The Daily News. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1914. PATRIOTIC IGNORANCE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 137, 3 November 1914, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1914. PATRIOTIC IGNORANCE.

"Have you any railways in New Zealand?" This question was asked in sober earnestness by a lady of liigii position in Australia of a New Zealander recently. She began the conversation by enquiring whether wo felt tile shook of the Christchurch earthquake in Auckland. Upon enquiring in surprise what j distance she thought Auckland to be from Christchurch, she replied, '"I suppose a pleasant afternoon's drive!" When she was told that there were over 100 miles of sea between the North and South Islands, and that Dunedin was 250 miles by rail from Christchurch, she was astonished, adding that she thought there were only four large towns in New Zealand—Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington and Dunedin, and that they wer» all within easy driving distance of other. And that lady simply repressed a large clas3 of the residents of Vi«toiia who did not think it worth their while to know anything about such, ft* insignificant place as New Zcalaad. A short time afterwards a large public meeting held in Auckland welcomed two distinguished visitors from England, one of whom, a member of Parliament, commenced his speech by saying tnat what astonished him most in New Zealand was the wonderful civilisation of the place, implying that he expected to find us living in a state of semi-barbarism. These incidents illustrate a state of mind that is atill only too prevalent and in. the spirit of people whoso very patriotism makes them almost proud of their ignoranco of communities outside their own. Amusing instances of the same sort of ignorance are sometimes to be met amongst ourselves. Thero are thousands of people in New Zealand who hav« never heard of the Wanganui telescope, though it is one of tho finest in the Souther* Hemisphere. Even in our own Island there are numbers who have never seen the Waitomo Caves, and, what is still mors surprising, seem utterly unaware that they are one of the wonders of the world. Nor is such ignorance a mere misfortune. Not infrequently it is tho source of cruelty and the parent of crime. One of the chief causes of tho present terrible war in Europe is the Kaiser's crass ignorance of the love of liberty in the free nations and of the strength which the determination to extend that liberty to others must give them in every struggle. The fact is that though patriotism is in itself a noble virtue, it has a strong tendency to blind tho understanding and shrivel the sympathies unless coupled with a persistent. effort to learn all that can be known about other communities than one's own. Punch's severe cartoon of t'lic dialogue between two Yorkshire villagers on see- ] ing a stranger pass along their street, "Dost know yon mm?" "No." "More do I. Then heave a brick at him!" represents a typo of character only to 6 common everywhere. There never was less excuse for the existence of such ignorance than there is bow. The virid and instructive illustrations of the 'habits and manners of other lands giren in our splendid einematograph films, tho wonderful information imparted by such illuminating works as Poster Eraser's '■' Quaint Subjects of the King" and "The Amazing Argentine," give us all abundant opportunities of increasing our acquaintance with the outside world. It is only by improving such opportunities to the utmost that we can prove ourselves worthy of the splendid privileges it is our happy lot to enjoy in what we are fond of calling, with pardonable pride, "God's own country." The supreme duty of the day is for us to cul- . tivato such an acquaintance with the condition of people less favored than ourselves as shall impel us to clear ourselves of tho reproach—"Men whose boast it is that ye Come of fathers brave and free, If there lives a man whom ye By your efforts caii make free, Ye, ye are not free nor brave, While there breathes on eartli a slave." The liberal response which the inhabi-ant-s of the Dominion have already made to the appeal for the relief of the distress in Belgium and Great llritain does them much credit, but that response would be far more liberal if we knew more about the actual condition of our fellow creatures there. To know all is to help all. The mainspring of the philanthropy which should animate the prosperous and comfortable in such a 1 time of widespread suffering anil misery as that through which millions of our fellow creatures are, now compelled to pass by no fault of their own should bo the line old heathen motto: 'l am a man: nothing that doth concern mankind is foreign to mc.''