KNOW YOUR COUNTRY.

Mt Benger Mail, 9 November 1938, Page 1

KNOW YOUR COUNTRY.

FACTS ABOUT NEW ZEALAND. BRITAIN’S- BEST CUSTOMER. iflow many New Zealanders can speak with authority on some important and yet everyday facts relating to the Dominion. How many know, ■as the New Zealand News, of London, points out, that New Zealand has an average amount of sunshine of 2017 hours per year (six hours per day) com-' parable with Southern Italy; that it had on December 31, 1930, an estimated population of 1,573,000; that it has a death rate of 8.48 per 1000 (lowest in the world); that it has an infantile mortality rate of only 32.26 per 1000 (lowest in the world); that it was the first British country to give manhood suffrage (1889) and female suffrage (1893); that it has in the Arthur’s Pass Tunnel (5 1-3 miles) the longest railway tunnel in the British Empire; that it has had universal penny postage since 1901; that it is Britain's best per capita customer; that it supplies about one-third of the butter imported by Britain, over one-half of the cheese, more than one-half of her imported lamb and mutton, and nearly one-quar-ter of her imported wool; that last year it bought more manufactures from Britain than did any foreign country except the U.S.A.; that it is the world’s leading exporter of dairy produce; and of mutton and lamb, and second largest exporter of wool.