Monarchist’s Welcomed Princess Ann To NZ
New Zealanders today welcomed the arrival of Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, on her latest visit to New Zealand.
Princess Anne is in New Zealand for the 2003 Commonwealth Study Conference. This is the 9th conference since they were
founded by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh in 1956. For the first time since their inception His Royal Highness was not able
to attend.
The Princess Royal will be received at Government House, Wellington, by Her Excellency the Governor-General, and later
attend a reception for the Commonwealth Study Conference New Zealand Charitable Trust, also at Government House.
On Sunday the Princess Royal meets with Representatives of The Save The Children, and will be the guest of the
Governor-General for dinner at Government House. On Monday she leaves Wellington for the next stage of the visit.
It is expected that Princess Anne will visit Auckland, the Far North, Hamilton, and the West Coast, in what the
Department of Internal Affairs has described as a "private visit".
Following her visit to this country, Princess Anne will move on to Australia, where the remainder of the Commonwealth
Study Conference is being held, and where she is expected to watch the Scottish rugby team take on France in the Rugby
World Cup.
Commonwealth Study Conferences have been held every six years since 1956, with three being held in the UK, three in
Canada and two in Australia. The 1986 Conference was jointly organised by Australia and India. The former
Governor-General of Australia, the Hon Sir William Deane, is Conference Chairman this year, and this Conference is
jointly staged by Australia and New Zealand. It is envisaged that the Tenth Commonwealth Study Conference will be held
in 2007, and subsequent conferences will occur at intervals of four years.
The first Commonwealth Study Conference set out to provide an opportunity for people from all over the Commonwealth and
all walks of life to leave behind their usual roles and, with a diverse group of people, examine the relationship
between industry and the community around it. The purpose was not to produce high sounding resolutions and weighty
conclusions but to challenge the participants' assumptions and prejudices; to give them the chance to examine real
situations and the issues arising from the interaction of businesses, their employees and the communities in which they
operated.
Forty-seven years later, many of these features have been adopted by others and issues such as the environment which
were new in 1956 are world-wide concerns. Yet the Commonwealth Study Conferences remain a unique training and
development opportunity for personal development for prospective leaders which participants continue to find valuable.
Past members have said that they continued to discover insights from their study conference experience many years after.