THROUGH OTHER EYES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2238, 12 February 1921, Page 1

THROUGH OTHER EYES.

AMERICAN VIEWS OE NEW

ZEALAND

A JOURNALIST’S IMPRESSIONS.

A prominent Chicago journalist, Mr 'V. D. Bovce, has been a visitor to New Zealand for the past five or six weeks, gathering information about this country. On Thursday evening lie left by the Manuka for Sydney and America. On Wednesday, during a conversation on matters American, he was asked by a Post representative to state what to-day were the national aims of the United States. Mr Boyce said that his country’s national aims had been in the past to furnish a home for the people of other countries who desired to improve their material condition, and who were also dissatisfied with their own home governments. So far as the first part of his definition was concerned —the improvement of the material conditions of these people —it had worked out satisfactory, although at present the country was so full of people that they could not be offered the same advantages as in years gone by. But as for the second class of people, it had been found that those who were dissatisfied with the Governments of their own countries did not, ns n rule*, innke oil izens of the United Stales, and were not good citizens. “The present policy of the United States," said Mr

Boyce, “as nearly as 1 can make out, is to keep the United Stales for the people of the Stales —within a reasonable degree." “What do you consider, or what do you gather to he, from your observations, are the national aims oi Now Zealand?” —“Prom all 1 can read and see,” said the visiror, “the national aim of New Zealand is to keep the Dominion lor New Zealanders —to keep it free from the la in I of coloured races and the inlluc'nce of undesirable immigrants, and to develope it for your own people." The Government of New Zealand seemed to have been for the people and for their benelit ‘lrom the year one.’ From the Prime Minister downwards everyone with whom ho'had spoken seemed to he thinking first and foremost of (heir country and its welfare —how to make it a better New Zealand. That, to him. seemed to h.e I lie national spirit here, when Xew Zealand possessed a population of live millions it would then have inhabitants equal, in proportion to area, to the United States. But New Zealand, in regard to population, was heading along such well-delined lines that she was not likely to make the same mistakes as America in admitting undesirables.

“What impresses me most about Xew Zealand,” Mr Bovce added, “is that you have solved a problem that worried us greatly, and that is the handling of trusts by the establishment on delinile lines of such businesses as the Public Trust and the Fire and Life Insurance Departments, which have had the effect of regulating competition and prices." Xew Zealand, he said, was like .America, in that we were a people living on the soil. That was the basis of our life. And while we had made it attractive to large holders of land where it was necessary to open up the country quickly, we seemed to be following y very sound system in trying equitably to divide up the laud into small holdings. Of course, Xew Zealand, like the rest of the world, had its industrial problems, hut from the study Mr Boyce had made of the situation, he considered Labour had little to complain of so far as the general conditions were concerned in Xew Zealand. The extremists seemed to be making up in noise and strife —disturbing factors —what they lacked in numerical strength; but lie ventured to express the view that the sane, moderate men would eventually shake olf the influence of the agitators and realise that evolutionary, not revolutionary, methods were in the best interests of all concerned, “The sane Xew Zealander, from what I have seen of him, is a fine, sturdy type capable of thinking for himself, and with plenty of initiative, and lie will not allow himself to be chloroformed by the pernicious doctrines of wild irresponsibles.” “The people of your couutry appear to me to be naturally a saying, frugal people.;” said the visitor. “They do not seem to spend all they make. The only evidence I have seen to the contrary is in the waste of alcohol. The homes of your people are well kept up, there are no excessively large houses, and the people dress well.® As a sheep and cattle raising country, Mr Boyce spoke enthusiastically of New Zealand and its possibilities. It was the best in the world, because of its soil, its plentiful rainfall, which gave three grass- * growths, and its numerous stock-

watering creeks and rivers. In Argentine and America the great problem was to get water for the cattle and sheep. The visitor was equally complimentary on other phases of New Zealand life, upon the health of the people, the average age longevity, which now showed the highest average in the world, and the possibilities of the future.