WAITANGI GIFT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21453, 29 March 1933, Page 10

WAITANGI GIFT

TRUST BOARD'S MEETING MEMBERS GO NORTH TO-DAY LAY-OUT OF THE PROPERTY Memories of an historic event 93 years ago will be revived to-morrow, when the first meeting of the Waitangi National Trust Board for practical purposes will be held on . the site where the treaty between pakeha and Maori was signed on February 6, 1840. The announcement of the gift to the people of New Zealand by Their Excellencies, Lord Bledisloe and the Lady Bledisloe, of the Waitangi property, including the old British Residency built by James Busby, was made last May. Since then Parliament has passed legislation, setting up the Trust Board, with Lord Bledisloe as chairman. The first meeting of the board was held in Wellington on December 16 last. Advisory committees were then appointed, and plans for laying out the property and reconditioning the residency were discussed. The assembly of the members of the board at Waitangi to-morrow will enable the practical aspects of the project to be studied at first-hand, and it is possible some years will elapse before the board will meet again at Waitangi. Original Plans Found A most interesting discovery—the origi nal plans for the erection of the residency—,was made recently in Sydney. The architectural committee has given close attention to the plans, and it is hoped to restore the house to its former state. The question of the lay-out of the resi- ' dency grounds, upon the lawn of which the treaty was signed, will also be considered, while attention will be given to the development of the additional land given by Their Excellencies as a scenic background. A Notable Gathering Lord Bledisloe arrived in Auckland bv I motor from-Wellington yesterday and will 1 proceed north to-day. The Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes, who i arrived in Auckland by the limited express yesterday,,»will leave for the north to-day. Other Ministerial members of the board are the Minister of Finance, the i Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, as "a person prominent in the life of the country as a statesman," the Minister of Native Affairs, 1 Sir Apirana Ngata, in virtue of that 1 office, and the Minister of Lands, the 1 Hon. E. A. Ransom, as the Minister charged with the administration of the 1 Scenery Preservation Act. Mr. Coates and Mr. Ransom are ex- ' pected to arrive-in Auckland by the oidinary express this morning, and will join the North Auckland express. Sir Apirana Ngata went north yesterday. Hobson's Grandnephew Other members of the board who will proceed north to-day are Mr. K. S. Williams, M.P., a member of the family of the laite Archdeacon Henry Williams, translator of the treaty; Sir Francis Bell, representative of the family of the late Edward Gibbon Wakefield; and Sir R. Heaton Rhodes, representative of the pakeha and Maori, living in the 1 South Island. Mr. Williams has arrived ■ in Auckland, and Sir Francis Bell and ! Sir Heaton Rhodes are expected to arrive by tho ordinary express this morning. "An invitation to attend Waitangi to participate in the celebrations _ being arranged to mark the inauguration of the Trust Board's work has been accepted by Senator W. Massy Greene, AssistantTreasurer in the Federal Government of Australia. Mr. Greene is a grandnephew of Captain William Hobson, first Governor of New Zealand, who is buried in the Symonds Street Cemetery, near Grafton Bridge.