Rewards Found To Be Higher In Canada

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31767, 26 August 1968, Page 2

Rewards Found To Be Higher In Canada

New Zealanders with professional qualifications or specialist training would be much better off financially in Canada than in their home country, according to Miss Gwyneth Ledsham who is visiting her family in Christchurch after spending the last four years teaching music in Ottawa.

Music teachers were scarce and Miss Ledsham found a ready demand for her services at $5 an hour for each pupiL Some of her friends teaching in New Zealand receive $25 for a 10-week term.

“Some music teachers in Canada charge much more than I did. It’s certainly very profitable and there is no shortage of pupils,” said Miss Ledsham.

During her first two years in Canada Miss Ledsham taught at a conservatoire of music where she found the standard high and the pupils bright and responsive. After a six-month stay in England (which she considered somewhat less than

“swinging”) she returned to Canada and took private pupils. “I returned to Ottawa absolutely broke, and by last September I had saved enough for this cruise home,” she said. Although it did not have the highly competitive zeal of the United States, Canada was “booming” and the feeling of youth and prosperity was infectious. Opportunities for success were there for the taking, by way of hard work.

A young family with whom Miss Ledsham was friendly had arrived from England with about $5O. The husband had been a tool-maker but had worked his way up, helped by night school study, to an executive position with Atomic Energy Commission of Canada. They had become a two-car family able to afford a trip back to England, after 10 years in Canada. “Even with specialist qualifications success does not come overnight. It takes time and hapd work,” she said. Cost Of Living Wages balanced the fairly high cost of living and lack of social security benefits. Medical treatment was expensive, a visit to the dentist cost at least sCan7, groceries were reasonably priced, but meat, dairy products, and vegetables were costly. Clothes were much cheaper than in New Zealand, although the quality was not as good. “Even those who are less well off live better than their equivalent, in England. Canadian family men live quite well on $5O a week. Of course the cold winter discourages many immigrants, but life Is geared for that—everything is centrally heated. Since I’ve been home I can’t get used to its being cold inside.” Miss Ledsham shared a X

four-bedroom, two-bathroom house with friends. They paid sCan9o a month which was considered very reasonable. The usual one-bedroom, unfurnished flat would have a rent of about sCanllo a month. Work permits were not readily available, and Miss Ledsham went to Canada as an immigrant. Although she was fascinated by the United States during her many trips south of the border, Canada seemed more like home. The people lived like Americans, but thought like the British. In the winter Miss Ledsham, who arranged her teaching time-table to suit herself, enjoyed skating and in the summer the whole country packed up and headed for their holiday cottages and two months of sunshine and boating.

Miss Ledsham has not lost her fondness for New Zealand but has decided to make Canada her home. “You have to decide what you are going to do with your life, and it’s no use my spending time here that could be more profitably spent elsewhere,” she said.