Queensland Governor On Private Visit

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31007, 12 March 1966, Page 16

Queensland Governor On Private Visit

The Governor of Queensland (Sir Henry Abel Smith) arrived in Christchurch by air from Australia yesterday to enjoy a 12-day private holiday in New Zealand. He is accompanied by his wife, Lady May Abel Smith.

Sir Henry Abel Smith will relinquish the post of Governor on March 18. On March 25 he will sail from Adelaide for England, there to settle on his small farming property and stud in Berkshire. 'He had heard much of New Zealand’s scenic beauty from his daughter, who spent several months in the Dominion six years ago “so we just had to see it all for ourselves,” he said. His tour will begin today with a flight to Wellington and a return to the South Island again at Blenheim. From there he will visit Timaru, Queenstown, Invercargill, and Stewart Island. In the North Island Sir Henry Abel Smith and Lady Smith will visit Napier, where they will stay with Sir Thomas Lowry “from whom I leased a jolly good horse some time ago,” and then Auckland, wher - ' they will stay with the Governor-General (Sir Bernard Fergusson).

Sir Henry Abel Smith, who became Governor of Queensland in 1958, said there had been a period of tremendous expansion in the State in the last few years in the fields

of mineral, pastoral and agricultural development. Before going to Australia. Sir Henry Abel Smith spent 34 years as a member of Britain’s Household Cavalry, serving under four reigns. He said that contrary to popular opinion the Household Cavalry was not just a ceremonial body. “We have the equivalent of a regiment in London on ceremonial duties and we also have a training regiment. We have a regiment in Germany and until recently had one in Aden.”