A VISITOR ON NEW ZEALAND.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 353, 2 April 1910, Page 9

A VISITOR ON NEW ZEALAND.

FOSTER ERASER'S TOUR,

AND WHAT HE LEARNED HERE. SOME CANDID COMMENTS. Under the title "A Vision of New Zealand—my stay in the most British of our Colonies, and what I learned there," Mr. John Foster Eraser, the well-known writer, tells the British public the impressions formed of this country and its people during his recent visit. We republish the article below from the Sunday Chronicle-. In appraising New Zealand—the Britain of the South Seas—there are elementary facts to be 1 kept in mind. It is U,OOO miles from the Motherland. The population is less than 1,000,000. That reduces the adults to about 200,000, or, say, 100,000 men. And the colonists are only in their second generation.

In Auckland I talked to an old man who remembered when the white population was about a dozes; now the town and its suburbs have a population of near 80,000. At the other end of the Dominion 1 smoked pipes and "cracked" with Scotsmen who came out sixty years ago in sailing ships, wliich took four months to journey from the bleak shores of the Old Country to Dunedin. I »aw the "bush" wild, tangled, nigh impenetrable forest lands. Then I saw cleariigs, sheep lands, stretches of rich agricultural soil, happy homesteads. Jfuch of the short six weeks I was in th» colony was spent travelling i» motor cars over roads well built, well metalled, and as good as most of your roads at Home. Ten, twenty yean •go most of these roads were non-exist-ent. When I saw what the settlers had ione I took off my hat to them.

LIKE THE CURATE'S EGG. N«w Zealand is a curate's egg of a country—good in part*. When far south, at Invercargill, I went through an oats-growing region -which I was assured had not its equal in the Dominion, and probably not in the world. At Oamaru my attention was directed to land which could not be surpassed. At Ashburton. a deputation told me I was in the paradise of agriculture. In the North Island I did a tremendous tour round PalmeTston and Masterton, and heard of the amazing prolificness of tke earth. In the Hawke's Bay territory, at the back of Napier, I motored through farming lands which nobody could deny were the finest in the world. I listened and made few comments. It was good to hear the enthusiasm, to note Ihe glow on the cheeks of men who had done valiantly in clearing away the "bush"—firing it till the trees stood lank, forlorn, miserable, ohopping them, uprooting them, draining the soil, producing rich pasturage, and furrowing fields now rustling with the young shoots of wheat. Tn these callow, discontented davs it is fine to meet men who are sure their valley is a veritable Garden of Eden. Tt is positively bracing to hear the average New Zealander on his favorite topic—the superiority of New Zealand ojrer every other country.

A PHRASE TO BE DROPPED. To be bluntly frank,- it- is by no means the country he thinks it is. His belief, however, a lichen-like conviction, has had its uses; being happy, prosperous and cocksure, he has pushed ahead, accomplished wonders, and intends to do more. He knows very little about other countries except that it is sheer nonsense to suggest any of them can be anything approaching New Zealand in capabilities. As success breeds success, .;o confidence'stimulates energy, and the New Zealandor has toiled anit moiled. He knows what the country was less than a generation ago; be sees what it is now, and he can put his hands in his pockets, jingle his money, and say. "All that is best is here."

: Only I wish that he would drop the phrase he loves so much of never missing an opportunity to call New Zealand "God's Own Country." First, it is not original, for the American used it in regard to the United States before New Zealand began to be settled. Second, it savors of national conceit. Third, there is a touch of blasphemy about it which is offensive to many people. There are plenty of things of which the New Zeal and er can be legitimately proud without blatant politicians and others bawling that the Almighty has singled out New Zealand as His particular garden.

AGRICULTURE THE STAPLE INDUSTRY.

'•'Good in parts" is the description I have givti'i of New Zealand. Geologically it is a bit of the old world. There are jagged, snow-crested peaks, but most of the hills have been worn roundihoulderad by the elements. The rains and the winds have carried down the earth, filled the old valleys, and made wide and quite flat plains which are radiant with fertility. But much of it is mountainous and the soil is poor, and only suitable for feeding sheep. There are other parts, hundreds of square miles, not even capable of being turned into sheep-runs. But there is coal mining, gold-mining, and the heights throw down the gullies an enormous waterpower, already being utilised for manufacturing purposes at Dunedin, and capable of enormous development in time to come. But New Zealand is foremost an agricultural country. Some people believe it is capable of carrying a population of 20,000,000. That would be possible if New Zealand took to manufacturing for the outer world. That she U capable of carrying a population far greater than she has now is right enough, but with agriculture as her staple industry I do not see there is room for a population greater than five or six millions.

Excepting Palmerston Norftt there is no inland town in the Dominion much bigger than an English village. Of course you quote Christchurch. But Christchurch was originally intended to be where Lyttelton now is, and had to climb over the hills and settle on the. Canterbury Plains—where the Canterbury mutton comes from—to prevent tumbling into the sea. All the towns of any account were originally placed at the far end of a sea-arm. The town plans were sketched in London or Edinburgh; flat plains with no indication of hills, and so in Dunedin, for instance, you find streets running up hill faces.

