NEW ZEALAND HOUSE BESIEGED

New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 349, 1 March 1946, Page 7

NEW ZEALAND HOUSE BESIEGED

Brainsmand Brawn=Clamour to be Imported

* (Written for "The Listener’ by

SEAN

DILLON

ce HE butcher, the baker, the * candlestick maker" ; not the last-named — not yet, but dozens of his modern equivalents, the electrician. It’s a current popular joke at New Zealand House, London, that makers of candlesticks and glass-eyes for children’s dolls are among the few people who have not yet come to the counter and shyly asked: "Can you give me any information about emigration to New Zealand, please?"

about it, instead of flitting off to another country where they don’t need you?’’ He may also make a quiet reference to the spirit of the pioneers. But the Enemy is subtle, and he wouldn’t have put this question to you unless he’d known the only possible answer. He knows very well that if you stay in the little country and try to do something about it, he stands a good chance of filing off these ugly rough edges of non-conformism, packing you back into the appropriate box, and fastening on a pretty label. In all probability, . he wouldn’t even have to close the lid of the box, for his allies are many and powerful, and often possess the great virtue of not knowing that they are his allies. The only possible answer you can give the Enemy is something like this: "Beat me, orthodox Christians, for I am a villain. I am no Lenin, and no Christ. I cannot work as I would like to work, as I feel I can work, unless the. seed TI am sowing grows quickly. and cleanly. so that I can watch it grow, and unless I can sow it in the company of many others

For eighteen months now, up to 200 enquiries a day have been received by the High Commissioner’s Office regarding the prospects of settlement in New Zealand. Over 100 letters a day; up to 100 calls at the counter. Each mid-day the Englishman forms yet another queue, this time across the wide foyer in which carpenters, glaziers and painters are busy preparing the once-sightless windows for displays of New Zealand produce and general publicity. Heedless of the hammers, the girls on the counter deal with the enquirers individually or in batches,

who are stronger than I. I am not strong enough to fight you unless there are others to help me, who love the same things. And it is not enough for me to know that they are there, but in othe-countries--I need them at my right hand and all about me." Does the desire to escape, then, arise fundamentally because of the hope that the people.of England will be more tolerant, and that there will be many men who will support you if the people do happen to turn against you because your faiths are not those of their teachers? I think it does. I know that much of our best native literature has ‘been born of despair, but that is no argument for despair. There is no answer to the old question of whether you get the best work out of an artist by feeding him or by starving him; that will depend on the artist. I’m afraid that I’m one of the many who need to be fed, and until New Zealand realises that this need is urgent and widespread it will not rear pioneers: it will continue to breed, teach, and finally exile wretched cowards like myself, |

for the questions are almost always the same. So are the answers. With a little red book, New Zealand, whose cover shows a land-girl feeding lambs, and a printed slip "Prospects of Settlement," some sit on sofas beside a glass-case of kiwis, or beneath a new, huge picture-display, "This Land of Ours," and think up their questions. Some add our pamphlets to the little bundle collected from the offices of the other High Commissioners. and debate the advantages of Canada, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand in homes from Watford to Wapping Wall. How many debaters? Well, 10,000 pamphlets lasted three months and each pamphlet usually means more than one would-be immigrant, And that’s only those who bother to call or write. +