AS AN AUSTRALIAN SEES US

Evening Star, Issue 22458, 1 October 1936, Page 6

AS AN AUSTRALIAN SEES US

CONTENTED N.Z. PEOPLE Interesting comment upon Zealand is made by Dr Cranswick, the Bishop of Gippslandj jn a speech to his clergy on his return from a visit to New Zealand. The Bishop, who lives in Australia, said: New Zealand wins your heart as soon as you enter it, and New Zealanders your admiration. I wish we Australians were more closely knit to that country and people than wo are. It would be good for the Empire that our friendship should be more sincere. When I noted some of the potty and trifling misunderstandings that are allowed to come between us it seemed to me like sacrilege. The sheer beauty and grandeur of this land are reallj’ indescribable. Whether you think of colour schemes, mountains, lakes, rivers, sounds, and glaciers or thermal wonders, you feel that Nature has been wondrously lavish in New Zealand. In New Zealand there is no urban problem. There are no cities large enough to exercise the deadening octo-pus-like influence upon the countryside as do some capital cities iu Australia; there is no high tariff problem, and no secondary industry problem with its constant cry for the aid of subsidies. In the absence of these national extravagances you find a far more contented people, a much lower cost of living, with a standard of living every bit as high as our own, and a universal development of natural resources and of ports and harbours to which we in Australia are quite foreign. For instance, a Yallourn iu New Zealand would be surrounded by a perfect hive of industry; it would not enter their heads to carry the power as far away as Melbourne without using it tor factory purposes in the whole of that distance. Moreover, Now Zealand is rich in busy ports and flourishing large towns, the progress of which is unhindered by the jealous vested interests of any great city.

The Australian vistior is also iin pressed with the honesty of New Zealand. and again the contrast is not iu our favour, with our ovcr-incroasing list of robberies and burglaries. If, as some say, the price paid is an aloofness from the outside world and its throbbing life, it is welt worth it.

A further impression is the universal

politeness of the people. This is most marked, perhaps, on the roads. Whereas Australian motorists are becoming more and more noted for their determination to keep tho crown of the road against all comers, nr overtakers, the New Zealand motorist never seems to forget that others beside himself are road users.

in other words, no one can he in New Zealand for long without realising that it is a land of great traditions. Where these come from it is hard to say. Tt may he because of the blood shed in wars of great chivalry with Maoris. Tt may he the fact that there has never been any haphazard immigration, but instead an immigration carefully conducted by the elm robes. At any rate, T have returned realising as a loyal Australian that if we are bumble enough we have much of national value to learn from ibis sister Dominion so close to our shores.