LORD NORTHCLIFFE’S OBSERVATIONS.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 December 1921, Page 9

LORD NORTHCLIFFE’S OBSERVATIONS.

THE OTHER ENGLAND. His Advice to Those Wlio Would Emigrate to New Zealand. London, Oct. 28. “New Zealand is a land of working landowners. To the accompaniment of hard yrork, life in the Island-Dominion usually falls in pleasant lines. The climate is good, the scenery delightful. There is excellent sport, and New Zealand’s hospitable, homely people are British to the core. It is ‘the other England.’ ” —Daily Mail. THIS YEAR’S SPRINGS. Lord Northcliffe is enthusiastic over the opportunities which New Zealand oilers to emigrants of the right kind. “From the moment I landed in New Zealand that August morning I felt that I was in topsy-turvydom. I had already had several springs this year, the first at Mentone, another later at Fontainebleau, third in Kent, a fourth in Scotland; and here I was again in spring in August, with the primroses, hyacinths, peach and apple blossom, and hawthorn; with the trees with their new leaves, and the weeping willow, which is spreading throughout the northern island as rapidly as the gorse. And gorse, beautiful blaze though it is, is now scheduled as a noxious weed, and is as much abominated by the farmers as the rabbit! “New Zealand is distinguished from the other Dominions by the degree to which it clings to English customs and antiquities. One does not instinctively associate a new country like New Zealand with Cax'ton and Shakespeare folios, but here they are; and here other priceless books, manuscripts, and missals . from the collection of that ver- , satile statesman. Sir George Grey, are I to be found in the fine public library and picture gallery. The modern pictures also are excellent; among them I observed a fine Munnings. And Auckland, new as she is, is full of the historical sense. Her inhabitants are so interested in the history of their city since the landfall of Captain Cook at Gisborne in 1769 that every moment of the story of Auckland’s development is being patiently recorded by manuscript, print, and photograph. THE MAORIS. I “One feels at home all the time in New Zealand and yet not at home. Looking up from one’s desk in a very English room, as I did at Rotorua, one suddenly sees a motor-omnibus passing by bearing terrific Maori name« of its destinations—Whakarewarewa, Ohinemuto, Rerewhakaitu. Maori names, some of them very beautiful, have been preserved throughout both islands. Thus one escapes the ‘Jonesville,’ ‘Mulligan Creek,’ and so forth of other new countries. “The Maori's themselves are more of an entity than most people at home imagine. “My chief mission during this holiday. trip, between golf and any other sport that may come my way, is to find out destinations for our surplus population of the right kind. “Having but few days in New Zealand I resolved, therefore to abandon a long tour that had been prepared for me, in which I should have seen nothing but fleeting views of hills and dales, and scenery ranging from Devonshire lanes to Norweigian fiords.

“I decided first to go to Hamilton, the centre of the great dairying industry, and see, near by, the Government farm a/t Ruakura; then to invite English friends to bring their knowledge of New Zealand to me at Rotorua. Roto- ; rua, I may say. is perhaps the most astounding health resort in the world, within reach of the greatest of trout fishing, deer stalking, and shooting of many kinds. It is a ISJaori centre. Here are the hot and other springs that have been the resort o-f the natives for centuries rfhd will one day bring people from all over the world. ABOUT EMIGRATION. “There have been very few emigrants from Great Britain since the war in comparisoii with the thousands a day who sometimes left us before the war. At the moment, Canada is not very anxious for immigrants. Difficulties are being placed in their way on entering the United States. “If I were a young man of agricultural bent and training, with the Scotch industry and adaptability for settlement, 1 would take my knowledge of the dairy farm to New Zealand, leaving my capital, if I had any, behind me at home to await the time when I could use it to advantage. “Let me say at once that New Zealand does not want the kind of man that we don't want. As usual, round men are going out to fill square holes. People are leaving London for New Zealand who would be unhappy even in a change to Liverpool, and bored stiff, besides being hopelessly useless, on a farm in Perthshire. “Some of them read of my coming in the newspapers. Y’qu meet them at various places, and they ask you how they can get home. Here is one instance:— TWO SAMPLES. “A public school boy (who might have been a. good assistant master at a preparatory school), rather delicate in frame, is sent out here with an introduction to a. family friend, and, disliking agriculture, has been unable to find any occupation. He has some grit about him, but is unable to find scope for it. lie applied for a. position as newspaper reporter, but did 'not know shorthand. Then he asked for any sort of occupation at the coal mines, where he was kindly but firmly told that the trade’s union did not want him. .He has earned a little money preparing a boy. for an examination; and, if he remains, he will probably drift into some sort of minor schoolmastership. “On the other hand, take the case of a friend of his, a young man of whom I knew something at home owing to his former connection with newspaper work. This was his story, and it can be the story of any man who desires to become a landowner in New Zealand and who has skill, industry, thrift, and determination. Realising that New Zealand ways are freer, merrier perhaps, ami more natural than ours, he abandoned journalism, for which he had no particular liking, took a course at an agricultural college in Britain, learnt the rudiments of the management of cows and pigs, came to New Zealand, and offered his services to a farmer as a ‘share-milker.’ “Share-milkers, if they are thrifty, can soon own their own farms, whether through the elastic system of mortgage 1 tlia>t obtains in New Zealand, or by ; capital frq.pi home, or by saving. Share- j

milkers are of all types. Most of those that I met were New Zealand born. Every one was of British stock; and, let it be remembered (and may it always be maintained!) 98 per cent, of the population is British. NEW ZEALAND FOR OPPORTUNITY. “New Zealand is not a paradise, and it has its troubles, la'Hor difficulties, and even a handful of noisy Reds. “New Zealand neetls more railways more roads, but, above all, it needc more people. “For the parent who is deciding his son’s future or the son who is discussing what his parent should do for him, I suggest that tea planting in Assam, orange growing in Florida, fruit growing in British Columbia are speculations by comparison with the. opportunity of becoming a landowner at thirty years of age in New Zealand* “People who ought not to go a-dairy-ing are delicate youths sent abroad for their health, men unacquainted with country • life, and farmers too advanced in years. PEOPLE NOT WANTED. “The other day, when an emigrant ship arrived here, it was met by a labor demonstration with banners indicating that immigrants were not wanted. Some kinds of immigrants are not wanted here or elsewhere. “1 was Loid that the artisan whq | would only stick to his one craft is not needed. He should be adapted, a jack of several trades. Building, for instance, is a very different matter here from what it is at home, for, as in most new countries, buildings' outside the eif.es are constructed by professional men. “Clerks and ‘somethings in the City,’ unless possessed of some special knowledge and provided with occupation before they arrive, had best stay at home. ! The Bar seems to provide a considerable number of wanderers in search of homes. “Men required for Ne\v Zealand should, I am sure, be young, and, if married, newly married—and wisely married. The wives are often a difficul'ty, 1 was told. There is much gossip in Australasia about the inefficiency of many of the war brides from home. There are very few servants to be had in New Zealand, and such as there are. must not work more than eight hours a day. They are, of course, always in demand as immigrants; and their wages are at least twice as much as those paid to a similar kind of domestic at home. Yet, despite the high wages, several English servants we met were returning to England.