MIGRANTS ARRIVE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22416, 25 August 1947, Page 4

MIGRANTS ARRIVE

YOUNGJPEOPLE HAPPY ATMOSPHERE FIRST LARGE GROUP (P.A.) AUCKLAND. Aug. 25. With her decks crowded with hundreds of young Britons eagerly studying the gateway to their new land, the New Zealand shipping company’s liner Rangitata arrived at Auckland from London on Saturday as a symbol of a new development in the history of the Dominion, the renewal after many years of large-scale immigration. Still fitted with her troopship accommodation the liner carried exactly GOO passengers, more than 80 per cent, of whom were people from Britain who intend to settle in New Zealand. l'he youth of most of the passengers lent n note of confidence in the outlook among the travellers. In addition to 118 Government assisted immigrants, all single men and women aged between 20 and 35 years , there were many others of similar age. New Zealand benefited by the arrival of about 130 children, who played cheerfully near their parents or solemnly watched the scenes ashore. Symphony Completely British The dialects of the counties of England. Scotland and Wales merged aboard the crowded liner to form a symphony completely British. There was onlv a handful of aliens, several of them Italian girls joining their New Zealand husbands or fiances. In spite of clothes rationing all the passengers were smartly dressed and their appearance and manner was the subject of pleased comment from New Zealanders who boarded the liner before she berthed.

"We had a good trip out with only about 24 hours’ rough weather, ’’ said the Rangitata’s commander, Captain G. Kinnell. after the liner berthed. "We have got a full complement and I am glad to get them all here safely." A member of the first party of English oublic schoolboys to come to New Zealand in 1024, Mr. H. J. Newson returned with his wife and family of one son and two daughters. Mr. Newson returned to England a number of years ago, but. subsequently decided to settle here. The family will go to relatives in Taranaki.