FIRST TO WALK BAREFOOT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 166, 17 July 1939, Page 2

FIRST TO WALK BAREFOOT

MAORI AT THE GUILDHALL LONDON, June 5. A New Zealander can claim to be one of tho very few people, if not the only one, ever to have walked barefoot into the ancient Guildhall at London. She is Mrs. B. Elsmore, of Welling, a half-caste Maori, who is representing the Maoris at the triennial conference of the Associated Countrywomen of the World, states a London correspondent. In full Maori costume, loaned her by Lady Pomare, Mrs. Elsmore was presented to the Lord Mayor, Sir Frank Bo water, at a reception given to delegates by the Corporation of London. It was attended with all the ceremony of official functions, and the Lord Mayor, in his robes, was accompanied by his mace-bearer and sword-bearer. “I was tremendously thrilled,” Mrs. Elsmore said afterwards. “It was a great honour to New Zealand and the Maori people for their representative to be presented.” Mrs. Elsmore, who was unable to be present at the opening of the conference when delegates from other nations wore national dresses and gave a message of greeting from the platform, was invited to speak in Maori at the Friends’ House, Euston Road, where the conference is continuing. She wore Maori robes, and was given a warm welcome. She appeared in them, also, at the reception given by the British Government at Lancaster House.