N.Z. IN LONDON

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 718, 18 July 1929, Page 7

N.Z. IN LONDON

VISITORS FROM DOMINION SPEND FREELY EXCEED £1,000,000 MARK Guests at a reception by the High Commissioner of New Zealand, Sir James Parr, in London, were surprised that there were so many New Zealanders in London. Yet those present represented only a fraction of the total j number of New Zealanders living in j Britain or visiting it this season, says ! the “New Zealand News,” published | in London. The number of New Zealand-born 1 people in England exceeds 7,000, and I there are many other people with I close connections with the Dominion I who were not born there. The num- ! ber of visitors this season will probI ably be about 3,000, and, even if a | very conservative estimate is taken of J the average expenditure of each, the | total amount spent on visiting Britain ; must considerably exceed £1,000,000. j This vast expenditure from a popula--1 tion of about 1,500,000 is but one more proof of the attachment of the people of New Zealand for the Mother Country. A visit Home is the great ambition of a very large number of them. Nearly every year, the “News” says, a number of New Zealanders return to the Dominion with the report that “there is nothing about New Zealand in the English newspapers.” Probably it would surprise them to know that the average daily number of newspaper cuttings relating to New Zealand in the country exceeds 200. A j casual galance at two or three London papers does not give sufficient evidence to form a standard opinion on j this subject.