Immigrants’ Hopes Dashed: Over 30 Returning Home

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 August 1947, Page 9

Immigrants’ Hopes Dashed: Over 30 Returning Home

(P.A.) AUCKLAND, August 14. ■ More than 30 men, women and children who arrived as hopeful immigrants in the liner Rangitiki on June 16 left New Zealand for Britain in the same ship tonight.. They were dissatisfied and disappointed. A few admitted that home-sickness encouraged them to go back to their old homes, but the majority were outspoken in ' saying that New Zealand conditions, about which they had heard so much, were far from being what they had expected. Bitter Critics

The returning immigrants were bitter critics of New Zealanders Who in letters to Britain had suggested there was accommodation for new arrivals. They considered that New Zealand could not possibly provide enough homes for her own people. They also criticised the Government for painting too rosy a picture of high wages, Short Working hours, and well stocked shops. They had found wages high and food plentiful, but the cost of living was “terrific,” and in clothing and manufactured goods the quality was generally low by European standards. Regret that some of the immigrants should have encountered national prejudices among people of the same British stock was expressed by Mr F. L. C. Bye, transport instructor, of Wimbledon. He said when Britain was under fire and fighting back during the war he would have been surprised if. there were any references to her as that “So and so Pommy Land.” “Impossible” Prices

A professional man in the party described New Zealand as a country run by workers. That was a good thing, but it was not good when they did not run it well. There were strikes for no cause. There was little co-operation with employers, or even other workers at their jobs.

' A general feeling among the immigrants was sorrow at leaving a land where they had hoped for so much. However, they were convinced they could not make a ■ success of ■ their lives under such crowded conditions and in the face of “impossible” prices. The housing shortage was considered to be even more acute than in Britain. CALL ON MINISTER FOR FULL REPORT

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, This Day. In the House o£ Representatives today, Mr W. Sullivan (Oppn., Bay of Plenty) gave notice to ask the Minister of Tmmigration, Mr McLagan, to make a full investigation and report upon the published statement that 30 immigrants who recently arrived in New Zealand were so dissatisfied and disappointed that they had immediately booked their return passages to Britain. Mr Sullivan asked if the glowing booklets issued to intending immigrants were not generally misleading as to the conditions of employment and housing in this country.