OUR CENTENNIAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 January 1940, Page 5

OUR CENTENNIAL

PROGRESS WITH STABILITY TRIBUTE BY THE LONDON "TIMES.” SPIRIT OF THE PIONEERS CONSPICUOUS. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. LONDON, January 22. “The Times’’ in a leading article paying a tribute to New Zealand’s growth says: “New Zealand’s history affords a startling' contrast between the British ‘lmperialism’ against which Germany dishonestly inveighs and the practice of the doctrine of ‘ lebensranm ’ ( living space). ‘The assertion of British authority was the very starting point of liberty, and the Treaty of Waitangi laid the basis for co-operation between the two peoples. There have been wars but no attempt to teach the degrading dogma of superior race. The Maoris enjoy complete social and political equality.

/“The New Zealanders today stand on their own feet in the world, and have retained a closer affinity with the Motherland than has any other Dominion, but they do not wait for precedents from the Old World. The spirit of the pioneers, is conspicuous, and it translates itself readily into political forms.

“More than one of the most notable modern advances in social legislation has been first tested in Ney Zealand. New Zealand statesmen have shown a masterful touch in public finance, not fearing the kind of heresy which becomes orthodoxy in the next generation. They have achieved strong government without oppression and without weakening the foundations of stable society. They have opened to the poor as free a field of opportunity as exists anywhere on earth. "The Empire extends to New Zealand not only congratulations but also sympathy in the misfortune which has thrown the shadow of w-ar over the anniversary. H.M.S. Achilles’ great feat of arms is already secure in its brilliant page in history, and New Zealand airmen have already written other pages of high distinction. “Whether the rest of the chapter be long or short, it is certain it will all be of the same great quality. New Zealand is fighting for the substance which made her hundred years of growth —for liberty; and her warfare will be worthy of the cause.”