NEW SETTLERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27499, 20 September 1950, Page 8

NEW SETTLERS

Arrival From Britain ONE MARRIED COUPLE A party of new settlers from Britain who arrived in Dunedin by train yes- * terday were met by many of their countrymen who came in earlier drafts. There were 55 men and 15 women in the draft and positions and accommodation have been arranged for all of them. A further 31 settlers left the draft at towns on the journey from Christchurch. Several of the settlers spoke enthusiastically of the trip to New Zealand from Southampton in the Atlantis and all agreed that there had been none of the trouble experienced on previous voyages. “ The whole crowd was most friendly and this helped to offset any discomforts,” a young woman said. “ I thoroughly enjoyed the voyage out.” “You have come to a cify that your forefathers came to 102 years ago, and I welcome you on behalf of all the citizens of Dunedin,” said the Mayor, Sir Donald Cameron, when welcoming the new settlers at the Early Settlers’ Association Hall. “You are just following them,” he said, “and I hope that your stay here will be a happy one.”

Sir Donald said that a great debt was owed to the early pioneers who had built the city and the country, for they had made a good job of it. The people of Dunedin were very friendly, he said, but everything depended on “the settlers themselves. “If , you are friendly the people will be friendly to you." Cr C. J. Hayward, chairman of the Immigration Committee, said that Dunedin had. an energetic committee to look after the new settlers’ welfare, and he hoped they would avail themselves of its help. “You are in a strange land,” he said, “but you are not strange people and you are not among people you do not know.” In urging the new settlers to take their full share as citizens of Dunedin, Principal A. L; Haddon, representing the National Council of Churches, said he hoped that one and all would find a place in the civic team. He asked them all to play the game for its sake and hoped that they would find a ' place to suit them and their abilities. Two of the happiest immigrants were Mr and Mrs John Horn, of Aberdeenshire. They are the first married couple to come to New Zealand under the Government’s recently announced extension of the immigration scheme. The fact that married persons could come to the Dominion had not beer, well advertised in Britain, Mr Horn told the Daily Times, but he had been lucky in finding out about it. Mr and Mrs Horn knew Dr R. S. Aitken, the vice-chancellor of the Otago University, when he was on the staff of the Aberdeen University, and it was through his help that he vas nominated for a passage to New Zealand. “I made many friends among New Zealanders during the war and 1 decided to come here,” Mr Horn said. He had given much thought to starting off in a new country, and now that lie was in New Zealand he thought he had made the right choice. Mr Horn will be employed by the Otago University on its maintenance