DISTINGUISHED VISITORS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27275, 29 December 1949, Page 4

DISTINGUISHED VISITORS

Many Coming To Dominion Next Year NAMES ARE HOUSEHOLD WORDS Special Correspondent WELLINGTON. Dec. 28. Distinguished people from the United Kingdom and other British countries will be visiting New Zealand in unusually large numbers during the coming year. Two important functions—the British Empire Games in Auckland in February and the Canterbury centennial celebrations later in the year—will be responsible for the presence of many of them, while others will be making individual holiday visits to the Dominion. The meeting of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, to be held in New Zealand towards the end of 1950, is also expected to bring to New Zealand about 100 legislators from the Parliaments

of the Empire. * Because of the elections in Australia and New Zealand and those expected to be held in Britain early next year, no detailed arrangements have yet been made for this meeting. The visitors for these three events will be from all walks of life. They will include a famous churchman, scientists, authors and men and women whose names are household words in medicine and other spheres of activity. An arrival early in the New Year will be General Sir Richard Nugent O'Connor, G.C.8., K.C.8., C. 8.. D. 5.0., M.C., who will be accompanied by Lady O’Connor. General O'Connor, who was adjutant-general to the British Army from 1946 to 1947 and retired in 1948, has a special interest in New Zealand for he was a fellow prisoner of war in Italy with the late Brigadier James Hargest, a former member of the New Zealand House of Representatives. General O’Connor, who commanded the Western Desert force in the successful Libyan campaign in 1940 and 1941, was taken prisoner, but escaped from captivity in December, 1943. about the same time as Brigadier Hargest, who was later killed in France.

Visitors to New Zealand for the Bi'itish Empire Games will include Dr A. E. Porritt, C.8.E., 0.8. E., surgeon to the King since 1946, and Lord Beatty, the second earl, whose famous father will always be remembered for his part at the Battle of Jutland in World War I. Dr Porritt, who was educated at Wanganui Collegiate School and Otago University before going to Oxford as a New Zealand Rhodes Scholar, has himself had a distinguished career in athletics, in which he continues to maintain a keen interest. Another visitor to the games will be Captain K. S. Duncan, honorary secretary-treasurer of the British Empire Games Federation and holder of the same office in the British Empire Games Council of England. He is also secretary-treasurer of the British Olympic Association. Governor of Tasmania since 1945, Admiral Sir Thomas Hugh Binney, K.C.8.. C. 8., D. 5.0.. is due in Auckland from Australia on February 24 for four weeks’ stay in the Dominion. Before being posted to the retired list in 1943. Sir Thomas Binney was admiral commanding the Orkneys and Shetlands. He will be accompanied to New Zealand by Lady Binney and by Lady Lawrence (aunt of Lady Binney). Sir Thomas is due to leave Auckland on his return to Australia on March 24. A distinguished scientist. Sir Henry Hallett Dale. 0.M.. G.8.E.. C.8.E., who will be accompanied by Lady Dale, is due in New Zealand on February 28. Before leaving the Dominion on April 25 he will deliver a series of lectures under the auspices of the British Council. A Freeman of the City of Dundee, Sir Henry Dale shared the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1936. From 1940 to 1947 he was a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee to the British War Cabinet. He was president of the Royal Society from 1940 to 1945. Expected' to arrive early in March is Dame Katherin Christie Watt, D.8.E., C.8.E., R.R.C., principal matron of the British Ministry of Health since 1939. From 1930 to 1938 she was matron-in-chief of Princess Mary’s Royal Air Force Nursing Service. Archbishop -of Canterbury since 1945, Dr Geoffrey Francis Fisher, P.C., has accepted an invitation to attend the Canterbury centennial celebrations. He will be accompanied by Mrs Fisher. Another prominent churchman who will be in Christchurch for the celebrations will be the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal N. T. Gilroy, D.D. Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, the Very Rev. John Lowe, D.D., who was a Rhodes Scholar for Ontario in 1922 and Lieutenant-commander the Hon. John Raymond Godley, heir to the Baron of Kilbraeken, will also attend the centennial celebrations. A former member of the British Government, Mr Ernest Brown, P.C., C H M.C., is expected to arrive in New Zealand in October. Mr Brown, who will be accompanied by Mrs Brown, held various Ministerial appointments from 1935 to 1945, including those of Labour and National Service. The famous author and journalist, Mr H. V. Morton, is also expected in the Dominion during the coming year, but the actual time of his arrival is not known. After the First World War he was a colleague of the Minister of External Affairs, Mr Doidge, on the Daily Express, London.