CHURCHILL'S GIFT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23850, 28 December 1940, Page 9

CHURCHILL'S GIFT

FOWLS FOR CHRISTMAS MIGRANT FAMILY HELPED A THOUGHTFUL GESTURE [lltOM m il OWN CORRESPONDENT] SYDNEY, Dec. 26 A p;iir of fine fowls sent with the compliments of the Prime Minister of England. Mr. Churchill, graced the Christmas board of two British migrants, Mrs. A. Austin and her daughter Maureen, of Naremburn, a Sydney suburb. In answer to an invitation by the poultry farm settlers of Hammondvillo, a settlement formed during the depression to help unemployed workers, to nominate a friend in Australia to whom he would like to give a pair of Christmas fowls with the farmers' compliments, Mr. Churchill instructed the Secretary of State for the Dominions, Lord Cranborne. to send the following cablegram:- -"Mr. Churchill has referred to me the letter from the poultry farmers of Hammondvillo and suggests that you see Miss Betilnh Bolton, of 1!) Bligh Street. Sydney, who will nominate a deserving and struggling migrant family in Now South Wales to receive the gift so kindly offered." Mi>s Bolton, who is secretary of the Victoria League, which represents in New South Wales the Society for Overseas Settlement of British Women, said that she was delighted with Mr. Churchill's thoughtfulness. Mrs. Austin has suifcred long illness and misfortune since her arrival in Australia. Archdeacon Hammond, founder o( Hammondville, said yesterday that ho would supplement the gift. When Mrs. Austin collected the fowls she told Archdeacon Hammond that she was a great-great-grand-daughter of Captain James Cook. All of Mrs. Austin's large family, except the youngest. Maureen, aged 17. have married. "That is enough to show Mrs. Austin's value to Australia," said Archdeacon Hammond. After the announcement of the gift was published, many other presents were sent to Archdeacon Hammond lor passing on to Mrs. Austin, and this Christmas was her brightest in Australia.