NEW ZEALAND A LAND SHORT OF VEGETABLES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 15, Issue 27, 28 April 1950, Page 5

NEW ZEALAND A LAND SHORT OF VEGETABLES

WTien she left . Queensland for New Zealand her friends commiserated with her for going to a land short of vegetables and fruit, said Miss J. Noakes, formerly Junior Red Cross Organiser in Queensland, and now Field Organiser for the New Zealand Junior Red Cross, in an interview during a visit to Whakatane. The misconception arose, she explained, from a statement made the press by a member of a ballet company on her return to Australia from New Zealand, when she said “how lovely to come back to a country where fruit and''vegetables are plentiful.” Miss Noakes said that* distances she had to travel were very much greater in Queensland. In one distiict a school complained she had visited the children at a neighbouring school had not them. Their “Neighbour” was 30 miles away, and as there was no train or bus, it meant a full day’s travel in whatever conveyance could be found, and conveyances she has travelled in “out back” are another story. Miss Noakes has visited ten schools in the Whakatane Eume already with Junior Red Cross Circles, others that will soon form them. She has been received very kindly everywhere and had been delighted by Maori singing and action songs at some of the schools. - She confessed Maori pronunciation has her puzzled, though she deals with names like Murumbidgee and Wooloomooloo with ease.

Miss Noakes commented on the food roads in this district, a remark greeted by some r.aised eyebrows Ly some of the local citizens, but “you should see some of our county roads,” she said. Altogether Miss Noakes found her visit to Whakatane very pleasant. Those who met her were certainly pleased to do so, and Red Cross members are very satisfied with the work she did for their Society.