Margaret Coutts

This month, the Manawatu Deaf Club will again host the Annual New Zealand Deaf Convention. It will be the twenty-first with over 200 people competing. 160-170 will be from Auckland, Waikato, Taranaki, Wellington, Christchurch and Southland. Local competitors make up the total.

Three officials of the World Games for the Deaf pause to toast the success of the venture, as teams from more than 30 countries arrive in Christchurch.

The Games will be about the same size as the 1974 sporting extravaganza in Christchurch, the Commonwealth Games. Yet it has been orchestrated on a budget of $700,000 – about one-third of the cost of the opening ceremony planned for the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland.