"GIVE ME NEW ZEALAND."

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1057, 21 February 1911, Page 6

"GIVE ME NEW ZEALAND."

AND THE REASON WHY. "Why not live nt Home, whero the cost is so much loss than out here?" The question was addressed to a Wellington resident who not so long ago made a trip to England, and who has now retiied on a moderalo competence. "Well, I've been asked that qnesthn before, and it is not an unreasonable one. ■But it won't do—it won't do!" "Look here—who amongst us—working men, 1 mean—had a luxurious home us youngsters in England? Not so many. And to go back now we have built up a homo and a circle of friends is tco much to ask. It's all.right for young men lo think of such a thing—yon don't know what life is among tho working class in England compared with what it is in New Zealand. Tho lines nro drawn pretty clearly at Homo between tho classes, and oneo you're a working man, you are always a working man, whereas out here a. chap lias a chance of improving himself. Tho working classes at Home are, as a rule, peoplo in a groove, with never art idea outside of it. They arc cramped up into stalK so to speak, and never enro to have a look over tho partition. t "In Now Zealand, where I've' spent most of my life, it is very different. Thcro are no strict lines between tho classes. They merge one into tho other, nnd if a' man is n good fellow, with a bit of push in him, he is respected by those a bit above in the social world; nnd accented, oven welcomed, as a friend. "There are. other things, too, that count. I've come from the exhibition at 'Shepherd'* Bush late at night on the top of n motor bus right through the city— fourpence it costs—and ween things. You pas'; alongside Hvile Park. From the top you look into clubs and mansions filled with men in black and white, all in evening dress, card parties, champagno suppers, small and big dances—and on the other, side twenty yards away in the Park arc neoiilo starving; dressed in rngs and nesting there for tho night. There is no foolery about this—l've seen it. It breaks your heart, I tell you. Tho man from "New Zealand can't stand it. That's another reason why you don't want to go back and live, even if you could do so in moderate comfort. You don't want to bo neighbours with poverty, ami thnt's what you always aro iu England 1 "It's a mean nnd distrustful lifo hi many-regards compared with the freedom and goodfellowsliip you meet out here. I wns in a hotel in Rugby ono evening, nnd wc were having a bit of n talk on customs. 1 said to thi-m— thcro are half a dozen of us here, nnd tlio proprietor knows # nll of you but myself. Now, if you all "ordered different kinds of drinks, would the boss hero bring in tho bottles on a tray with the glasses?' 'Well, I should think not,' said the landlord, 'tho bottles would suffer.' 'Under similar circumstances,' said I, 'a Now Zealand publican would! 1 This fairly took their breath away. It was a littlo illustration as to tho trnst between man and man in the two countries. "No, givo mo New Zealand. I don't, mind a trip Home now nnd again,. hut I wouldn't livo in England for all tho tea in China!"