"GLAD TO BE BACK!"

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 66, 11 December 1907, Page 4

"GLAD TO BE BACK!"

. 9 AS OTHERS SEE US. THE LITTLENESS OF NEW ZEALAND, And how have you enjoyed yourself ?** "Oh, vory well indeed,' thank you; but I'm glad to be back again I"—heard on tho arrival of any passenger steamer from. London. This sort of thing has been worrying a Dominion representative for some time past, and recently ho decided to endenvour"ascertain the reason of it. Countless people become madly delighted at tho prospect of a trip to England, lose their mental equilibrium in ecstatic anticipation of viewing tho Tower of London and Stratford-on-Aven, and to catch a, glimpse of royalty. • They may perchance go so far as to visit the Drurv LanoTheatre and Petticoat Lane, or take in lire in a dazed kind of fashion at iho Mansion House corner or from the top of a bus. |nen, when their fow weeks are up. they pack up and bundle aboard the Welling-ton-bound stoamer, leaving ah aching void in the great city. They are mot on arrival by six or eight reporters, endeavouring to 'get there first" for an account of , their experiences and observations, which mostly consist of—"Woll, I'm glad ".to get back again ' . New. Zealand is not sufficiently advertised.-'

One nimble traveller, of a certain''mental acuteness, who receutly did the world in antelope fashion,, gave tho writer tho first cue to the true inwardness .of tliis "glad-to-gct-back" affection that assails even those who a few months before have left these shores to tho accompanying Romp'iiijd circumstance of a, handsome presentation .'and paragraph in all the papors (carefully flipped out. and stowed away. in.his pockekbook .'to. show-London what sort.of a person,''hc'ijs'in' lus own country). Tho traveller let loose in a weak momont that travel was tlie finest levellmg-down process," and onci that cou'd bo conscientiously recommended' to the thou-.' sands in Noiy Zealand who have a .warped idea of the relativo sizes of tilings, and. in particular, their, own importance on.' earthl' Wo, are a few, .a vory. fow, people, doing very woll on one: of earth's nicest littlo paddocks,, far from the madding crowd; but' we have, unwittingly, been taught to-regard ourselves as the salt'.of the earth,'.and that the whole universe, is impatiently waiting- to see what Now Zealand's next lead—social or political—will be." ;' ' '

"Tho best thing,the Government- could propose' would' be to voti supplies .to take all the young men between the ages-, of 20 and 30 years a trip to London—'to';take tho conceit out of them. If . thoy / were planked down ;n ono spot in. the. Strand the entire Dominion would' bo waiting, for. tho Pablo announcing the sensation tlie.contingent created,, but the Strand would be entiroly unconscious. I felt like an ant in a big settlement' must feel; and I go ..slow, for the future when Now Zealand's nositioa in the international scale is..tho subject.",; This must be .why everybody is glad to gist back. .., Another, returned travoller, who .became famous for not having said he was, glad to got back, was consulted on,the matter.. He spoke tho truth pithily. , , "Hero you are somebody—ihore .'you' are nobody. If you havo a couple, of thousand a year here, everybody knows"it, ancl v y.-u feel that you arc somebody 'to be reckoned with. In London you are merely,ono of -he crowd." ' '. What hurt this gentleman most was ■ 111 jit the avorage person ho met outoide the.AgcntGeneral's office knew nothing about' New Zealand, and cared less. "Thoy don't even know of the country, and when you say you are from Now Zealand, they don't oven evince curiosity enough to ask you about the place—thoy. simply don't care!" and, after, all, why "should we want thorn to ? This gentleman mot a. Londoner in his driftings on a memorable occasion who ! did actually remark that he had a cousin or aunt in Dujiedin, and advised him to drop in on her "on~his return "and. "bear his remembrances. This was, the limit. He had just told'-this" 7 amiahlsr'igrtbri'iniis' that : he' came from Wellington. Bccause - the Lon-' doner knew- of Duricdin','"through'" the acdi.dent of 'having a relative /ro;ident v tiiere,'. hi had 'gbt it iilto his hca'd that 'Wollihg'toh was a street or a suburb' of the Southorh ceritro. After' that experience, our informant felt' too tired to inform those lie met that he was from New Zealand. '.' "He was glad to &X back."