RETURNING TO BRITAIN

Chronicle (Levin), 15 August 1947, Page 5

RETURNING TO BRITAIN

Press Association)

Migrants Disappointed With New Zealand

(Per .

• * AUCKLAND, August 14. ' Over 30 meu, women and children who arrived as hopeful immigrants in the- liner Rangitihi on dnne 16, left New Zealand for Britain in the same ship tonight; They were. dissatisfied and- disappointed. A few admitted home sickness had eiiconraged them to go back to their old holmes but the majority were outspokeir in declaring that New Zealand conditions abont which they had heard so much, were far from 'being what they had 'expected. The returning immigrants were bitter critics of. New Zealanders who," in letters to Britain, had suggested that there was accommodation for new' arrival§. They had found that the Dominion could not possibly provide enongh homes for her own people. They also criticised the Government for painting too rosy a pie ture oi 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, quality was generally low by European staiidards. Regrot that some immigrants should have . encountered national prejudices between people of the same Britis'h 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 ha*ve been surprised if there were any references to her as "that so and so pommy land. ' ' A professional man in the party described New Zealand as a country run by the workers. TJiat was a good thing, he considered, but it was not good when they did not run it well. There were stril^es ,for no cause. There was little cooperation- with employers or even other workers at their jobs. The general feeling among the immigrants was sorrow at leaving a land where theyshad hoped for so much. However, they were convinced they could not make a suecess of their lives under such crowded conditions and in face of "impossible" prices. The housing shortage was considered to be even more acute than in Britain.