Return to New Zealand

At the end of the summer, after The Children of the Nation had been sent by Methuen to the printers, there was a new excitement in store for John Gorst. The New Zealand government had decided to stage an international Exhibition at Christchurch in November 1906. Lord Elgin, the British Colonial Secretary, determined in an inspired moment to send out John Gorst to attend the Exhibition as a special commissioner representing the British government. Elgin’s junior minister in the Commons was Winston Churchill who approved the choice, telling his chief how he was ‘delighted that you have sent old Gorst to N.Z. It will give him immense pleasure and I am sure he will do it well.’ ¹ Churchill was correct on both counts.