MUNICIPAL DEBTS. There was just room for an encampment. When the town on the level had to be enlarged, the sides of the hills had to be shovelled out to make foreshores. The most valuable part of Dunedin is artificially constructed. The timebeing capital, Wellington—picturesque, like an Italian city clinging to the

cliffs' over a beautiful lake—is built in

layers, except for an artificial foreshore. All the towns are prettily p.'aced, but in the wrong situations from a commercial point of view, with the consequence that the local authorities are up to the neck in debt, for improvements and harbor construction and wharfage. All this it excellently done. Wellington has the finest wharf frontage in the whole of Australasia. Minor towns, difficult to find on small scale maps, are ambitious to be ports. Many thousands of pounds are being pitched into the sea in breakwaters and harbors which are not yet necessary. It is not difficult to borrow money. So New Zealand is piling up mortgages on its future. There are folk who say that New Zealand will one of these days break her back under the weight of debt. The New Zealander laughs, and the Prime Minister borrows another million.

PRIDE IN THE TOWNS,

As the Hew Zealanders are country proud, so they are town proud. They love their towns, for most of them have seen them grow. Little places of ten thousand inhabitants have their nice-looking public buildings; their parks, gardens, racecourses, libraries, swimming baths, technical schools, municipal theatres, cricket and lawn tennis plots, agricultural show grounds, all inclined to be showy and out of proportion to the needs of the place. Ungenerous, however,' would be the man who would find fault because the inclination is toward snowiness. That is from the European standpoint. The 'blase traveller who knows Europe sniggers at the pretentiousness—l have seen him at it. But the builders of these towns are farmers; they make no claim to know anything about European culture; they mre genuinely anxious to make their towns beauty spots, and the thing to admire is that they have not been too absorbed in personal well-doing to forget the claims of their towns. In England we wait until there is something like congestion before we think of wide streets, parks and attractive buildings. New Zealanders, living in straggling towns of three thousand inhabitants or so, arrange these things at the outset. ABOUT THE CLIMATE.

During my wanderings I ran into •ome bad -weather—cold, damp, bleak. But, on the whole, the New Zealand climate is temperate, genial, ana health-giving. Ido not know that anywhere I have seen healthier men, women and children. Longevity is a rule, not an exception. There are grand old characters to be met, men who came out half a century ago, and made the country what it is to-day. Oue morning I saunter';! into the Settlers' Hall at Dunedin, and looked at the photographs of the "old identities," sturdy men with determination chiselled into every line of their faces. This is about the time when several of the towns are celebrating their jubilees. Collecting the photographs of the founders is natural. They were worth examining, for these were the pictures of the men who labored arid forced Ne»v Zealand into well-being. One afternoon, at Wellington, after looking at the .photographs of these sturdy pioneers, the idea struck me to walk through the streets and have a look at the present generation. It was impossible to resist, the thought that the young New Zealander lacks the virility and ragged independence of his father. The modem New Zealanders look to Parliament to obtain for them what their sires obtained for themgelves, with taut sinews and the sweat of their brow.

' THE MOST BRITISH COLONY. New Zealand is tile most British 01 all our colonies. Without any depreciation of the loyalty of other parts of the Empire it may be said that the loyalty i« more pronounced than anywhere else. No occasion is ever missed to parade love of the Motherland. The King's birthday, the Battle of Trafalgar, are occasions which seem to be much more to the New Zealanders than even to the stay-at-home Britons. The English ■spoken is more pure than our own masses spunk it. There are no dialects, though the children of the south have caught the Scotch intonation of the early settlers. Several educated New Zealanders lamented to me the slovenliness creeping into the young New Zealander's speech. I looked out for it, hut in all justice I must say that the clean-cut pronunciation amongst all sections of the community was striking. Then, the New Zealander has the Englishman's love of flowers. Tn a climate "like that of the North Island, where there is practically no winter, where roses can he grown all the year round, and the inclination of imported English trees is to become evergreens, there is every inducement towards the cultivation of blooms. The New Zealander surpasses the Briton m his love of sport particularly horse - racing. There is not a single agricultural college in tlie North Island, but every village has its racecourse. New Zealand, with one-fiftieth the population of the United Kingdom, has twice as many race meetings. Another evidence of the British instincts, deeply planted in the breasts of New Zealanders, is that England is affectionately called "the Old Country,'' and when a citizen and his wife propose visiting England the local Tinner invariably refers to them going Home.

SENSITIVE TO CRITICISM. The one thing in which the New Zealander is not British is his sensitiveness to outside criticism . The Englishman doeg not care twopence what other nations think of him, except that he is more disposed than not to agree with those who adversely criticise him. The New Zealander is perpetually inviting eriticism, but resents the slightest suspicion of ci iticism. I used to think our friends of the United States the most "touchy" people on earth. They are hardened and callous alongside the New Zealander. Two oat of every three persons I met in the Dominion fired the •tale enquiry: "What do you think of this country?" Tn less than a day I discovered they did not want to know what I thought of it; they wanted me to praise it. There is much to praise—such as the wonderful work of'settlement—and that was accepted as all right. But there are other things wherein New Zealand toddles at the tail of the rest of the world. K hint of these was generally bitterlv resented. A little comparison and an example of how some things were done better in some other landswell, thev simply did not want .to hear, and the conversation had to he shunted to another track. '■■ There were exceptions to all this—and T keep those exceptions in my mind as I write—but as one who has studied national characteristics in manv parts of the world T was frequently prone to an inward smile at the wav'tlie New Zealander would talkto me 'by the hour about the marvels of his land and then display a positive

j dislike to listen to anything favorable about other lands. The New Zealander is a iine fellow, but this insularism only makes his friends laugh. Of course the cause is chiefly due to the fact that he is so far away fro'n the industrial centre of the world and that he lacks the opportunity of comparison. I suppose most of us 'would have a defective perspective if ; we were similarly situated.