The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1929 NEW TYPE OF NEW ZEALANDER

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 792, 12 October 1929, Page 10

The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1929 NEW TYPE OF NEW ZEALANDER

AN assertion lias been made by the New Zealand correspondent of tlie London “Spectator” that the pioneering spirit of the Colony has passed and that the Dominion is developing a type of man who will not set his teeth and go after employment in the bulldog manner of his fathers. “He looks to the Government for help the moment he feels the slightest pressure of adversity. One blushes to admit it, hut this class is composed almost wholly of native-born New Zealanders; for the most part our immigrants from Britain are game triers—men and women to whom it is a pleasure to extend the hand of fellowship.” Is the assertion true? Many answers could be given Avithout anyone of them being the complete answer in perfect accuracy. Englishmen in the sturdy isles we call Home might not be prepared to believe “The Spectator’s” correspondent, if they were to judge New Zealanders by the type of men that made England blush on different occasions in Bugby football Tests. Then, to he sure, the native-born NeAv Zealanders were game triers demonstrating the bulldog manner of their fathers. And perhaps “The Spectator” would be tempted to doubt its New Zealand correspondent, if it looked back across a decade or so of time and noted the pioneering spirit and bulldog manner of New Zealanders at Gallipoli, on the battlefields of France, and in ancient desert places Avhere even the Crusaders did not make war any more valiantly or with more tenacity. On the reverse side, it is doubtful whether the pioneers of NeAv Zealand, Avho happily are still able to enjoy the rewards and memories of their pioneering spirit, would he prepared to believe that all of the new generation of British immigrants are game triers, if they heard at some street corner a raucous dialect declaiming about the lack of employment and the opportunity to become a game trier. On such a subject, however, it is impossible to give the Avhole truth and nothing but the truth. It is true, of course, that those New Zealanders Avho Avill not set their teeth and go after employment like the pioneers, have learnt, perhaps too readily, to lean upon the resources jbf the State and the boastful bene\~olence of party politicians. But would it be less true to assert that the source of their slacking and demoralisation as workers and seekei's of Avork has been the Homeland that sends out the socalled game triers? Today, the loudest cry in New Zealand’s mediocre Parliament is an appeal, sometimes made by voices that shout proof of birth outside the Dominion, for the establishment of a feckless system of unemployment relief which has done no good Avhatever in Great Britain as regards encouraging nativeborn Englishmen (let it be understood, for the sake of peace, that neither Scotsmen nor the men of Wales and Ireland have been overlooked) to “go after employment in the bulldog manner of their fathers.” Half of the industrial trouble today can be attributed almost Avholly to the fact that the Dominion’s politicians have ceased to think for themselves and initiate remedial enterprises for the reduction of unemployment and the elimination of the type of New Zealander and British immigrant Avhich importunes the Government in the first moment of adversity. A day or two ago a special committee of New Zealand experts adAdsed the harassed Government that there Avere six root causes of the existing abnormal unemployment. It is of interest to note that the Dominion representative of the London journal placed responsibility for unemployment only on four causes. These, briefly were defined as (1) the passing of the pioneering spirit and an unconscious weakening of the working man’s individualism: (2) the practical cessation of new settlement'on virgin land; (3) the twist toward life in the cities given, especially to boys, by our system of secondary education, and (4) the marked indifference—if not active and prejudiced hostility—■ of the public toward such manufacturing industries as are well suited to establishment in New Zealand. The effect of the first cause is the development of elingers to the Government, Avhile the second (it is said) has given rise to “a fluttering of wings in our educational dovecotes.” Perhaps “The Spectator’s” observer has not noticed that these dovecotes require a clearing-out of old pigeons.

One emphasised statement by the same commentator Avill be endorsed heartily by the majority of New Zealanders. This is the assertion that “We need more families settled on the land, and we need prosperous manufacturing industries.” From The Sun’s point of view the order of those needs should he transposed. More and’still more prosperous manufacturing industries would make a quicker end to doles, soup-kitchens and expensive relief Avorks than a slow process of land settlement at a cost of about £3,000 a farm at the least. As for the passing of the pioneering spirit, the politicians need have no hesitation about supplying an affirmative answer. But let “The Spectator’s” chiel among us ask the surviving pioneers if their sons and grandsons are slackers and whimperers for Government aid; the response, one imagines, Avould be a true pioneering smack on the face of a foolish man.