FORTUNATE GIRLS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 221, 18 September 1934, Page 7

FORTUNATE GIRLS

j TOUR FROM ENGLAND SIX DAYS IN DOMINION A HAPPY SEND-OFF LONDON, Aug. 4. Twenty-five very fortunate and very happy schoolgirls set out yesterday for a tour round the world. They are travelling by the Rotorua and will have from two to four days iu Fiji, arriving in Wellington on September 20. Doubtless before they leave for Australia they will be regretting that they have only six days in New Zealand. Those will be crowded days, during which, they will be the guests of members of the Victoria League who have cooperated with the Oversea Settlement of British Women in arranging the tour. The party assembled in London the day before departure, and on that afternoon they were entertained at the headquarters of the Victoria League. Next day, before entraining, the girls met in rooms adjoining the Liverpool Street Station and were addressed by Mr. Malcolm MacDonald, Parliamentary Undersecretary, Dominions Office. The girls are 17 and 18 years of age, but by the casual observer they might all be taken for over twenty. Dame Meriel Talbot introduced Mr. MacDonald. “You are starting out on an adventure,” he said, “which everybody would like to have. The experience will be unforgettable even if you live as long as Methuselah. The best form of education is the education of travel. You are going to see a vast part of the world not through the eyes of some lecturer or writer but through your own eyes. You will learn a great deal and gain the most vivid impressions of that extraordinary phenomenon, the British Empire, with its extraordin. / mixture of countries and people living under the British Crown—ancient countries with ancient roots, and other countries entirely new with no roots in the past, but looking forward to the future instead. There is New Zealand, one of the most attractive lands n the whole world, and Australia, a country with a population of seven millions but where

■in the future forty or fifty million (people may be living. Girls and Their Schools. “You will learn a very great deal, land receive a very great deal of kindness, and the greatest possible hospitaliity. But, remember, we expect you to I give as well as take. You have got a 'reputation as schoolgirls of Great Britain in your keeping. Leave behind I you a good impression wherever you go. (If you do this you will be helping to (bind closer together the peoples of the Empire wherever they live all over the world.” Before the party went to the station platform they were presented with badges, and each with a box of chocolates presented by Dowager Viscountess Harcourt. Three hearty cheers were given by friends and relatives as the train moved away, and the girls, still smiling, waving their adieux. The director of the party is Miss Edith Thompson, C.8.E., who is known in New Zealand, and whose capabilities as a leader and guardian Mr. MacDonald had highly praised. The assistant director is Miss Jean Stevenson, a sports mistress, who will be responsible for the girls’ physical welfare. The full list of the girls, with their home county and their schools is as follows: Rachel Aldridge (Hampshire), Bournemouth H.S.; Diana Burgin (Herts), Ethel Jarvis (Herts), Winifred Nelson (Herts), and Kathleen O’Brien (Herts), St. George’s, Harpcnden; Jean Byford (Lancs), Joan Bruce (Dorset), Mary Jordan (Lancs). Rhoda Phillips (Surrey), and Margaret Tocher (Dorset), Liverpool College, Huytop; Barbara Corfield (London), Frances Holland School; Joan Dowsett (Essex), Woodford County U.S.: Catherine Few (Sussex), “St. Clair,” Tunbridge Wells: Helen Few (Cambs), Benenden School, Cranbrook; Ruth Few (Cambs), Helen Wates (Kent), St. Felix School, Southwold; Ozelia Kidd (Devonshire)., student at Farm Institute, Northants; Janet King (London), Fredville Park, Mornington. Kent; Catherine King (London), Blaekheath H.S.: Ruth Kitson (Sussex). Downe House, Newbury; Doreen Oldfield (Wilts.), Sherborne School. Dorset: Audrev Pone (Sussex), ,Cheltenham Ladies’ College: Barbara iTownsend (Somerset), “Highfiold.” Watford; Patricia Townsend (Somer|set). West Cliff House. Weston-super-iMare; and Elizabeth Waller (Dorse' - '. |St. Mary’s School, Caine.