JEAN BATTEN

Greymouth Evening Star, 28 June 1934, Page 3

JEAN BATTEN

GOVERNMENT GRANT OF £5OO. [per press association.] WELLINGTON, June 27. Wellington to-day paid a tribute to Miss Joan Batten. Both at the railway station, where she was loudly cheered, and at the Town Hall, which

■was crowded, she received hearty receptions. Only the weather was churlish enough to remain aloof from the general welcome. A crowd of 300 gathered at. Thorndon Station this morning, and heartily cheered her. She was met by Captain Tweedie, A.D.C., and . after receiving numerous 'congratulations, she ibft for Government House, still clinging to a little ’black kitten given to her in Sydney. Cheers and hand clapping from the packed ball punctuated every speech made at the civic, reception, this afternoon, at which the Prime Minister and members of his Cabinet were present. During his speech, Mr. Forbes announced that Cabinet had that morning decided to make a grant of £5OO to Miss Batten. “It was felt in doing so,” he said, “that, they were doing something the people of New Zealand would want us to do.” The announcement was the signal for a particularly enthusiastic round of cheering. Mr. Forbes paid a tribute to Miss Batten’s iron nerve in completing the flight, despite serious disasters at the commencement. She had done a great deal towards cementing the feeling of goodwill between this country and Australia, and indeed had acted as an ambassador for New Zealand. Ho trusted that she would forget the trials and stresses of her journey in the warmth of her welcome.

The consensus of opinion about Miss Batten’s flight, said the Minister of Finance, Mr.' Coates, could be summed up in two words, “well done.” “Wherever you go,” he said to her, “you can be sure that you have established yourself in the hearts of us all. Your plucky determination marks you as the best in the world.” Miss Batten, in a speech similar to that sho made at the civic reception at Auckland, thanked the people of New' Zealand for the gift announced by Mr. Forbes, which 'they had bestowed on her. “You can have no idea,” she went on, “just what that means to me —not so much for its intrinsic value as for the spirit in which it was given. I like to think my flight has done something to cement good feeling, not only between' Australia and New Zealand, but between England and other parts of the Empire as well. I like, also, for my own •satisfaction, to think I have done something to make the people of New Zealand air-minded; though from what I have seen, I think I should have to do a, lot to make them more so than they are now.” Miss Batten ’.oft the hall amid further cheers, and the singing of “For She’s a Jolly Good Fellow.”

Miss Batten is the guest of the Governor-General and Lady Bledisloe. To-morrow, she will attend the ceremony of the opening of Parliament, and on Friday will be the guest of the Wellington Aero Club at afternoon tea.'