Afternoon Forum Outing to the Ballance House near Glenavy
	John Ballance was born in 1839, the eldest in a large family. His parents Samuel and Mary were tenant farmers on the Hertford estate and attended the National School in Glenavy before going on to Wilson's Academy in Belfast. He was apprenticed to a Belfast ironmonger in 1854 before moving to Birmingham where he married. He migrated to New Zealand in 1866. where he founded the Wanganui Herald and was Prime Minister for two years before dying in 1893.
	For their Annual Outing members of the Afternoon Forum went by coach to Glenavy to visit the family farm which has been restored and is used a museum containing artefacts from his life in |Ireland and New Zealand.
	Members listened to a video giving Ballance's history before being taken on a tour of the house. Tea and scones finished off an enjoyable afternoon before the return journey to Belfast.