Marriage By Proxy Is Dutch Gid's Romance
Press Association)
(Per
INVERCARGILL, June 13. To be declared man and wife witli 12,000 miles separating them, has been the uncommon experience of .a young Dutch immigrant now living in Invercargill and his bride in Hoiland. The Dutchman, Mr. De Jan' Hari Boer, was a member of a draft of Dutch immigrants who came to New Zealanci in February to work on farms. Witli two others he came to Southland. Before leaving Hoiland he made arrange ment-s with his fiancee that as soon as he was settled in the Dominion, she should join him and. they could be maiv ried. Subsequent negotiations disclosed that if she was to travel to New Zealand as a single woman, it vyoula mean a wait of 12 months. On tlie other haiid, it was diseovered that a married woman could join her husband alm'ost immediately. Jan arranged the marriage by proxy. In Hoiland his fiancee went through a form of marriage with his cousin who acted on lxis behalf. The permission of the Queen of the Netherlands had to be gained before the ceremony took pl-ace. Jan's wife now -has .quiority to, sail in the first ship to NervV Zealand. ^Then she amves in ' Invercal'gill* they " will be "remaTrried. ' ' Outlining some of the difficulties ot bringing a single womqn from Hollana, Jan said Dutch ships- came to the Dominion only at irregular interval^. Lt was almost impossible to come in -an English ship. English travellers had first priority. There is a big differeuce in the fares, too. Passage may be obtained in an English ship for £90. The fare in a Dutch vessel in Dutch mouey is equivaleiit to £220. If Jan's fiancee. had had to travel in a Dutch ship she would pay her fare. Her passage in ;an English ship has been paid by her husband. ' . . Jan deelares that. living conditions in New Zealand are much liigher than in; his hbme country and fhat wages are' higher too. "In four months 1 ;savea £60 whieh would be a small fortune m my country at the present time," he. said. '
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHRONL19490614.2.45
Bibliographic details
Chronicle (Levin), 14 June 1949, Page 6
Word Count
354Marriage By Proxy Is Dutch Gid's Romance Chronicle (Levin), 14 June 1949, Page 6
Using This Item
NZME is the copyright owner for the Chronicle (Levin). You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of NZME. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in