EARLY SETTLEMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 September 1921, Page 4

EARLY SETTLEMENT.

BRITISH COLONISATION. DESIRE FOR CLOSER STUDY. AN INTERESTING VISITOR. Some aspects of English colonisation in New Zealand and America were reviewed by Professor Annie H. Abel, professor of history at the Smitt College, Northampton, U.S.A., in conversation with a Daily News reporter last night. Professor Abel is at present m New Plymouth in the course of a tour through New Zealand with a view to ascertaining, by personal investigation, as much information as possible about early New Zealand history. Of British descent, Professor Abel is the only lady or six professors who occupy positions on the staff of the Smitt (ladies) College. The motives prompting this special visit formed an interesting chapter of the professor’s story. While every student is obliged to take English history as a subject, and although the advanced classes pursue the study of colonisation, it is a unique feature that the interest in the outlying portions of the Empire has not been very marked. The war, however, did a great deal to arouse interest, in Australasia particularly, and it is growing, as the students realise that in this part of the Empire there has been a history worth noting. Professor Abel’s mission did not arise through any definite demand for further special study, but was prompted by her own wish to bring the record of the early colonists’ doings up-to-date as far as possible, by enquiry on the spot. The phase that she will put before American students is that their country marks the beginning of British colonisation, and New Zealand represents the high-water mark of the movement. IM . THE “NEW” PLYMOUTH. “I am particularly interested in New Plymouth,” said Professor Abel, “because an earlier Plymouth company was concerned in the settlement of Plymouth (New England). The year 1920 was one of great revival of interest in the old Plymouth settlements. The Plymouths of England and of U.S.A, came together for the purpose of commemorating the tercentary, and I think it is a little unfortunate that no one thought, at that time, of the third Plymouth.” Discussing the early settlement, she pointed out that it was largely true that New Plymouth and the Plymouth of New England drew much of the same class of settler, the yeomen of England contributing a good deal to both settlements. Speaking of an intention to visit Christchurch and Dunedin, the professor explained that these centres were interesting from the research point of view, because they represented the organised colonisation efforts.

The visitor finds a. great contrast in the planning of towns by colonials nt America and in New Zealand. In the former the towns grew haphazard; they were picturesque, but not beautiful. An advantage was enjoyed by New Plymouth in this respect, partly because it was subdivided by an English surveyor. The only city in the American settlement which bore a resemblance was Philadelphia, which was laid out by William Penn with a certain regularity. “I think your town excels in parks/' said Professor Abel, “and I think it must be due to the fact that by the time the town was laid out the settlers had come to an appreciation of the beautiful in city growth.” She points out, further, that in New Zealand we did not get so much of the reproduction of the English type as was noticeable in America. There towns grew up around the common, with the church and school, and New England was identical with Old England in many of its ways.

AMERICA’S PROBLEM. Professor Abel quotes a remark made by the secretary of the Yale University, who stated, after a visit to New Zealand some years ago, that New Zealand had the brightest future of any colony because the character of its inhabitants was so all-British, as distinct from the cosmopolitan nature in some other cases. She favored as many British settlers as possible going to British possessions, for it was a mistake that so many of the people had been lost to the Empire in past emigration. The United States had absorbed a great many, partly because of its proximity, and also on account of the facilities which were given to newcomers to settle on the land. From these there had sprung up some of the finest of settlements. The people who had come from England were distinct from other immigrants into America, for they had not become “hyphenated.” Once in the States they had identified themselves with its interests and acknowledged their American citizenship, though still retaining pronounced feelings of loyalty to the Mother Country. It was not till comparatively lately that America had received such great numbers of settlers from Europe. In spite of its vast area, the country had not entirely assimilated these; the newcomers instituted settlements cf their own, representing a distinct nationality. They are American only as far as "the laws' are concerned, and, though English is taught in the schools, their particular language was the universal one. Failure to realise the great cosmopolitan aspect of America’s population had, in Professor Abel’s opinion, been the cause of some of the adverse criticism which was made against America at the outset of the war. People did not quite understand what the United States had to deal with. It was a fact, however, that she had in her midst this groat foreign element assembled in what were practically fair-sized colonies of their own, and where life was a replica of the particular national characteristic in their native land. A COOT ARISON. Judging by Professor Abel’s remarks citizens of New Zealand and America each have misconceptions as to certain conditions in the respective countries. For the New Zealander’s part this is not to be wondered at, when the professor remarks that she has seen books on display in New Zealand bookstalls which contain descriptions of American life, of which she had never heard, and other publications which were rejected by American authorities as far as historical study was concerned. It seemed to be a common opinion that Americans were all of one pattern, but there were 110 millions of them, and many different types. Further, the New Zealander ! who had been to the U.S.A, apparently iwas inclined to judge the country from (New York or Chicago, which could not [ give a correct idea, as the former was probably the most cosmopolitan city in i the World, with the exception of LonProfessor Abel believes that there