entered his car and left behind a party of wildly cheering children who will long remember the five or 10 minutes in which they monopolized a Governor-General.