“HERMIT’S LIFE” AT ROXBURGH

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27705, 8 July 1955, Page 14

“HERMIT’S LIFE” AT ROXBURGH

J Englishmen Return Home MARGATE, t Three 6ft. Margate brothers rejected ' £25 a week in New Zealand because [ they were tired of being hermits. The youngest of the three, Mr Alec ’ Godden, aged 22, said on his return • to England: “The work was interest- > ing and the climate was good but on the camp there was nothing to do—except to go pig hunting or deer shooting, if you fancied that .sort of thing. We, and 42 other Englishmen, had had enough of hermit life—we lived in huts in the bush—and decided to come nome.’’ At the moment, Alec, and his brothars, Patrick (25) and Michael (24), have no plans for the future. Alec would like to work at home for a time, but his brothers are talking of travelling again. , They went to New Zealand two years ago to work as technicians on the Roxburgh hydro scheme in central ’ Otago, South Island. When the two- ’ year contract expired they decided to 1 come home, although their employers b were offering wages un to £25 a week. Dunedin, the nearest town to the camp, was 100 miles away and there ; the Englishmen found themselves out of the social life: all the eligible girls seemed to be booked up, they