MR FOSTER FRASER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 218, 20 October 1909, Page 4

MR FOSTER FRASER.

IMPRESSIONS GATHERED IN AUSTRALASIA. NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS. PIONEERING AND AFTER. Interesting observations regarding some colonial characteristics were maue by Mr. Foster Fraser in the course of conversation with a Wellington Tunes representative on Saturday. "The climate here in New Zealand, remarked' the traveller, "I found amen more like that at Home than the climate of Australia. I have knockul about the world a good deal, and in my travels I have studied the effect of climate on character. What I nave been particularly interested in studying in these islands of Australasia is how thi people removed from the severe climate, say, of Scotland, are going to develop in tlii' muck more congenial climate, somewhat similar to Southern Italy, in tins part of the World. I noticed in Australia a certain softening of character, whereas in New Zealand I find very much the same, kind of sternness and determination that marks the people at Home. Therefore, I am quite sure, judging the possibilities in development from that standpoint, the New Zealander, although he has done a great deal in the past, is likely to continue to do good work in the development of this coun-

trv. ' ! ln Australia, where wonders have, been done bv the old settlers in taming the wild country, the problem is whether, the present generation and future generations, living in their very pleasant and softer climate, will be able to continue the same work which was done by the.r immediate forefathers. One of the first tilings which struck me in Australia was the extreme courtesy of the people of the railway service, because I had rath»r anticipated that when 1 got to Australia I would find a kind of brusque independence, such as one comes across in the United States, for instance. But I I didn't find that at all. Now, in New Zealand I found a certain amount of brusqueness amongst railway servants. The New Zealander approximates, J should think, to the North of England man much more than he does to the South of England man. it struck me that the Scots in Ne-.v Zealand and Australia are much more Scottish than those at Home, and; perhaps, more patriotic. They keep up their saints' days and Burns nights, their Halloween, and their national customs; in fact,'in Scotland the only people who wear kilts are the chiefs of the clans on certain occasions and the "illies in the employ of the American millionaires who own our deer forests; whereas, as far as I can gather, out heie the patriotism has increased by removal from Home. But that always Is so—a man never appreciates his native country until he gets away from it. I never realised what the Union Jack meant until I weut travelling about the world, and when you have been away in rough countries for months and then suddenly come across the Union Jack floating over a British Consulate, as, for instance, in China, you begin to realise that the /lag is just a good deal more than a piece of cloth.

•■South Island impressions? Recollecting that it has been settled only within the last sixty years, it was quite

amazing to me to find how settlement had progressed. Indeed, I motored a good deal through the agricultural districts, and what impressed me was rvw like fiiey were to parts of England and the southern parts of Scotland. The roads over which I motored were really magnificent. Whilst in Dunedin T visited the power-station at Waipori. I think Xew Zealand is splendidly equipped for becoming a «reat industrial country. You have grand ranges of hills which naturally provide the rain; you have great water-power resources which, if only utilised, can work your industries much cheaper than coal. Of the possibilities in that direction I am quite convinced."