NO TRUE NEW ZEALANDER

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 361, 23 May 1928, Page 16

NO TRUE NEW ZEALANDER

DISTINCTIVE TYPE ABSENT BUSINESSMAN’S VIEW According to Mr. J. W. Shaw, of Auckland, there is no distinct type of New Zealander. Emulation, he suggested in a luncheon address to Karangahape Road businessmen yesterday, appeared to be the guiding influence in the building of character in the Dominion, and there was more than a possibility of this country becoming a nation of “flunkeys.” Mr. Shaw did not condemn New Zealand's imitation of British Imperialism. On the contrary, he commended it where it was used as a force for the development of individuality in type; but he asserted that in proving that we were part of the Empire we in this country forgot to be New Zealanders. Canada and Australia were cited as examples of where Imperialism had been sincere, but not a deterrent to distinctive character. Over-development of athletics was acting as a compensation for what Mr. Shaw called an inferior complex, and appeared to. be satisfying the people. New Zealand should not glory in its physical prowess. Any New Zealander could talk Rugby football, but New Zealand books were not read, the idea being that no New Zealander could produce literature. The same principle applied to art, New Zealand artists not being able to sell their pictures in their own country. Some business men in New Zealand sought to imitate the American by using some of his “push.” Some people would sell thsir souls to develop the millionaire tourist traffic, he continued. They gloated over the amounts derived from tourists. New Zealand should not become a tourist country if it meant that the character of its inhabitants would be spoiled. “There is enough force in New Zealand,” he said, “to make a different and a true spirit of nationality.*'