LINK WITH EARLY NEW ZEALAND

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 243, 14 October 1939, Page 8

LINK WITH EARLY NEW ZEALAND

HAMS HAL), NEAR BIRMINGHAM LONDON, Sept. 19. I The Dominions having been so mucn jin lhe news lately, it. is interesting ' to recall that it was at Hams Hall that I New Zealand’s first constitution was | planned, says the Birmingham Mail, j Before it was transformed into Biimingham’s power station, Hama Hall I was the home of Lord Norton the Bii - I mingham man who became renownel as a colonial reformer. Charles Adderley, as he was befoie I the title was conferred, was always i passionately concerned with the development of New Zealand, and for 4<» years in the House of Commons he worked tor the fruition of his plans. He sent labourers from his estate at Hams Hall to a settlement in Canterbury, and gathered about him here a group of distinguished people, including Edward Gibbon Wakefield, who planned the constitutional development of New Zealand. Birmingham remembers Lord Norton because he founded the training I school for boys, now known as tile j Norton Training School at Bordcsley ■; Green, and one of the oldest reformaj tories in the country. He was also the 1 j first person in Birmingham to present, kind to the council for a public park 1 j and Adderley Park at Saltley, opened ■ on August 30, 1856, is a perpetual re- ■ minder of him. To commemorate his generosity, the City Council decided on December J. 1862, "to erect a suitable and imperishable monument," which took the torn, of a portrait painted by Weigall, and placed in the Art Gallery. Lord Norton is buried in the church at Lea Marston, near Hams Hall, and a window commemorates him. There had been Adderleys at Hams Hall for senturies.