PERSPECTIVE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1587, 2 November 1912, Page 2

PERSPECTIVE.

THE NEW ZEALANDER ABROAD.

[Bt Sti.vjub.] , Nearly every Now Zcalander who returns from a trip abroad and who is deemed worth looking up for information, or impressions by,eager pressmen gay at least ono of three,things:-— . (1) Their surprise ,at not seeing New Zsuland news in tho English, American, and European paporsj (2) That Now Zealand does not advertise enough; and (3) That they are clad to get back, ■ 'Xhoy are just Btruck with the two firstnamed complaints because—well,, becauso they, travelling in a country 15,000 miles away, would not only like to hear news of what is happening in our littlo world, but are anxious that the big teeming older world should know more of their island home in the Southern Pacific. > Being saturated with domestic affairs, they cannot conceivo how it is that others a'r.o not more interested. They suffer from that extraordinary common, mental complaintloss of perspective. Is it reasonable to suppose that many people in England or? interested to,airy great oxtent in. what our Parliament is doing. There is a commercial class at Home who' make ihonoy through handling our wool, flax, anu meat, .but /their interest is confined .to- business letters: frdm their jepresehtatives hoty. Tho papers •nayc-fio much of moment to chron10> ia England, eo much, that tho mass of the people is interested in, > 'that it should be a matter of surprise if New Zealand hews were given any prominenco in iioud-on, the .provinces, or Ariie-:' rica. It is a great joke to many to find that mivny people in the. .northern hem> sphere do ndt know where New Zealand, is, and confuse, it with Australia, yet how'many people .in New Zealand, have' an acciirate .geographical k'nowledgb of British Guiana, Trinidad; orKajputana? The duty of a newspaper is to .chronicle, this news of' tho.»,'judiciously fearing in mind the sort of news ,mdst likely to interest their readers. '-Details-.of ' the. internal affairs of. Beluchistan would be', of interest to the natives of that country,: hut would be dull reading to the man who wanted, to read MrY.Massey's-, views'. on street-Organ music for Pukskohe. So' if there does not .happen, to be any -Hew Zealand news. in the "Kansas -Scream" or the "Chipping Norton Advertiser,"-'it is just because people .are minding thtir own business, ■'.-. ' ■.":■ As for New Zealand, . compared with Canada and Australia; being slothful in' advertising, the primary .question to he. ii'nswerod is, Have -iye the goods for sate?' Tho "good's"; iii this, casa is land.. Canada and Australia: have millions of 6(luere miles which cry out fat, population, .'and. -which ..could ' Scarry ti\av dreds of. millions of people, but, New'-'.Zea-land is severely restricted in, comparison:.. Do the "goods we have tp offer warrant the' bargain sale ''advertisement- schemes, which Australia'■ aid Canada are; : 'pror secutihg?.:''ln any case, the, comparison is somewhat .unfair,, as .a. glance at ..the-, atlas, will show. Curiously enough; .the complaints above mentioned .rii'o connected; :rem;otely per?, .haps, with .'the expression, -6f -feeling-given' by so'..rainy returning, ,New.;-Zea,landers-,,t0;- ■ the effect that they..itre'.%lad to get-back;' :lii the, wider .world the. man .who, in,'a ' colonial town, might be'; a''' small ■ magnate;;? a man, of weight,,, a-pillar:of the church and what not,, fec6'mes : oiie.of--the .atom's: which make iip the .thronging millions in the great cities of, Europe, and .America'.' Hi§ country is never' mentioned, and not advertised, so. people-, 'don't know '-of it,. nor do. they; care-' whether ..it .is' in' the Straits Settle : The, wanderer ,-iealises. that ■■ he '.is-'...only' oho. of' the crowd, and. it hurts..his : pride. ■ —aU'unconsciously. He misses;:his:friends, the jovial slap, .on the,'back frbrn..his equals,,and respect of his:employee's;,and. sometiiiies'. his "purse,: The-ways of^t.he 1 great; outside world are 'not' his: ways/ fneither'aTe -his—and there„,.is. ho news in while;So: ;he is glad:,-to .get back, • Quite natural, too!;•;■■--'■ .'.''.-'