FROM EAST OF SUEZ

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 2305, 25 November 1925, Page 11

FROM EAST OF SUEZ

MINISTER TO MAKE HOME IN MASTERTON,

“The fame of New Zealand has reached Port Said and that is why I am here.” These were the words used by Mr P. J. Bothwell, until recently Wesleyan missionary at Port Said (Egypt) when explaining why he had decided to make a home for his family in the Dominion. Mr Bothwell has been attached to the Methodist Church in Masterton and will serve there as a Home Missionary. He arrived by the Niagara at Auckland on Mondav and stayed over-night in Palmerston North on his way to his new station. He also mentioned that after Journeying to and fro in India, Persia, Turkey and Egypt, ho had no hesitation in coming out to New Zealand when the opportunity offered. “1 am looking forward to making New Zealand my home, because I have heard so much about the friendliness of its people,” he added.

Although Mr Bothwell has only been a few hours in the Dominion he remarked that he could not help being impressed at once with the efficiency of the country. It was perfectly amazing. "In less than a century your Dominion has advanced to a stage of progress and prosperity undreamed of in Egypt with its hundreds of years of so-called civilisation. It speaks well for the early British immigrants and is splendid testimony of the calibre of those nlen and women." "Is your Dominion always as green as it is now?” asked Mr Bothwell. “You don’t know how refreshing it all It. Egypt with all Its wonders and mystery; with the lure of the snhlfix and pyramids, can offer nothing compared with the beauty that nature has endowed this fair country of yours with.”