30 AIRMEN MARRY

Waikato Times, Volume 129, Issue 21582, 19 November 1941, Page 4

30 AIRMEN MARRY

PEOPLE’S HOSPITALITY (By Telegraph.—Press Association) WELLINGTON, Tuesday j Thirty New Zealand airmen who ; went to Canada under the Empire training scheme have married Canadian girls, according to information given to the Wellington Travel Club today by the secretary of the New Zealand Air Board, Mr T. ; A. Barrow, who spoke of his tour of training scheme centres in Canada. He added that if some of the girls he saw were a fair average he could say they were very charming indeed. 1 I “The conduct of our lads in. Canada ! has been outstandingly good,” said |Mr Barrow. “Not one had given any cause for complaint up to the time j I left there a fortnight ago. We take | great pride in them, as they carry j the reputation of this country in' j their hands and they are exceptional • ambassadors for New Zealand.” ! Somewhere on the eastern seaboard a “Down Under” Club, in which Professor Bennett, formerly of Auckland, took a keen interest, was functioning in what was almost entirely a wartime town. Its peacetime population was not more than 15,000, but it had an itinerant popuj lation of 25.000 men engaged in war i service training. Residents’ Fine Spirit | Mr Barrow had seen 750 New Zea- ; landers there, and had been informed that if every one became ill ■ they could be placed without cost in | private homes within a radius of 25 ! miles of the town. . Groups of girls organised dances J and fishing parties. Eight out of ten | people there had never heard of New [ Zealand or Australia before the advent of the Empire training scheme, but the influence of the men had been such that these conditions no longer existed. Mr Barrow said there were a very ! large number of New Zealand airi men training in Canada, and they j were happy and contented. All paid ' a wonderful tribute to their in- ; structors and the hospitality of the j Canadian people. At one remuster--1 ing centre where the service of 12 I expert psychologists were retained, a i young Maori from Dannevirke was | head of the school and was very < highly regarded.