HOME AGAIN

Hokitika Guardian, 16 February 1933, Page 3

HOME AGAIN

MISS N. SCANLAN’S RETURN. IMPRESSIONS OF DOMINION. CHRISTCHURCH, Feb. 14. “It is five years since J. was last in Christchurch, when 1 was on tour with the Duke of York’s party, said Miss Nede Scanlan, the New Zealand authm ! and journalist, who arrived ill Christcliurch last night from Bienheim, where she has been enjoying a wonderful welcome from old lriends, "aiiu | since then 1 have travelled through j 24 countries in Europe and the Far I East, and, judging Rom appearances, I i\ew Zealand is tne most prosperous I country i have seen.” Ail things are relative, Miss Scanlan continued, hut ' what is considered poveity in New Zealand wuiiid lie comfort, almost weaitn, in countries she had visited. •. “j. hate the word ‘depression,’” she “but New Zealand must not timiK she is experiencing a private depression, ohe is not. She is feeling the backwash (of a. tidal wave that is sweeping the world. Jn some countries, such as Austria, the people have lived in continuous poverty since the war. Young men and wo* men have hardly had enough to eat since they were children.”

New Zealand Food.

|i The standard of living. Miss Scanjj lan tiiimcs, is higher hi New Zeaianu ji than in any of the European countries. || Taking class for class, the people aie i better dressed, and tiie quality of the ! ' plain simple food that ordinary peop.e ij eat is higher than anywhere in tne ft world. “And where, except in New '■ Zealand,” she asked, “would you see ; such canes turned' on at a party? New | Zealanders should count their b-ess- ; mgs; despite unemployment ana l poverty, they are singularly. b-essed in ! tneir climate, in the fertility of the j land, in their mountains and coast- : like, in the absence of the grim, sor- | did, heart-breaking poverty that conj tinues for years in tiie industrial een;l ties of the O.d World.” On the whole, i Miss Scanlon feels throroughtly opti- ; inisiic aboqt .the future of tne l>o- : minion.