COUNT OUR MANY BLESSINGS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 456, 19 March 1948, Page 13

COUNT OUR MANY BLESSINGS

By the Hon.

F.

WAITE

C.M.G., D.S.0., 0.B.E. *

AVING lived in many countries during the past seven years, I am more than ever thankful that my mother and father came to New Zealand when they did. There are very few countries in the world where life is so free and conditions so good as in New Zealand. That was borne in on me when I visited Egypt, Turkey, and the Old Country in 1914-16. Then I was shocked by the conditions-the low standards of the peasants on the Continent and the sand women in England and Scotland had to spread the "muck" on the farms. During 1940 to 1946 I had the opportunity of going over the ground again. There was a wonderful improvement in England and Scotland; in many ways their standards have become as high as ours. But in Egypt, Greece, and Italy the working farmers are very poor, even in normal times. It is no wonder that small farmers from Italy were ready to participate in Mussolini’s scheme of land settlement in Cyrenaica and Tripolitania. The lot of the country women in Italy and in Greece is very hard. * * ‘THE settlement of Otago was one of , the béldest in Britain’s glorious records of colonising history. Determined young men and women, dissatisfied with conditions prevailing in the Homeland, looked around to see where they could secure a home overseas, where their children could live a free life, unhampered by the restrictions and the poverty of the Old World. They might have gone to America or ' Australia, but after a good deal of heartsearching, decided to go farther than British stock had ever gone. For in the days of small sailing ships, New Zealand was far, far away. When Robert Burns wrote that lovely song, "My love is like a red, red rose,’ one of the phrases he used was: "Tho’ it were ten thousand mile." In his day that was comparable with "Till a’ the seas gang dry." These young people in Scotland decided to go to New Zealand-more than ten thousand mile. And those who came to the Otago settlement pushed on the (continued on next page)

Otago Cen tennial

FARTHEST FRONTIER

(continued from previous page) farthest of all. In 1848 Otago was the farthest flung frontier of the British Empire. * * * E generally think of these pioneers as elderly men and women. That is what the photographs in the Early Settlers’ Museum suggest to us. But these pictures were made late in their lives. The fact is that the , pioneers were in the age-group of fromm 20 to 40 -young men and younger women, in the very prime of their early lives. To wrestle with the primeval conditions; to tramp and boat over rough hills and bogs and waterways; to live in small tents and grass huts; to carry babies over tussock hills; to cook on open fires -these conditions called for the physical strength and mental resilience of young men and women. When the settlers came:in 1848, they settled in the Otago block, which was

a coastal strip only about 12 miles inland, and extending from the Nuggets to the north of Otago Heads. What was considered suitable for mixed farming was sold in blocks of 50 acres. So the farms were from 50 to 200 acres. Farmers on these small farms were the backbone of the settlement. Then run-holders-men with capital-took up the tussock areas, outside the block, in big river-to-river runs. Gold was discovered in 1861, This gave a great increase in population. Development proceeded apace. But it was not until the Dunedin sailed in 1882 with a cargo of frozen produce that farming began to pay. The chemist and the engineer enabled the exporting farmer to ship mutton and lamb, and butter and cheese to the Old Country. "Dunedin once thrived on gold; now it thrives because of the efforts of those people who breed cows and sheep. And everybody who assists the farmer with essential services is a partner in this work. In 1948 it is as well to pause and remember: (1) That the early settlers laid the foundations of the farming industries; (2) that hard work, a good deal of .capital, and managerial ability have been needed all the time; and (3) that with the natural assets of a reliable rainfall and an equable climate, the early pioneers, their sons, and their grandsons have made-and are making -a real contribution to the necessities of a hungry world. Above all, every day we should count our many blessings, and be very thankful that the pioneer men and women gave us the opportunity of growing up in this lovely country.