‘Pommie’ immigrants

Press, 13 May 1987, Page 18

‘Pommie’ immigrants

Tonight’s episode of TVNZ’s dramatised-docu-mentary series, “Legacy,” examined the role of the English as immigrants in New Zealand. The episode is entitled “Pommies.”

As the presenter, Michael Anthony Noonan, points out, ever since Edward Gibbon Wakefield’s scheme to settle New Zealand was first promoted more than 150 years ago, New Zealand has been promoted to the English as a land of milk and honey. As a result, generations of English migrants have flocked to these shores and this country, more than other former British colony, has been settled by the English.

“Pommies” looks in detail at three very different generations of English immigrants. First, there’s a pioneering family whose story is told in dramatised fashion. Then there is the well-known lawyer and entertainer, Dave Smith, whose family migrated to New Zealand in the 19605, and finally two young families who have recently migrated relate their experiences and impressions. They are shown six months apart — firstly

in Britain before they leave, and then here, when they compare notes as to how New Zealand has measured up to what they expected. The series producer, Michael Scott-Smith, has a very personal view of this particular programme — he was an immigrant himself 20 years ago. Although he went through the same settling processes as every other immigrant, Scott-Smith’s motivation to come to New Zealand was quite different. As a 8.8. C. television producer responsible for a programme called “Late Night Lineup” he suddenly realised that his children were growing up without him seeing much of them.

The demands of his programme meant that he only ever saw the children when they were asleep, and vice versa. Scott-Smith says that what attracted him about New Zealand — and still does'— is that it is possible to try one’s hand at a number of different things, whereas in Britain the working environment is more specialised and it is next to impossible to break out of the mould.

But what stood out to Scott-Smith about the New Zealand character when he first arrived was a national lack of confidence — “an inferiority complex that was totally unjustified. Only now is New Zealand finding the confidence of its own identity and breaking away from the nonsense of being a little England,” he says. . Austin Mitchell, who once ruffled many a feather with his observations of New Zealand life in “The Half-Gallon Quar-ter-Acre Pavlova Paradise,” is also featured in “Pommies” and makes the interesting observation that it is now the English who have an inferiority complex, particularly in London where they frequently feel strangers in their own capital. The reasons have a lot to do with the influx of oil-rich Arabs buying up not only the stately homes of England but such institutions as Harrods.

For “Pommies,” it could be said that the wheel has turned full circle.

“Legacy” screens on One at-7.30 tonight.