A VALUABLE ADVOCATE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 143, 13 December 1911, Page 4

A VALUABLE ADVOCATE.

Many) of- New Zealand's Governors have dofte excellent work for New Zealand both' during their terms of office and subsequently. Among our best advocates have been the late Lord Onslow, Earl of Banfurly and Lord Plunket, of. these gjentlqmen using many occasions to "express admiration for New Zeajajrld<;rs .and ,New Zealand Jind her ptpgrfc'ss. Lord Plunket, since his reto Britain," has been eloquent in {M'fsff."' Recently he lectured to a very 'large gathering at Cheltenham Ladies' Cout'ge X which his daughters attended), iftrlifnf" bth er things the. ex-Governor 'Kaid w.,is: 'The New Zea'lander bad opportunities, because bis l'ar--1 iaffiri t wa;s unhampered by social distfftftlfrjiS atid mediaeval enactments, and lns;nrMd .had not been soured l into impossible and vindictive Socialism' by the sfiectacje'' of' the Selfishness of the very rifff, "diid on the other hand the misery Very poor. Netf Zealand was the first country to establish penny postage, non-contributory old-age pensions, 'minimum wage, women's suffrage, preferential duties for the Old Country, State ! Hfe, fire and accident (insuraice, Si department of public health, etc. A fcshetoe for national providence which kecures much that Mr. Lloyd George Uppei; for this country wa,s ,passed in Zealand last year. Wfomenjs sufjfjage; they had had for- twenty years, alKln tlje women usee} their votc>s very Jwelfc a«| -elections. The hopes of the enthusiastic supporters of the Bill were djsscppainted, for save on tjic question oi ttfxe wotnei} Jiad taken vejy action.' At eacb in New Zealand, he',explained, tte) ijot" only voted for ,a-candidate, b.ut;; Bihj'ther the public-houses should bjh-f&Wt '"P in ; the ' voter's district. JVhere' a publican allowed juuch intoxiwas sure to incur the hostility of-;the; women. People, expected a 'shrieking sisterhood' oil thq ■ platform, a (id; a$ agitation for women, M.P/s, but' nothing of the sort had been the ca>:e. He jifid never heard a woman say she to be an M.P." Lord Plunket (mentioned that England had copied Injaiay Qf New Zealand's laws,.and it is well, worth noting that - the ■ laws it has--copied were laws enacted during the hast twenty years. He likewise told his, audience that New Zealand, had the ifinest .scenery on earth. . On the subject of .cmigvation to Npw Zealand, Lord ■Plunket said if tlieyr had work waiting ,'tliem let them. go by all .means, Iff prot, the struggle might be very hard, but jt • would have its reward. , For domestic servants there was, plenty of work, as there was for strong young meir willing, to work as they lijad never \yorked before. In a few words on the 'people he described them as sociable, .'hospitable, free and easy, and -self-con-fident— many an Englishman would add "and self-satisfied." .Well, the only difference was that when the colonial was pleased with himself or his country lie said so, whilst those at Home bottle it up. A special and obvious characteristic of the New Zealander was that he was the most intensely British of any (jolpnial—British in person and in nature. Proud we might be, hut not surprised at the splendid contingents New Zealand sent to the South African war, her exceedingly valuable preferential treatment to the Old Country, and her twice increased subsidy to the Boyal Navy, of her great (battleship lately given to the nation—indeed, she had offered two if required—of her acceptance of a citizen armv and compulsory service, and .she one of the most democratic countries of the whole world. New Zealand confidently looked forward—as he did also—to the time when their country would be one of the strongest units of the great British Empire.