some friends to the Expo Hall where the Maori Concert Party was performing and this everyone thoroughly enjoyed. Many of them had never seen Polynesian dancing before and were enthralled with it. In fact, many people tried to join in. It was the best performance I'd ever seen, and I felt tremendously proud. After that we had a cocktail party at 5 p.m. and a meal of New Zealand steaks and other delicacies. The Japanese were tremendously impressed with our whole New Zealand Day programme, and although I've heard that people at home here were rather critical of the miming, etc., it was exactly right for Japan. One of the Japanese gardeners was very keen to learn a haka for National Day, so I taught him. He was delighted and I was ‘No. 1 Honourable Missee’ with him. I was chosen to go with five other hostesses — one from Ethiopia, one from Holland, two from Italy and one from America — on a most exciting week-long trip to an island. A publicity film was made of our visit. We all slept in one room on ‘tatania’ which is a matting, on he floor in a ‘ryokan’ which is a Japanese inn. During our free time we went to Tokyo for shopping and to see the sights, also Osaka and to Hiroshima where there is a Peace Museum commemorating the people who lost their lives when the atom bomb was dropped during the Second World War. People there asked me if I was an American and when I told them that I came from New Zealand, they were very pleased, and some of the men who had been prisoners of war here, said how well they had been treated by our people. The Japanese people are so polite and patient and I think I learned a lot from Tina Ngaparu with one of the Japanese Hostesses at the New Zealand Pavition their way of life. They smile a lot and take life leisurely. Since I have been back in New Zealand I have found that I'm more relaxed and am able to take things as they come, instead of worrying about them as I used to. In fact two assets I gained in Japan, are patience and tolerance. Food in Japan is very expensive compared with New Zealand — I mean, Western-style food. For instance, a packet of Weetbix cost $1, a small jar of Marmite $1 and one potato about 29 cents, so you can see, the cost of living is very high. This was accentuated by the fact that so many overseas visitors were visiting the country at the time and the shop keepers made the most of it. This inflation still exists at the moment. Even though I loved my work, it exhausted me. After Expo was over the During one of their free afternoons. Tina and a friend took part in the elaborate Japanese tea ceremony continued on page 47