- Travelling from the northern most
point of the Danube at Regensburg in the direct of PRAGUE, one will have to cross the
BOHEMIAN Mountains before reaching the undulating hilly lands of the BOHEMIA Basin.
-
- Not far from the German-Czech
frontier one strikes the river Rudbuza and on its banks about 25 miles from the nearest
German town, lies the little township of STAAB (Stod), which had 3,500 inhabitants in
1946.
-
- Standing on the 1,500 ft high
'Kreuzberg' (church steeple) near STAAB one could see almost all the little towns and
villages from where in 1863, a group of people set out to settle in far distance NEW
ZEALAND.
-
- The STAAB district region has always
been predominantly Roman Catholic, particularly as the Premonstratensian Convent of
Cgotieschau was the Keudal, overlord f the district. The Patron Saint of the STAAB Church
is "Maria Magdalena".
-
- Originally the STAAB district was
purely agricultural with farmers themselves owning the land. The size of the farms ranged
from 35 to 75 acres, though some were larger. The owners of the smaller holdings had to
supplement their earnings by labour in the forests, brick and tile works or coal mines.
The soil was suitable for wheat or sugar-beet and in general farms were of the mixed type
with some cattle, cash crops, orchards etc.
-
- STAAB itself was a typical farmer's
district. The gradual establishment of commerce and administrative institutions gives an
concept of its growing importance. STAAB received market privileges in 1315, law courts in
1365, the right to brew beer in1544, a Post Office in 1592, and a pharmacy was built in
1802. It became a town in 1850 and 1872 an Intermediate High School was established. By
the time the TURNWALD family left in 1863 there were two Breweries and three Saw Mills.
-
- Although the people led a peaceful
and satisfactory life, opportunity for betterment and providing for the offspring were
few. A head farmhand earned only about 10 pounds a year, a farm labourer only 3 pounds, a
housekeeper earned 4 pounds and a maid only 32 shillings per year.
-
- It is hardly unexpected that
Immigration Agents should find ready ears when they told tales of new lands over the seas,
of empty acres waiting to be broken, of fortunes to be made, above all the possibility of
becoming the owner of freehold land.
-
- In particular when Michael KRIPPNER
of MANTUA, went among them with news that his brother, Captain Martin KRIPPNER, had a
promise of 40 acres free to anyone who could make his way to far-off NEW ZEALAND, it
appeared an opportunity to good to miss!
-
- They considered the prospect and
weighted it up against 40 acres on the closely cultivated BOHEMIAN plain and were
confident that a man with such a holding would be a man of substance, a man who was his
own master.
-
- Eighty three young men and women
hastened to enrol in the immigration group. They were not assisted immigrants being
brought to NZ to labour for their betters in house or paddock. They were going out at
their own expense to become landowners.
-
- They must have left plenty behind -
for family reasons or because they couldn't afford the fare - who envied them their
opportunity and wished that they too could travel to this country in the south where, it
was said, there was no winter, no poverty and no hunger.
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