European Settlers Making New Homes In Otago District

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27166, 23 August 1949, Page 4

European Settlers Making New Homes In Otago District

Otago is doing its part to help those people made homeless in Europe by the war to start a fresh life in a new country. Already 12 displaced persons have arrived in Dunedin and have been settled in jobs throughout the province, and more are expected during the next few months. Housing has posed a problem, especially with those settlers bringing children with them, but so far obstacles in that direction have been overcome. The Dundalk Bay ai*rive,d in Wellington from Trieste on June 24, and the settlers were immediately transferred to a special camp at Pahiatua, where they were instructed in English and the basic principles of life in New Zealand. It is to their credit that they absorbed their instruction so quickly that some of them have already been settled in occupations throughout the country . >

Some of the settlers had the advantage of meeting British and American army personnel in Germany during their. enforced stay there, and they were able to learn some English from them.- Others received instruction in displaced persons' camps in Germany while awaiting their transfer to New Zealand. The task of placing the new settlers has proved a difficult one for the immigration officers in each town throughout New Zealand, for accommodation has to be provided. A large number of widows with one child have been difficult to place, for they have to be found positions in which they can “ live in.” So far three of them have been found suitable positions in Dunedin, and a further two are expected next Friday. The response to appeals for help for the European settlers has been good, and the Otago Immigration officer, Mr P. C. K. Thomson, is especially graleful to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul for finding furniture, bedding and crockery to help two bushmen in the Tapanui district to set up house. Wasyl Pawluk, aged 28, and Jerzy Nawisielski, aged 30, arrived in Dunedin last week. They are of Polish extraction, and came to work in a sawmill. Houses were found ror them at their job, but their wives and families had to stay at Pahiatua imtii the buildings could be furnished. Mr Thomson appealed to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, and the two men expect their families to arrive in Dunedin in the near future. Mr Thomson still has problems, however. Older men and women are

harder to place. He has a stateless man, aged 47, whom he wishes to place as a moulder, but for whom he cannot find suitable accommodation. He also has a Latvian, aged 54, to place as a nightwatchman or storeman. The man was formerly an officer in the army and a clerk. He is married, and also has a dependent father-in-law, which again raises the accommodation problem. '