"OURSELVES AS OTHERS SEE US."

Feilding Star, Volume XVI, Issue 215, 12 March 1895, Page 2

" OURSELVES AS OTHERS SEE US."

TO THE EDITOR OF THE STAR. Sir, — In applying the above to New Zealand and her affairs just now, I might well have added also: — "Aud what we really are, compared with our own past notions of ourselves." The prevailing opinion seemed to be that, if New Zealand didn't about beat all creation, she came very near to it ; at all events, it was generally agreed that we could out- match our Australian sisters in almost every department. We never had sufficient foundation for this "unco guid conceit o 1 ourselves," but recently the truth, or a portion of it, has been told us rather plainly. Some prominent Australians have been around our shores and given expression to a few home truths that have jarred our pride a little. It is unpleasant, no doubt, to have these " cheils among us takin' notes," but they serve the very best purpose nevertheless. At the present moment a big shaking up will do us good ; we are lagging behind terribly in the commercial race. Australia is beating us at almost every point:— -In the production of butter, bacon, grain, fruit, minerals, timber— and now a new industry, about which, we, on this side the Tasman Sea have not yet begun to speak — shipping live cattle to London. It is proved beyond doubt that this industry will pay handsomely. The Australians are now also sending Home butter packed by a new process which saves considerably in freight. Canada has already sent scores of trade representatives to Australia, because there they were encouraged, and not one to us for the reverse reason probably. It is not enough to boast merely of New Zealand's resources and capabilities, we must prove them. It is time our people bestirred themselves. lam not unpatriotic enough to assert that we cannot hold our own in the comiilercial race, but if we don't soon increase our energies we may find ourselves liopelesaly out of it when too late. 1 am, &c, T. Watson