OVERCROWDING IN DUTCH HOMES

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26414, 7 May 1951, Page 2

OVERCROWDING IN DUTCH HOMES

MANY FAMILIES KEEN TO EMIGRATE

Because of the acute housing position in Holland it is not uncommon for families with five and six children to live in one room, according to Mrs Krepel van der Stalpe, who arrived in Wellington recently. She said that because of this, and the fact that New Zealand had so much to offer in the way of opportunity as well as having an excellent climate, many parents with young families were prepared to leave everything and settle here. “I personally know numbers of my country people who are longing to come here," she said. “Holland, 10 times smaller than New Zealand, has a population of 10 million. There are too many people there now." Nothing was rationed in Holland, but high prices imposed automatic rationing. Even in higher-income groups butter at 5s a pound meant families could not have it every day. After the feeling of tension and worry which seemed general in Europe she said New Zealand had an air of carefree happiness and wellbeing. Average working life of Dutch air hostesses was computed at 15 months, said Mrs Krepel. Marriage, mostly to men employed in the same company, was the reason. An air hostess herself for a year with Royal Dutch Airlines, she too married an employee with the same company. At that time her husband was K.L.M. representative in Hamburg. To become an air hostess in Holland meant passing rigid tests, including a psychological one, and having the ability to speak four languages. Mrs Krepel, who speaks faultless English, is also proficient in French and German. As hostess work took her as far afield as the Middle East, Africa, the West Indies and New York as well as within Europe. So far she has had no experience of housekeeping and is eager for that reason to find a home as soon as possible in New Zealand. In Hamburg two excellent German servants looked after the cooking and housework for her and her husband for a combined monthly wage of £5. In Beirut, where they spent a year, Arab servants were also plentiful and cheap, but required constant supervision. At least 700 beautiful but expensive fiats were without tenants in Beirut when she was there. People who had amassed considerable means in recent years had built them as a safe investment, but many still stood empty. There were insufficient numbers of Europeans living there to rent them. Cost of living was high, a cotton dress costing four dollars in America would be sold for £7, but salar’es were at least five times more than in other parts of Europe. Every purchase, even a pound of sugar, was bargained for with the Arab shopkeepers, an exhausting practice that might go on by the hour.