JAPANESE PRINCE TO VISIT TURANGI ON THURSDAY

Taupo Times, Volume 20, Issue 4, 19 January 1971, Page 1

JAPANESE PRINCE TO VISIT TURANGI

ON THURSDAY

Taupo is not included in ►The itinerary for the visit of .Prince Takahito Mikasa, younger brother of the Japanese Emperor, and his wife to New Zealand this week. But the couple will pass through the town en route for Turangi on Thursday morning of this week, and will be at the airport for a brief period in the afternoon before flying *\ to Auckland. Prince Mikasa arrived in Christchurch last Sunday, spent yesterday in Queenstown and today, after a visit to Dunedin, were to fly to Wellington for the night. Tomorrow the party tours -Wellington before flying to Rotorua. They will visit Whakarewarewa and the Maori Arts and Craft Institute and be enter-

tained by a Maori concert party at the D.B. Rotorua Hotel. Prince Mikasa and his party leave Rotorua by car for Turangi at 9 a.m. on Thursday and at 10.45 will visit. the Tongariro Power Development Information Centre, where their host will be the project engineer, Mr A. W. Gibson. They will inspect archaeological sites in the area accompanied by Mr Hepi Te Heu Heu, Paramount Chief of Tuwharetoa, and Mrs Te Heu Heu, Mr R. A. L. Batley, Rangitikei area representative of the New Zealand Historic Places Trust, and his wife, and Mr T. J. Hosking, historic places trust archaeologist. The entourage will arrive at the Turangi Motor Hotel at 1.15 p.m. where they will be met by the Speaker of the House of Representatives and Member of Parliament for Waimarino, Sir Roy Jack, and Lady Jack, and Mr H. M. Besley, chairman of the Taupo County Council, and his wife. After an informal Iuncheon the party will leave the hotel by car for Taupo airport where they are due to arrive at 3.25 p.m.

They will be met by the Mayor, Mr J. E. Story, and Mrs Story, and the Member of Parliament for Taupo, Mrs R. M. Stevenson, and are scheduled to depart at 3.30 by RNZAF aircraft for Auckland. The tour ends at 3 p.m. on Friday, when the Prince and Princess leave Auckland International Airport for Sydney. Prince Mikasa is an honorary lecturer in ancient oriental history at four Japanese universities, is the author of several books on archaeo- ^ logy and history and has translated several works into Japanese. He was born in 1915 and married Miss Yuriko Takagi in 1941. His hobbies are skiing, skating, folk dancing, horse riding and swimming. Although this is the first official visit of a member of the Japanese Imperial Family to New Zealand, in 1928 Prince Takamatsu, an older brother of Prince Mikasa and a younger brother of the Emperor, saw Rotorua, Wellington and Auckland as an officer in the Japanese training fleet consisting of the cruisers Yakumo and Izumo.