LORD BRICE ON NEW ZEALAND.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2285, 4 June 1921, Page 2

LORD BRICE ON NEW ZEALAND.

IN his b.ook on “Modern Democracies,” Viscount Bryce lias something so say of New Zealand and New Zealanders. Writing on New Zealand, he says:—“The people’s temper and view of life has a leisurely and indulgent cast, as of those who wish not only to be happy, but also to make everybody else happy, to the extent even of dissolving, for slighter causes than English law recognises, the marriages of those who think they would be happier apart. The country ought to possess, and all the more because Europe is so far off, a much larger number of persons occupied with the higheu studies, both literary and scientific, for, over and above the direct influence of their teaching work they help to keep up an intellectual atmosphere and to vindicate for learning and science a due place of honour. One may sum up the public opinion of the country by saying that it is temperate and reasonable rather than enlightened and forseeing. In domestic affairs it thinks of comfort first, tolerates abuses, is glad to throw responsibilities upon Gov-) eminent, prefers to mitigate the consequences of political evils rath-' er than exert itself to remove their causes, does not realise the need for a scientific study of the social and economic problems which its politicians try to solve. The traveller cannot quite escape the feeling, fan-j tastic as it may appear, that the grandeur and beauty of the country and the element of romance that belongs to its scenery and to the misty twilight of its history will somehow or other mould or inspire the people. Those who inhabit such a land can hardly have a commonplace future. Will they not some day or other add something novel and striking, be it in letters or arts 015 institutions, to the stock of mankinds’ possession.- ?”