THE OTHER ENGLAND.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXII, Issue 4361, 4 January 1922, Page 3

THE OTHER ENGLAND.

LORD NORTHCLI'FFE IN N.Z. FISHING AND SHOOTING, Viscount Nprthcliffe’s own account of his impressions ofl New Zealand, specially contributed to the London Times.) Most of the Englishmen I met were of -the upper on the middle class., A Public school boy who disliked the Stock Exchange had learnt the rudiments of farming at one of the Canadian Government farms. He liked Canada, ho said, but preferred New Zealand. There were no foreigners here. He had a farm, which, from my point of view, was heavily mortgaged ; but other Englishmen showed me how he would speedily pay it off, as they had paid off their mortgages, and become owners of many broad acres in a few years.

The Englishman in New Zealand seems to have become as migratory as the redhdeer we have exported there. One young man had earned enough to pay for one farm and was about to sell it and his stock and

buy a larger and better herd. The sign outside farmhouses, “For Sale,”, is a little misleading. It does not mean that, the proprietor wants to sell, but that he is willing to sell, i The, first few years of these young settlers’ lives seem not. to be free of. some desire to return to England. But there is little time for thought; for the work is dawn -to dark. Some: ofl the young men go back to get til wife. Almost all of them return to New Zealand.

The certainty of ‘a home and the ownership of land are immense attractions. Sport is another. New Zealand is the home of the red deer, game birds of all sorts, Ihoi giant trout, the king fish. I was . looking at the garnet ibag of a mail who came out 10 years ago and i| . now sufficiently prosperous to take a good holiday when he wishes. month’s fishing and shooting brought brought in over two hundred rainbow trout weighing from three to fifteen pounds, over two thousand pheasants; as many Californian quail, duck, teal/ one fine He is not much of 3 stalker. AmF whereas at home ond reads of prosecutions for rabbit shoot; ing, the prosecutions here are for no| rabbit shooting. ■ ‘ A Land dB Sunshine. / As to the climate, a settler said t( me, “I went home, but I could yio| starid the absence ’of sunshine.” j reminded him that England is not all fog and gloom, as it is believed to bi by some New Zealanders. But I had to admit th,at, with an interval of a day' or two, we had had continuous sunshine every day of the New Zea--land August, which corresponds to ; about the month of March in EnglandThere are many climates in New j Zealand, but all.,'from an point of view Tare temperate, and frigid and unpertain af Lour own. i I ,was not in New Zealand Ion? enough to study any but farming ofe po'rtiunities for inmigrants. I did not .visit .the South Island. But what I did study I studied very carefully./ “(.The other day, when an emigrant ship arrived here, it was met by a labour demonstration with banner?, indicating that immigrants were nA want’ed. Some kinds of imrni grains are no,t wanted here or elsewhere, i I was told that the . artisan wto ... would only'stick to his one craft js - not needed. He should be adaptabE a jack of several trades. for instance, is a very different matter here from what it is at home, f(r, as in most new countries, building outside the cities are constructed iy professional men. , | Clerks and "somethings in t|e City,” unless possessed of some spp-. cial knowledge and provided with occupation before they arrive, had best stay at home. The Bar seems to pro vide a considerable number of wanderers in search ofl homes.

Imitations of Snobbislinlesss. Men required for New Zealand should, I am sure, be young and, if married, newly married —and wisely married. The wives are often a difficulty, T was told. There is much gossip in Australasia about the inefficiency of many of the war brides from home. There are very lew ser u , vants to be had in New Zealand, and such as there lire must not work more than eight hours a day. They are, of course, always in demand as immigrants ; and their wages are at least twice as much as those paid to a similar kind bf domestic at home. Yet, despite the high wages, several Eng-< Ush servants we met were returning to England. Thebe does not seem to be any difference in social status here. 1 saw our public school boys and the flarm labourers in cheery association delivering their milk at. the creameries. At a local dance there were no social differences whatever/ .1 know nothing of the social life of Nerw Zealand towns. I was told tha 1 ; here and there are imitations of the , snobbishness, now, I think, happily beginning to disappear from our provincial towns. In ,a country where a well-born lad from a great English public school is a share*imilker under a farm labourer there is not likely to be touch question of social distinction.