MIGRANTS FOR N.Z.

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27501, 8 November 1954, Page 11

MIGRANTS FOR N.Z.

Southern Cross May Be “Bride Ship” LONDON, November 5. The new Shaw Savill liner Southern Cross may be a “bride ship” when she leaves Southampton next March 29 on her first voyage to New Zealand and Australia. New Zealand’s chief migration officer in London, Mr John Brennan, said today that as a result of recent stories in the British newspapers about New Zealand’s 30,000 to 40,000 surplus men, the first batch of British would-be brides might sail in the Southern Cross. “We have an allocation of 400 berths for migrants in the liner,” he said. Mr Brennan said that the flood of applications from romance-hungry British women and girls reached its peak yesterday, with a total of about 2000 letters, plus several hundred telephone calls. Most inquiries came from London and Wales—which surprised New Zealand migration officials because, as a rule, Scotland is their happiest hunting ground and they get few Welsh applicants. “This time we have had scarcely any letters from Scotland,” said Mr Brennan. “Either the publicity about the wife-less men has nbt reached Scotland—or else the Scots girls prefer their men in the kilt. Not many New Zealand men wear the kilt” Mr Brennan said: “A good many of the women are not eligible for free passages so we have discouraged them tactfully. We have sent application forms to others.

“Quite a few are bound to get cold feet, but it is likely that between 300 and 400 may be selected as a result of the surplus men. story.”