CHILDHOOD IN E. INDIES

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30196, 30 July 1963, Page 2

CHILDHOOD IN E. INDIES

New Settler’s Memories Memories of Indonesia as a place of “great prosperity and gaiety” were Recalled yesterday by a recent settler in Christchurch, Miss A. C van Bracken, Who spent the first 17 yeans of her life there. Djakarta (then called Batavia) was a beautiful and prosperous city with fine houses and gardens, Miss van Bracken said yesterday

Miss van BrUcken's father owned a tea and coffee plantation and a sawmill and the family lived in an isolated mountain area. After the unlimited freedom she had enjoyed as a child, Miss van Brucken found it difficult to “catch up with civilisation” when the family moved to Holland in 1938 Then her formal schooling began in earnest, and she says she had to learn to mix with people. Miss van Brocken's parents returned to Indonesia where they died in a pris-oner-of-war camp. Their properties were burnt to the ground. The remainder of the family, who had hoped to return after the war, were refused permisaon to reenter Indonesia. After many years of living and working in Holland. Switzerland and England. Miss van Brucken thinks that in New Zealand she has at last found a place to settle. She has bought a house at Sumner, where she lives with a cocker spaniel she brought from England She now hopes to fulfil a long-held ambition—to devote as much time as passible to riding.