ROUSING RECEPTION

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 151, 28 June 1934, Page 5

ROUSING RECEPTION

NEW ZEALAND AVIATRIX MISS BATTEN AT WELLINGTON GOVERNMENT GIFT OF £5OO ( Per Press Association). WELLINGTON, June U 7. Wellington to-day paid a tribute to Miss Jean Batten, both, at the railway station, where she was loudly cheered, and at the Town Hall, which was crowded. Sho received hearty receptions. Only the weather was churlish enough to remain aloof to the general welcome. At the civic reception the Prime Minister, Hon. G. W. Forbes, announced that the Government had decided to grant Miss Batten £5OO in recognition o:' her great flight. 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 left for Government House, still clinging to tho little black kitten given her in Sydney. Cheers and handclapping *from a packed hall 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 Air. Forbes announced that Cabinet, had that morning decided to make a grant of £5OO to Miss Batten. “It was felt in doing so,” lie said, “that we wero doing something ihc people of New Zealand would want us to do.” The announcement was the signal for a particularly enthusiastic round of cheering. Air. Forbes paid a tribute to Alisa Batten’s iron nerve in completing the flight despite such serious disasters at tho commencement. She had done a. great deal toward cementing the feeling of goodwill between this country and Australia, and indeed had acted ns 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 Aliss Batten’s flight, said the Alinister of Finance, Hou. J. G. 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 tho hearts of us all. Your plucky determination marks you as the best in the world.” Aliss Batten, in a speech similar to that she made at the civic reception at Auckland, thanked the people of New Zealand for the gift announced by Air. Forbes, they had bestowed on her. “You can have no idea,” she went on, “just what that means to me. Not so much for the intrinsic value, as for the spirit in which it is given. I would like to think that iny flight has done something to cement the good feeling not only between Australia and Now Zealand, but between England and tho other parts of lhe Empire as well. I would like, also, for my own satisfaction, to think 1 have dune something for aviation and something to make the people of Now Zealand airminded. though from what 1 have seen I think 1 should have to do a lot to make them more so than they arc now.” Aliss Batten left the Town Hall amid further cheers and the singing of “Foi She’s a Jolly Good Fellow.” Aliss Batten is the guest of the Gov-ernor-General ami Lady Bledisloc. Tomorrow 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.