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Hokitika Guardian, 5 February 1926, Page 2

The views of Americans on New Zealand are interesting, for it is well always to have some candid criticism. Just now according to a reviewer, several works are appearing which offer a candid anlysis of the Americans themselves—works chiefly writ-

ten or compiled by natives of the soil. One of the authors insists that the ideas of America given us by itinerant English celebrities are quite misleading. The latter have been invited to America by the elect. They meet only the cultured and the well-to-do. They lecture for fabulous fees. They are asked to write their impressions for immediate publication at the rate of as much as £4O a thousand words. Naturally their bias is entirely favourable. They expatiate on the ti it {versa 1 refinement, the hospitality, the absence of poverty, the ardent admiration for Britain that they have observed on 'all hands. They have only seen one fault of America. The person who sets out to make a less •superficial study of the country has a less agreeable* story to tell. The crux of the matter, declares the author, is that America of to-day is quite different from the America of 75 or or even 50 years ago. The real American is a vanishing quantity. the outlook, standards, and ideas of the average American are wholly dissimilar to those of earlier generations. He is a materialist of the deepest dye. .Money is the only Oml he worships. Wealth is to him the only criterion, ft is an end in itself, not a means to an end, and lie and his have not learned how to spend it. Vulgar ostention is his conception of good form. Again, contemporary Americans lack moral fibre. A disquieting symptom of the age is the increase in divorce, which is often granted on the most frivolous pretexts. A case is cited in which a lady sought and secured a dissolution of marriage nil the ground that her husband trod on her toes while dancing. and that when she began to discuss moving picture stars he told her to stop. Woman, placed upon a pedestal, has become a grievous tyrant. Largely through her influence all manner of freak legislation has been enacted, involving grotesque prohibitions and unprecedented invasions ol personal freedom. Thus in one State it is illegal to put two hnbies in the hath at the same time. While there i.s much talk about “uplift” and pious crusades are instituted for all sorts of objects, demoralising picture plays enjoy an enormous vogue, and breaches of the prohibition laws arc as the sands on the seashore. The strictures passed by the author are not without corroboration. He quotes extensively from thoughtful Americans, who view with grave concern certain presen tdav tendencies' in their country.