THE OPTIMISM OF NEW ZEALAND.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10041, 11 May 1910, Page 3

THE OPTIMISM OF NEW ZEALAND.

"Two distinguished writers in the North American Review succinctly describe the present position of New Zealand; its problems and Ita policy. These writers are Sir Robert Stout, Chief Justice, and Sir Joseph Ward, Prime Minister of New Zealand. The former," saya the Glasgow Herald, •'inclines to lay stresß on the attractiveness of the country to the visitor and the settl&r, the beauty and variety of its iandscapea, the geniality of its climate, the fertility of its soil, though he does not neglect the political and industrial conditions and those social experiments which have created so much interest in lands where aversion from change is less pronouned than it is in the progressive South. NEW ZEALAND'S PRuSPERiTY. "Sir Joseph Ward's briefer paper will gladden the heart of the reader whose conceptions of prosperity and progress [axe inseparably associated revenues and the cheerful ring of dollars. Undeniably New Zealand is in a flourishing state. Threefourtha of the money she borrowed the years 1891 and 1908 are invested in interest-bearing securities or in interest-bearing activities. Tramways, gasworks, waterworks, and electric lighting are municipal concerns; there are even municipal theatres. The State owns the railways, and appears to be in a fair way to making land nationalisation an accomplished fact, first of all by compulsory purchase, and secondly, by the imposition of a graduated tax which compels ihe splitting up of large, undeveloped blocks of land. Add to all this an efficient system of education, restrictions on the liquor trade far in advance of anything the Mother .Country has attempted, a very small criminal class—no mention is made of an unemployed population—and one ia inclined to marvel why the paradisaic conditions has not long before this attracted to a lpnd so blessed and opulent a larger share of the emigration which goes from our shores.

"It is true, however, that with ali her prosperity „New. Zealand continues to have her problems —fateful world, the serpent in every Eden. Even where every prospect pleases and the State endeavours to be the most benevolent of parents, it seems to be impossible to satisfy and avoid democracy. The . failure of compulsory arbitration is admitted. Under the amended law more prominence is given to conciliation than to coercion. Possibly the results may be more satisfactory than those yielded by the cruder attempt to make the lion and the lamb iie down together and exchange amiable purrings and bleatings.

COLONIAL OPTIMISM v. HOME PESSIMISM.

"One is impressed by the note of confident optimism which reaches us in every message from the self-gov-erning communities of the Empira. South Africa is a little perplexed by political difficulties. They -are ripples on the deep current which South Africans know is bearing them steadily or. to prosperous times. Canadians declare with an enthusiasm which only the profoundest conviction could inspire that to them the twentieth century belongs. Australia maintains the same confident, courageous outlook: while New Zealand, as we have ~een, not only believes in her futuiv., but poses, not immodestly, as a pattern State which even her rivals in prosperity may pro fitably imitate.

men sit and hear each other groan," where in spite of ourselves the I, shadow of vaster problems than our kinsmen can know darkens the present and lies forbiddingly on the vista before the nation, the strong; exulting voice in which these younger peoples sing of their triumphs and hail the coming days strikes a responsive chord."