New Zealanders Criticised.

Manawatu Herald, 21 January 1905, Page 3

New Zealanders Criticised.

There is an individual in Christchurch, Dr Herz, who at present is coming in for a warm time at the hands of the New Zealand press for being credited with dealing rather harshly with Colonials in a series of Mticles published in the Berlin Tag> latt. The following is a sample of his writings as they appear in the Berlin paper “ The New Zealander has a right to be proud of his country, but it remains a strange fact that he does not know it at all except from photographs and from the information of strangers. The New Zealander travels little or not at all for pleasure in his own country; if he does travel he goes home to England. The New Zealander speaks bad English, and with a ‘ twang ’ which to the ear is horrible. He pronounced paper ‘ paiper,’ home 1 heosne,’ the a he generally pronounces ‘ai,’ and the whole pronunciation has a greater similarity to cat music than to the King’s English. One always hears of ‘am and heggs.’ The New Zealander puts no importance on outer appearances, and there is not a good tailor to be had, nothing fits, and clothes are terribly dear. My friend - Dick will be shocked when he hears that his people wear loose cuffs, ready-made ties and ‘ dickies,’ and one generally observes woollen shirts with turned-downed collars and soft caps. The main thing is to be dressed, what with is of secondary consideration. As far as the ladies are concerned, I am too big a coward to express the truth. I hope what I say here won’t be read in New Zealand, anyhow not until I have passed Cape Farewell. The ladies dress without taste, and their dresses hang on them like sacks. Their combination of colours is indescribable, and one’s hair stands on end when we see them. And their bats good gracious ! Directly a new fashion appears, everybody wears the same within twenty-four hours. Worst of all is their hairdress, quite horrible, they wear their hair down to the nose, and with young girls of 18 or 19 it is still worse. Theypay no attention to their footgear, and American shoes are mostly worn in this colony. At dances, whether public or private, they are very loud, and the women never look pretty. Cards play a considerable part in their amusements; young ladies, boys, and old men are invited to poker and euchre parties, in fact, everybody plays cards—a horrible sight! ” Dr Herz states that every village has a racecourse, and the Englishman considers his sport not as a pleasure, but as a labour. You further read that “ the grain business is in the hands of Germans.”

In the paper of 13th November, he runs down the volunteers, and gays it is all play with them, and even in t&schools there is only joking goh goisj. “ The whole of New Zealand,” he gays, is like one big family, where everybody knows everybody else, evewy wedding appears in the papers

and each couple is photographed therein. Everyone has his own little house, his bathroom (daily used), and, unfortunately, his piano. Most people have false teeth. The New Zealander loves his tea,, he drinks it at 7 (before washing himself —brrr !), at 8.30 a.m., at 11 a.m., at 1 for lunch, at 4- in the afternoon, at f p.m., and at 10 p.m. as a night-cap.” On being taxed with the penmanship of the above, Dr Herz lost no time in taking steps to placate what one can easily imagine was an infuriated public. On the day on which the extracts appeared in the Press he explained through Truth that ho has written some twenty articles to the Tageblatt, all highly laudatory of New Zealand. These articles, he said, had been dredged for everything that could appear depreciatory of the colony. His meaning had been altogether distorted in translation, and remarks that were merely humourous, when translated appeared spiteful and malicious.