NEW ZEALAND THROUGH ENGLISH EVES.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume 1, Issue 8, 14 February 1914, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND THROUGH ENGLISH EVES.

Mrs Maude C. Knight, a member of the London Club, now travelling in the colonies for health reasons, has been favouring the Sydney " Daily Telegraph'»» with her views concerning New Zealand. Mrs Knight spent nine months in the North Island, still she modestly disclaims all first hand knowledge. "All the opinions I have formed are naturally biassed by my informants. One has so little chance pf independent observation." ~ Her views on the. political aspect of New Zealand "gives one furiously to think" as the French say. Here they are, as the interviewer has limned them: —"There you really are in a land of State Socialism with a Conservative Government! Oh, no, they don't use the,word Conservative, they resent it; but. the fac,t remains. It is the most extraordinary contradiction imaginable—ad-vanced-legislation, and men in office enunciating the sentiments of our'old-fashioned country squires. The situation was summed UP neatly by a prominent journalist when he wrote, f.There :is no . intellectual ; Socialism in New Zealand. ■■'•■■ 'Now,in- England, so far, our?Sociali'sm is mainly intellectual. Hence my bewilderment."' New Zealand* women will not be pleased to hear that they merely "echo husband's opinions on. matters of prohibition, national questions. That seems to foe Mrs Knight's opinion, although she is not absolutely <'definite "'about it. There are more statements made by the lady which are at least open to argument, as witness the following:^"The educated New Zealand woman, taken en. masse, professes to scorn, her' vote; looks upon the exercise of her privilege as infra dig, asserts roundly that only factory women use •it! Personally,, I'suspect this of 'being a pose, for I have noted the active energy of these same ,women at a municipal election, hav,e watched them lining up en queue to attend parliamentary debates. But they profess indifference : while at the same time expressing rather superfluous pity for the condition of their British sisters, which they exaggerate. As a matter of fact, I consider the English woman's position, for all practical purposes, preferable to that of her New Zealand cousin. For, whatever suffrage may have d'one, it has not improved woman's prestige as far as man is concerned. The New Zealander may reverence his women folk at heart —he talks of them with the supercilious contempt still common in some sleepy English country towns. "And this attitude affects home life. The sexes are drifting apart with separate interests, to ah extent which strikes me as pathetic. Yet the women are so splendid! The New Zealand girl is perfectly delightful. Her mother has a more sober charm, for youth is quickly pressed out of her. The lot of the married woman seems terribly hard to us. How she gets through all her domestic slavery, her philanthropy, her social duties, As a mystery—not to mention her intellectual development. * > A The domestic nightmare shadows all!"'';, Life "for Zealand women is not quite such a tragedy, dear lady. Vt > The lot of the married woman here is no harder than anywhere else.. Youth is not pressed out of her with'siich terrible rapidity. The writer can recall, off -hand,' meeting : hundreds of the most delight 3 ful old ladies in New Zealand, —ladies who kept the slim straight "figures, the, ehjeery, fresh-complexioned faces, the vivid'interests'of thleir youth until well into old age* Not only ladies of class, either, but those who have had or less, all their lives. And educated Nctv iealani women do not, as a rule, profess to scorn the votje, ionly tp cherish it fervently in secret. They are not so absurd, v "While one does not often meet the New Zealander, who, while reverencing hi» womenfolk at heart; still speaksof them with J 'supercilious contempt.'' Where did Mrs Knight find the species 1