THINGS MIGHT BE WORSE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 99, 17 December 1931, Page 4

THINGS MIGHT BE WORSE

Despite their troubles New Zealanders have a great deal to be thankful for. They have their periods of boom and their periods of depression, the effects of which probably are in the long run equally unpleasant, but on the other hand, the Dominion enjoys one of the most equable climates in .the world, its lands are fertile and its people by nature and tempera'ment IDerhaps the most sane and level-headed among the nations. Unfortunately, blessings of this kind are apt toi be unrecognised. Tt is not easy to keep such things in proper perspective, especially when, one's neighbours are as distant as are New Zjealand's. To make comparisons, however, it is only necessary to turn.to our cousins and nearest neighbours in Australia. They are of the same parent stock as ourselves. Their history is very much the same as ours; their traditions are the same and their institutions are built upon the same foundations. Despite these things, however, it is diffieult to imagine greater differences in temperament and outlook among people so closely related. Where the New Zealander is conservative and cautious, the Australian is radical and rash, willing always to take chances and impatient of the delay involved in looking before he leaps. For this undoubtedly the climate of his country is largely responsible. In New Zealand extremes of any kind are the exception, whereas they are the rule across the Tasman. Nature, by comparis-on with her cruelty in Australia is beneficient here. Both still primarily cngaged in the cultivation of the land, the New Zealander can make his plans, secure in the knowledge that the climate at least will not be likely very seriously to upset them unldss conditions are abnormal, but the Australian, when he sows a crop pr buys a herd does so in the knowledge that he is engaged in a gamble against the weather, which directly or indirectly is as likely as not to bring disaster upon him before he can reap the harvest. The cable news during the past few days has emphasised this. While in southern Queensland and northern New South Wales fioods have wrought havoc in some of the Commonwealth's mpst fertile districts, not far away in western New South Wales fire has devastated nearly half a million acres pf rich pastoral country, despite the desperate elforts of the settlers to check its progress. It is disasters such as these in other lands which emphasise the advantages this Dominion enjoys. If these were a little more widely realised, the present depression would be seen more cleaTly in its true perspective, and bad as it is, it would still be more rapidly overcome as a result of the more confident and cheerful spirit in which its problems would be tackled by the people generally.