ENGLISH FAMILY ARRIVES

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26396, 14 April 1951, Page 2

ENGLISH FAMILY ARRIVES

PROBLEMS OF TRANSPORT AND ACCOMMODATION rare of a famjly of six children, all under 12, would keep most women reasonably busy. To bring such a family to New Zealand would not be an enviable task. This is the achievement of Mrs R. Pyemont, who ar I l ,Y?o ,n Christchurch this week we thought New Zealand would be a good place in which to educate and bring up our family,” she said in an interview yesterday. The children s ages range from 11 to three years. Another son. who at the age of 16 years, was the youngest student ever to win a senior scholarship to d ?' u unabla to take u? the scholarship because of military training. At the age of 18 he was killed while serving in Malaya. Mrs fyemants husband will follow her to hew Zealand in a few months. Mrs Pyemont holds the degree of WstCT of Art* in modern greats from STS .S'LA’Sr' *• " We had a small mixed farm of 50 acres in Sussex, and we hope to try farming in New Zealand,” Mrs Pyemont said. Mrs Pyemont and her family came far as «nrtralia in the P. and O. lines flagship Himalaya, which was the biggest ship launched in the world in 1948. The ship was crowded with immigrants of 14 nationalities going to Australia, said Mrs Pyemont. Haying made the journey as far as Wellington without any major hitch, they were rather disconcerted to find that they might be stranded there, because the steamer express on which they were booked did not make the crossing that night They were informed by their travel agency that there was not a room for them anywhere in Wellington. “I tried to get accommodation at several hotels, but they took one look at the children and said they could not possibly take us,” Mrs Pyemont said. “We had decided to apply to the police and ask to spend our first night in New Zealand in a ceU. but were advised to see the High Commissioner for the United Kingdom in New Zealand. He was very kind, and managed to obtain rooms for us.” . ; Unable to get seats cm any of the regular flights from Wellington to Christchurch the next day, Mrs Pyemont chartered a plane which ■ brought her. the children and their nurse tn Christchurch in two hops. Her main concern now is for their 46 pieces of luggage which remain in Wellington. “We have only the •clothes we stand up In,” she said. In spite of this rather inauspicious beginning to their ,new life. Mrs Pyemont is keen to become adjusted to it The lavish supplies of food have impressed her. but the trams, ‘‘which move off almost before you are on,' strike her as the most unusual feature in New Zeeland so far. Trams had been largely superseded by buses in London, she said.