PIEBROT ABROAD.

Auckland Star, Volume XL, Issue 121, 22 May 1909, Page 14

PIEBROT ABROAD.

LAST OF GERMAN SWITZERLAND

I suppose it would hardly be possible! to imagine a greater change, of atmos- j phere in a small country than that be- i tween German and French Switzerland. I Next week I hope to be able to give you j some details of Geneva —"the Paris of Switzerland," one of the most beautiful cities of Europe, and only as like Lucerne or Zurich as Rome is like St. Petersburg. Meantime I have a few last details to give you of this beautiful, but hardly representative city of Switzerland. Lucerne is of perhaps directer interest to New Zea landers than any other centre in Switzerland. The Canton has probably provided more settlers for Maoriland than all the rest put together. It i= only a few days ago that New Zealand gained twenty new settlers from the district of Zug, close to this city; and it is interesting to note that at thi3 moment there are one hundred natives of Zug alone in the Dominion. I have not the materials at hand to give you the population of the district, but I think it is safe to assume that proportionatelyspeaking it is remarkably well represented at the Antipodes. It is significant that several of the twenty who left Lucerne last week took the occasion to take a wife as a preliminary to their adventure. This suggests to mc a moral. There is assuredly no better population to encourage as settlers than the Swiss. Agriculturists born in all the districts from which there is a tendency to emigrate to the Antipodes, they come as agriculturists, and with the fixed intention of going on the land. They are assimilable, because the political conditions of their country while supporting patriotism, do not encourage rigid distinctions of race. People who are used to consider two other races as part and parcel of the same nation are obviously more capable of adapting themselves to a foreign atmosphere than those nouished on ideas of the supremacy of one sole nationality. Hence, I think the New Zealand Government might well look to Switzerland to provide some of its best and most efficient citizens. The leaven must not be more than the flour, of course; but no sane man could admit the possibility that it would be. And a national leavening is more necessary than the. man who has thought nothing of sociological problems will have realised. The patriotism of the true patriot is broad enough to see the uses of the foreigner in strengthening his country. Another great advantage in obtaining settlers from Switzerland is the fact that they would come from a country almost exactly as democratic as Xciv Zealand. There "would be none of the risk of importing people from a country where, for example, the hour 3of worK were long and the conditions of employment otherwise bad. They are used to the eiphthour day. and to a high standard of comfort. I have not seen a ragged man in nine weeks in Switzerland, and I have given up expecting to see one. There is consequently nothing to fear In the matter of under-selling labour—as there would be, for example, from an influx of Italians. Swiss independence may be a little politer in some of its manifestations than the British variety, but it is every bit as real, and as a political force, it is every bit as effective. Then they are a hygienic race, insisting on houses of scruplous cleanliness and loving bright rooms as few other peoples. I know of no place where light and space and air are so cheap as in Lucerne In short, I think New Zealand has in Switzerland an ideal country on which tc draw for future settlers. And evidently a little land with four times the population on half the territory of New Zealand has settlers to offer if the inducement v forthcoming. We do not hear much nowadays of al the wonderful schemes for the utilisatior of water-power in New Zealand. Iγ Switzerland, of course, this productive force has been more developed than ir any other country. But it is curioui how one is apt to forget obvious facts until one is in face of them. I have tc admit that it never occurred to mc thai the utilisation of mountain waters would be greatly restricted in winter. This fact, which should have been self-evident is a serious drawback to the complete success of some of the largest undertak ings. The glaciers, for instance, onlj give a minimum of water in winter; anc works dependent upon them often have tc install a steam plant to tide them ovei the season of greater cold. At present for example, the Lucerne trams are run ning on power generated by steam. With the summer—or, at least, the spring— the snows will have melted and there will be more than enbugh water for the neces sities of the town in the matter of botr light and power. New Zealand is in a happier situation in tbi3 respect; for i 1 the volume of water may vary, as il does, between the seasons, at least there is no such terrible factor as ice to b( reckoned with.

1 wonder that Colonials have not tried I the German store as a means of heating their houses in winter. Its slow combustion makes it exceedingly economical; as far as I can see, it is healthy; and it has the advantage of being capable of regulation. The heat is more evenly diffused than with the open hearth, and it seem? to mc far better adapted for colonial winter temperatures than the English grate. It is so cheap that I never dream of letting mine go out, even if I am away for six or Seven hours. Although the coal is nearly double the price of coal in England, I find a fire in one"s room is much less of an extravagance. It is moreover much cleaner, and for bedrooms it has the advantage that it burns slowly practically all the night, and never overheats the room. Perhaps it is as well to add that I have not made a "corner" in German stoves, and that I know of no prospect of their early introduction into New Zealand. I merely write "pro bono publico." From emigrants to German stoves is certainly a change of subjects. And now I propose to leap again to German beer. Sitting with mc in a cafe last night, a Swiss acquaintance was tempted by the suggestion of the "bocks" of Munich beer on the tables around him to enter on a disquisition on the varieties of that famous beverage. And, incidentally, he revealed much with regard to the drinking ! capacity of the inhabitants of Munich > itself. He mentioned as an ordinarily I ■ extraordinary person an individual who c took IS litres (45 glasses) at one sitting. > i \ That proves, if one needs any proof, what r I desperate trouble and discomfort people rjwill go to in order to get drunk. A i i ITrenchman was also with mc. "Shall i-l-we talk about absinthe after that! Par*lS^7v ! ■**/«"**» the "so" 1 * **» bigger