The Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31 1907. THE OLD AND THE NEW.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3776, 31 October 1907, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31 1907. THE OLD AND THE NEW.

In reply to the question ‘‘are you glad to get back?” put by a pressman at Christchurch, to Mr Barnett, who has just returned from England where he went as one of the New Zealand bowling team, he replied: ‘‘Yes I should say I was glad to get back.” “ I have often wondered,” he continued, ‘‘why New' Zealanders were glad to get back to their own little country —why they came back so promptly and why so few' stayed away from it. I think I know now why New’ Zealanders will always want to get back. The difference between life in the Old Country and in this country is such that it is not till a man gets away from here that he appreciates the many advantages he possesses. I admit that every country has its advantages peculiar to itself, but the outstanding one possessed by this Dominion as compared with England is that here we do not see that abject, direful, soul-searing poverty that obtrudes itself upon the observer almost everywhere he goes in the Homeland. In this Dominion you do not see old age —which estate we all may come to —you don’t see old age huddled in doorsteps, adopting all possible means to avoid the degradation of becoming an inmate of the workhouse. It is truly astonishing the utter distaste many of the English aged and indigent have to the idea of ending their lives in such institutions. They seem to look upon it as taking up their residence in a tomb, the terrible .feeling overpowers them that they will be the recipients of charity until they are borne away to fill a pauper’s grave. Many a time when I was walking home through the streets w'hen the rain was falling and I saw the miserable human beings who apparently had not a place of shelter, I have thanked Heaven that I had a return ticket to the country w'here if one is old and poor, one is able to get a pension untainted with any idea of charity. This poverty in England is thrust upon your observation and it is this w’ide difference between the social conditions in the Old Land and those that obtain here that consciously drives New Zealanders’ home.”