NOTED VISITOR REMINDED OF SCOTLAND

Grey River Argus, 12 April 1948, Page 2

NOTED VISITOR REMINDED OF SCOTLAND

CHRISTCHURCH, April 7. The affinity he had found between New Zealand, especially Otago and Southland and Scotland, was mentioned in Christchurch by the Very Rev. Professor John Baillie, Professor of Divinity at Edinburgh University, who is visiting Christchurch. Dr Baillie, who was at Dunedin for the centennary celebrations of Otago, is touring New' Zealand as a guest of the Government. Referring to Otago and Southland, he said: "I think it is a country not so much of wealth but of plenty. The old traditions have a greater hold in New Zealand than they have in any of the other new countries. In some respects the old traditions of Scotland are more alive in Otago than they are in Scotland. While in Dunedin I had at times a feeling that I was back in the highlands of my youth.” It was surprising in Scotland to hear so many references to New Zealand, he said. Nearly everyone in New Zealand seemed to have relatives or friends there. While he had been in New Zealand he had met many New Zealanders who had studied in Scotland, and several Scotsmen, who had come to New Zealand. He had never seen a class of his Edinburgh University which did not include 'at' least one New Zealander. Dr. Baillie and his wife are staying in Christchurch with Dr. I. W. Fraser, who was assistant to Dr. Baillie when the latter was teaching at the Union Theoligical Seminary at Columbia University, New York, from 1931 to 1933. After a trip in the return to Dr. Fraser’s home for a north of the South Island, they will few days to rest. Dr. Baillie said yesterday that he had travelled a lot, but had never had quite so much to 1 do and say as ’he had had in New Zealand.

During the First World War Dr, Baillie served in France with the Young Men’s Christian Association, and during the last war he again went to France with the British Expeditionary Force to organise the work of Y.M.C.A. huts and canteens. He had his bags packed to come to New Zealand for the centennial celebrations in 1940, but his visit was then cancelled, when war broke out. Dr. Baillie had a brilliant scholastic record, and has gained international recognition by his books on theology. From 1919 to 1934 he held professorships in the United States and returned to Edinburgh to the post he now holds. He was Moderator of the Fresbyterian Church of Scotland in 1943.