VIEWS OF SCOTS FAMILY DETERMINED TO STAY

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25299, 26 September 1947, Page 6

VIEWS OF SCOTS FAMILY DETERMINED TO STAY

IMMIGRATION

(Specially Written for “The Press.") (By J. RITCHIE, formerly of Dundee.)

I arrived with my wife and four-year-old boy on the steamer Akar o a at the beginning of August. Last week we went to Lyttelton to see the old ship. Some of the crew told me one or two of the passengers who had tended to settle in New Zealand were going home on the return voyage, disappointed and disheartened. It happened with every sailing, added an engineer. Well, here’s one family who are not scuttling back after a mere six weeks. We’ll give it a go for at least two years. And if we do . walk into a shipping office for these steamship tickets, you won’t find us criticising either the country or the people. The blame will lie with ourselves, or we’ve had a long run of bad luck. If an immigrant isn’t satisfied with New Zealand, I feel he couldn’t possibly settle anywhere else. This country of yours has everything —good food, better-t Kan-average climate, and a standard of living which must be “top” in world statistics. And how you cater for the younger generation—with your parks, kindergartens, health services, and wonderful facilities for sport. “Like Christmas Eve”

We realise how lucky we are to have the chance to settle here. It’s like Christmas Rve to go down town on Friday night and see the bright lights, and the throngs of shoppers all with “money to burn,” and more important, something to buy. How lucky we feel when we walk into a milk bar and drink two glasses of milk that would have had to do us for a week back in Britain; to eat a pie coating fivepence which actually contains meat; to have butter and sugar from Monday morning to Sunday night; to saunter past shops filled with good things. My wife says it’s been worth the trip alone to see the variety of eur* tain material. (You should have seen our window-rags in Scotland after seven years’ austerity.) And these Sunday roasts; and eggs at a dozen a time! In Scotland an egg was an event with a capital “E.” I’ve seen my wife actually meet me at the front door to tell me, “We’ve got three eggs to-day.” Do you really think we’ll give up all that without doing our darnedest to dig ourselves in?

Housing is the Difficulty Why, then, do so many immigrants return home with such an unfavourable impressipn of New Zealand? Simply because they have been unable to satisfy the most fundamental need of any person—a home. The psychological effect of not having a house is really devastating. I know what these people have gone through. I have walked the streets ° f , A uc £ land > Napier, Wellington, and Christchurch wondering where I’d sleep the night. I’ve stood in the centre of a town getting more depressed every minute as I watched crowds of people all going somewhere —and I had nowhere to go. It’s at night time that this hits you hardest. J can well imagine the fear in their hearts as their savings dwindle away

on boardinghouses and hotels. I can see them sitting in a firelesss bedroom counting the cost, and deciding to spend what they have left on the passage money home rather than risk being stranded- in a strange land. Frankly, the Ritchies have been pretty near doing the same thing. We’ve had some nasty jolts, and dis-, appointments too numerous to count I remember one day in Auckland when our opinion of New Zealand fell pretty low. We went across in the ferry in answer to an advertisement, and found that the proprietor wanted three guineas a week for a "furnished” flat which was practically bare, and decidedly dilapidated. We didn’t even get the chance to refuse this generous offer because of our child. From there we hot-footed to another district six miles away to see a self-contained cottage which turned out to be a one"roomed bach, and the rent asked was two guineas weekly. At Milford Motor Camp we saw families living in tents and caravans —and paying 15s a week for 21ft x 21ft of valuable New Zealand ground, on which they had Installed these temporary dwellings. Even this privilege was denied us because the authorities had prohibited any new-comers until October. Help From New Zealanders We were just beginning to feel a little bit punch-drunk when into our hotel walked a middle-aged woman. She had seen our advertisement, and she offered to share her home near Mangere aerodrome. All she wanted was 10s a week for gas and coal! Such generosity gave us a tremendous uplift. We stayed there a long week-end, but felt we could not impose on such a kindly person. Mrs 8., we thank you for what was perhaps the turning point in our lives. We came down to Christchurch, and there met another good Samaritan—a Fendalton resident who made it her business to help us in every way—from buying an electric toaster to finding a bouse. To these two women we are deeply in debt, not only for thenpractical help, but for the lifting of our morale, and for giving us the feeling' that after all we weren't alone in this new land. Perhaps those returning on the Aka. roa (not having our luck) are not really to blame. New Zealand is certainly not to blame. The people I criticise are those in authority, both here and in Britain, for not telling emigrants forcibly enough that the housing situation is hopeless. Before I left I read a well-turned-out book on New Zealand. It made New Zealand look like a second-grade paradise, but said that the housing situation was bat What the book should have had Was an introduction saying in big black letters •‘You’re wasting your passage money if you expect to get a house in New Zealand within two years. Returned servicemen have not all been accommodated.” What's the sense in ‘'writing up New Zealand” when you can't provide houses for your own people? The only ones who profit are the shipping com - panies. Id go so far as to suggest that the New Zealand Government should prohibit further emigration until it has caught up with its own bousing needs.