The Daily News WEDNESDAY, MAY 28 MINISTERS ABROAD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8117, 23 May 1906, Page 2

The Daily News WEDNESDAY, MAY 28 MINISTERS ABROAD.

] It is almost a pity that New Zealand is not a continent Reading of the doings of the two leaders of the New Zealand Government in more or less distant lands, musk magnify the importance of this colony to those people who are not permitted to live in it. Lately we learned that Sir Joseph Ward entertained a distintinguished company at Rome, a fact that makes us very proud of him. "On behalf of the colony of New Zealand," also, he subscribed a nice sum of money to the sufferers by the

eruption of Vesuvius at Naples. He did not cable to the people of New Zealand to ask if he might give their money away, and he did not ask the people if they wanted the cash for anything else. In the splendid advertising spirit that is so striking a feature of our travelling Ministers, lie constituted himself a referendum. Unconstitutional? But surely not. Did not Mr Seddon say at the New Zealand banquet in Sydney : " There was a disposition on the part of leaders in public life to ask, whether this action or that action would be popular ?" This gives constitutional sanction to the action of Sir Joseph Ward. # * * *

At that splendid function in Sydney, Mr Seddon let a good deal of his " humanistic " tendencies have full play, and in the role of a leader of Australasian opinion and Oceanic adviser he was particularly happy. One of those eminontly tactful things, th it a great statesman might have been expected to say to the Ministry of a continent, was: " Although it might be that Australia was not spoken of as favourably at present as New Zealand, he looked forward to the day when she would occupy the foremost position in the Empire.' We have only one objoction to Mr Sneddon's tactful remark. If Australia is to occupy the foremost position, how will Mr Seddon reconcile himself to the inevitable result that New Zealand will then occupy second place'( # * * *

Mr Seddon strenuously urged the need of racial purity. As he was speaking in Australia, it may be inferred that he is a " White Austra lian." Therefore, if he is a " White Australian," he is, or should be, n " White New Zealander." He may be, of course, but it is hardly reasonable to reconcile the ever-increasing flow of Chinese into this colony with the Premier's humanistic desire to keep the race pure. Also, if he should study the census returns, showing the number of Asiatic halfcastes, he will, in his own words, " fearlessly voice that which he believes to be good.' He spoke feelingly of the great mortality amongst infants, aad it is a subject that people with even less humauism than the Premier might exhibit doep feeling over. There may be something of recompense in the fact that " the fittest survive," but it is small com fori anyhow. $ * * *

One of the things he was proudest ol was that New Zealand had the lowest deatli rate in the world. The chief reason for this is that the colony is in its infancy. That in the early days only people with health—which is another word for physical courage —tackled this terra incognita. Consequently the stock iihealthy, even if at present it is nol very prolific. Our Premier was determined that every hamlet in New Zealand should be within the reach of trained nurses. The papers have been full of the horrors of the backblocks lately. People have said that thoy will have to wait until spring to get their wool out. One man declares it took four horses to pull an empty buggy out of the bog surrounding his holding. What sort of a hope lias the wife of such a settler of the help of a skilled nurse, should she need one? Everyone in 'i'aranaki knows that numbers of deaths have occurred in New Zealand because of the inability of a doctor to get to the bogged settlers in time. Everybody knows that there are tragedies as bad as the eruption of Vesuvius in New Zealand, which might have betn avoided by a cheap telephone line or the spending of money on roads. * * * *

A rather good idea put forward by Mr Seddon at that banquet was that of having more news sent from New Zealand to Australians. Australians have so little to do in their own country that a little light reading would l>e welcomed. The news Australia might be expected to 'welcome the most effusively would be the political news from here, which would be a guide to the political tyros in the Federal Ministry. But, on the other hand, if Mr Seddon could make a yearly tiip to advise them, viva voce, it woull seem to be almost .an unnecessary reform. New Zealand is to be sincerely congratulated that the withdrawal of Mr Seddon and Sir Joseph Ward is of a temporary nature, because humanism will be cut down like a flower and withered like the green herb, if the absence lasts long. But New Zealanders must not be selfish. While they recognise that the country and all that it contains remains at a standstill while its brains are in other lands, it should remember that other lands require brains too, and that if they are not to be obtained locally, we in our charity should lend them some.