VISIT PLANNED

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 23, 27 July 1939, Page 19

VISIT PLANNED

ENGLISH COUNTRY WOMEN

TRAVELLING HOSTESS APPOINTED

(By Air Mail from "The Post's"

Representative.)

LONDON, June 3.

j An invitation to members of the National Federation of Women's Institutes, the National Council of Women, and the women of Great Britain to visit New Zealand during the Centennial celebrations .was extended this week by Miss Brenda Bell, speaking for Miss M. Maddever, leader of the New Zealand delegation to the triennial conference of the Associated Country Women of the World.

Addressing 10,000 women who attended the annual general meeting of the National Federation of Women's Institutes in the great Empress Hall, Earl's Court, by the special permission of Lady Denman, the president, Miss Bell, assured those going to New Zealand of a warm welcome. She also read a letter of greeting from Mr. W. J. Jordan, the High Commissioner, on j behalf of the Government. DISTINGUISHED PEOPLE. A large number of women:have already expressed their intention of making the trip, and Miss M. Thurston, C.8.E.. R.R.C., Matron-in-chief of the New Zealarxd Army Nursing Staff during the war, has been appointed travelling hostess. Several distinguished ladies are to be the special guests of the Government, but their names, have not yet been announced. It is expected that the party will number anything between 150 and 300. . So great was the interest in the tour at Earl's .Court that over 5000 leaflets were taken away by delegates. "We want you to come and stay with us," said Mis&Bell. "We want to show you New Zealand. This year we celabrate our one-hundredth birthday, our centenary as a British country. , We are having a Centennial Exhibition, and we want you to come to our birthday party. This invitation comes from, the Women's Institutes of New Zealand and the Government of New Zealand, and here is a message from the Government." Miss Bell read a letter from Mr. (Jordan saying: "I convey to you the greetings of my Government, and I assure you that it will give them and the people, pleasure to welcome you to the Dominion. I know you will be personally welcomed by a member of the Government on your arrival in Wellington. I trust that y®ur ' visit will be a happy one, and that you will come away with, a pleasant recollection of your trip to the far distant portion of our Empire." WITHOUT PRECEDENT. New Zealanders were particularly gratified that permission was given by Lady Denman v for the welcome to be extended at Earl's Court ' It is without precedent that,an item not on the agenda should be included at the annual meeting of the N.F.W.L at the last moment.

The announcement that Miss Thurston is to be travelling hostess to the party has been greeted with the warmest approval." Miss Thurstoh is very well known in New Zealand, She was matron of the Greymouth Hospital from 1905 to 1908. Lady Superintendent of the Christchurch Hospital from 1908 to 1920, Matron-in-Chief of the New Zealand Army Nursing Staff from 1916 to 1920, Matron of Queen Mary's Hospital, Hanmer, from 1923 to 1924. and matron of Pukeora Sanatorium, Waipukurau, from 1924 to 1927.

During the war Miss Thurstoh was mentioned in dispatches. She is one of the very few women to hold the military C.B.E.

The party is expected to reach Auckland by thp Oti-anto o*i January 5 and to sail for England on February 8 from Wellington after travelling through the Dominion. •