MIGRANTS COME BYAIR

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26856, 8 October 1952, Page 8

MIGRANTS COME BYAIR

DIRECT FLIGHT FROM AMSTERDAM 58 DUTCH NATIONALS ARRIVE Fifty-eight non-assisted Dutch immigrants arrived at the Christchurch International Airport, Harewood, at 4.25 p.m. yesterday, aboard a K.L.M. Royal Dutch Airlines Skymaster. It was the third direct flight from Holland to Christchurch by a K.L.M. aircraft. Twenty of the immigrants, including three families, will make their homes in Canterbury, and the rest will settle in other provinces throughout the Dominion. The aircraft left Amsterdam on September 30. The captain of the aircraft (Captain E. C. Pascall), who was in charge of the previous K.L.M. flight to Christchurch, said that except for a little stormy weather over Europe, the flight had been without incident. The aircraft had made nine stops on the way. The co-pilot (Captain R-. Van Eupen) is no stranger to New Zealand or to Harewood. In 1941 he left' Tahiti, where he had a civilian occupation, came to New Zealand, ana enlisted in the Royal New Zealand Air Force. He was a member of the No. 24 flying course at Levin and Harewood. He served overseas m England with No. 15 and No. 105 Squadrons (Bomber Command). At the end of the war, he returned to Holland and joined K.L.M. airlines as a pilot. This is his first visit to New Zealand since the end of the war. The new settlers were welcomed by Mr C. A. Korndorffer, the South Island welfare officer for Dutch migrants, in an address over the airport’s radio system. All in Good Health

Dr. Alan Wilson, the airport health officer for overseas aircraft, who examined the crew and the immigrants, said all were in good health. Their papers were in order, and in an hour and a half they had all completed the medical inspection formalities. Seven families were included m the draft. The largest family group comprised five persons—a mother and her four children. One of these children, Henk Schouten, celebrated his first birthday during the flight, and to mark the occasion, he was presented with a small birthday cake with one candle. Some of the immigrants had come to New Zealand to join their families and fiances, and several incidents illustrating the happiness of the occasion occurred as the immigrants left the aircraft and made their way past the visitors’ enclosure and into the waiting room. One young man leapt over the fence around the enclosure, with the intention of embracing a young woman who ran to meet him. The rule on the segregation of passengers from visitors until after all formalities had been completed was not to be denied, however; and before the couple had a chance to greet each other as they desired three golicemen formed an impassable arrier, and persuaded the young man to return to the enclosure. Intervention by the police on a second occasion was, however, not timely enough to stop another young couple from kissing by the enclosure. To perform such a feat, however, the young man had to lean well out over the fence, and in so doing he lost his balance and fell to the ground. The aircraft, without passengers, will leave for Amsterdam at 10 a.m. tomorrow.