ROTORUA VISIT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 54, 1 September 1943, Page 6

ROTORUA VISIT

MRS. ROOSEVELT DELIGHTED

AUCKLAND, August 31. Mrs. Roosevelt spent about eleven hours at Rotorua today.

Her first engagement was a civic reception. After lunch, at the Grand Hotel she spent more than an hour at Whakarewarewa,. where she was conducted round the model pa by Guide Eangi. In no whit dismayed by the importance of her guest, Guide Rangi/ gave Mrs. Roosevelt the full flood of the patter'for which she is known, and Mrs. Roosevelt took every quip with obvious appreciation. Pohutu and the Prince of Wales Feathers both re- | warded a short and patient wait, and played up. to heights of 4b and 50 feet. Mrs. Roosevelt exclaimed, "How wonderful." She also saw a Maori dinner cooking over a steam vent. Later she stood on the bridge leading to the village and tossed couis to the Native children diving and splashing in the hot pool 20 feet below. Then she went to. two farms in the district, saw Maori land girls at work, and had afternoon tea with them in a woolshed. Her last engagement before dinner was an inspection of the servicemen's hospital on the shores of Lake Rotorua. On all these visits she was accompanied by Mrs. Fraser, the Minister of Defence (Mr. Jones), and Mr. Raymond Cox. CIVIC RECEPTION. Among the large gathering at the civic reception were members of the W.W.S.A., W.A.A.C., W.A.A.F., Red Cross Society; and St. John Ambulance Association, who were drawn up as a guard of honour. Mrs. Roosevelt said that women were responding very well to the call for new types of work, particularly munition production. The women here were doing very much the same work as the women of the United States and Great Britain. She thought that in Great Britain there was probably a greater percentage of women doing war work than perhaps here, and certainly more than in the United States." It was true that interchanges between countries did bring about a better understanding, said Mrs. Roosevelt, and she believed that it was the young people who were going to produce that better understanding in the future. The young people were going to build the world of the future, and friendliness between them now would prove a help later. If a better understanding was to come between the peoples of the world, they must learn to treat each other as human beings and with respect. "On the shoulders of the young people is going to rest the responsibility of building a world worthy of the sacrifices of the present," said Mrs. Roosevelt. She hoped that the older people would keep reminding the younger people what had brought about wars and depressions. In the evening Mrs. Roosevelt attended a rousing Maori concert when she was nominated as "Queen of the Great Democracy." She was delighted by the eloquent Natiye addresses of welcome, by the melodious singing and graceful dancing. The Maoris presented Mrs. Roosevelt and President Roosevelt with a huia feather, a carved canoe paddle, a wooden tiki, a greenstone tiki, and some pois. Mrs. Roosevelt left by sp.ecial train for Auckland at 10 p.m.