Sound clip: New Settlers Association gathering

Dennis Gee describes being a new settler.

Transcript of this interview

Interviewer: One of the things you said about the New Settlers' Club was that they were quite inward looking?

Dennis: Well I thought that they probably would be — I mean I — they may not have been as inward looking as I thought.

Interviewer: Do you think that New Zealanders have that characteristic as well?

Dennis: Well you had to be very careful what you said. If you made a suggestion, or if you compared something here with something overseas, and suggested that maybe they could improve on what they were doing here - you used to get told off sometimes for that sort of thing.

Interviewer: And would that have happened at work as well as on social occasions?

Dennis: I'm not sure that I ever did it at work actually, the things I saw that could be improved were more outside work circumstances.

Interviewer: Can you think of anything — any examples?

Dennis: Ah, oh it was car number plates, that's right, in those days I think a car used to get a brand new number plate every five years, or something funny like that — of course it was just a whole series of numbers — and I think they used to have a general change — I think it was every five years, and I said to them 'well why don't you have permanent number plates?' But they wouldn't. I don't know quite why they wouldn't, but I upset one or two people about that, and that was one instance I can think of.

A gathering at the Wellington club rooms of the New Settlers' Association.