Mr. Schischka's Views on Austrians as Colonists.

Bratska Sloga, Volume I, Issue 4, 26 June 1899, Page 1

Mr. Schischka's Views on Austrians as Colonists.

The following is the substance of the speech given by Mr. Schischka at the Bratska Sloga opening ceremony. Mr. Schischka has kindly sent it to us in the form of a letter Sir, —About 33 years ago I, with about a hundred of my countrymen, arrived in i Auckland, and were located by the Provincial Government of the day at Puhoi. No white men had previously settled on the land, with the exception of some bushmen, who had been cutting timber there. Nothing could be .seen but an immense forest. Times were very bad—in fact, so bad that it was very difficult indeed to gain a bare living. Some families tasted no meat, sugar, or tea from one year’s end to another, and yet we in those days were stronger than the youth of to-day. After years of hard toil the settlers made some progress, and stocked their farms with cattle and sheep. I must not forget to mention that cattle at that time were high in price : nothing under ,£lO was paid for a cow, and the price sometimes ran as high as £2O. When the Thames goldfields broke out, an improvement was felt all round. The Puhoi, I think, supplied fully half the shingles for the Auckland and Thames markets. And this brings me to my first commercial enterprise: Being then a youth of sixteen, I took up a cutterload of shingles, and sold them for £5O. I then purchased a farm for £l5O, paying the £5O in cash, and the balance, £lOO, in twelve months. The Government, in consideration of the quality of the land, was good enough to make free grants of it to those who had paid their own passage out to New Zealand. I consider that no settlement in New Zealand has made such progress as Puhoi. There are very few of the settlers who cannot show a Savings Bank account with a substantial amount to their credit, and none of them, to my knowledge, have ever received charitable aid, or applied for Old Age Pensions. To-day there is a population of about 1,000 persons. If this small body of Austrians has made such progress, I cannot see why the late arrivals should not also make good settlers. Yours truly, John Schischka.