New Zealand not dull

Press, 31 August 1977, Page 27

New Zealand not dull

Sylvia Ducker is an Eng-1 lish immigrant, and a tele- i phone receptionist. She and I i her husband came to New : (Zealand from Rotherham. ( (Yorkshire, in 1973. “My husband's brother is ! here.” she said, “and he had always wanted to come. We brought my mother-in-law with us, and my husband J has a similar job here to the ■ one he was going in Rot her- . ham. “We love it here. We’re t just happy. We have no i desire to go back at all, ex- 1 cept that I’d like to see my > three brothers again. We I like the space here. Rother- I nam is an industrial town; I the Rotherham at Culverdenjl is much prettier. We don't;l find it so hectic here, either. The pressures are not so bad.” “When we first came to New Zealand we found it cheaper than it had been in i Britain. We have saved more s since we have been here. 1 s put $3O a week away for the r housekeeping; I don’t always manage on it, but I try. It’s r easier for me though. We • haven’t any children. For f those with two or three kids f it must be very difficult." s The Duckers saved hard 1 for nearly 12 yeais to come i to New Zealand. They did I not want to be assisted im- t migrants, but paid their own f way — including the far* of c Mr Ducker’s mother. s

I They have never met any animosity from New Zealanders, said Mrs Durtce . and they do not find life in Christchurch dull. “We don't lead a social life,” she said. "We go to the Conn i'heatre — ue think it's marvellous — and to the Town Hall or the Junes Hay Theatre if there’s anything good. We don't find it dull, but those who come from London might." She finds clothes are expensive, but points out that it is four years since al • left England. She eats m ■

meat than she did in Britain; she has learned to sew, knit and crochet, and she net jon. "Housing is definite'*’ more expensive,” she said "Arriving immigrants wc.. . find it hard to start without capital.” Apart from that, she could find no fault v '• New Zealand at all — unless it was the taste of the fl? '• Her theory about that h that British fish get ext’ flavour from the pollut coastal waters in which t swim.