THE FINLANDERS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 305, 21 December 1912, Page 18

THE FINLANDERS.

(By EVELYN ISITT.) (Specially Written far the "Auckland Star.") "You know we are not Europeans," said a true Finn, "we arp yellow." He spoke with an exclusive pride that, rather r J puzzled mc, since, after all, we of the r Indo-European family do not consider ; ourselves disreputable connections, till 1 k understood that he regarded this very racial difference as tending to that intensification of the naiional character • which id the present hope of Finland. No one knows exactly who the Finns . are, where they came from, or when they arrived in Europe to settle as two dis- I ' tinct tribes in the lonely Northland; it • is only sure that they arc of Asiatic ■ 1 origin, more or loss distant connections I of the Mongols, Turks, and Hungarians, . and that they have been there a very long time, since their national epic which obviously goes back to remote ages, is l ist-eeped in the colour of the country. l Pagan the Finns remained, learned in , magic arts, till after more than a century of conflict the Swedes conquered them in the 12th century, Christianised them, gave them laws and constitutions, ' j and den.lt justly with them on the J whole, but brought misery on the land which for seven centuries was the battle- , ground between encroaching Russia and the Swedes. Persistently loyal to Sw-eden, j for loyalty is one of their strongest charj act eristics, the Finns yet saw no other s way to end this state of things and to ; secure peace, than by thrawing tbe.m- - selves on the protection of the Czar, and , T in ISO 9 they became a Russian dependE ency. It was a desperate venture, and ; seemed an end of all things, but to their • amazement they found that it was the ■ beginning of their national prosperity. r Since then. Finland has trebled her popu--1 latinn. ; The Finns are a sturdy ra-ce, often 1 showing in their almond-shaped eyes and 1 high cheek-bones, traces of their Asiatic ? blood. They are persistent, dogged, am--3 bitions. and intellectual; and the fact ■ that after the history of the past eight 1 centuries theirs is to-day one of the most progressive nations in the world, is a proof of their vitality and force of char actfr. Included in the population of Finland • are 2,000 Lapps, very distant connections " of the Finns, but a diminishing race, and the Swedish Finns who number one "inhth of the whole. Theise last might pas* quite well for fair Englishmen, and indeed, in these streets of llelsingfors j one sees more fine-looking men of that n tall, well-built, pleasant-faced type we like to consider represents the best typp j of Englishman, than in an English. towi> 3 of --imilar size. ~ For centuries the advantages of wealth L . >nd education, and therefore of social position, have belonged to the Swedish Finns. 2 whose language has been the medium t alike of officialdom and af culture, and it j was necessary for any Finn to master c this tongue before he could receive the [ higher education he earnestly desired n Indeed, when the first State grammar school, where Finnish was to be the s medium of instruction, was opened in i- ISSS, the great difficulty confronting the a teachers lay in the fact that there were 1 no Finnish text-books. Naturally the '' language question is now one of extreme 7 difficulty, and does more than anything " else to c-mphasiso the cleavage between c two classes who are united in their in- ° tense devotion to their country. The ? Finnish party incessantly urges the lt claims of its own difficult and complicated 3 tongue, pro-testing that it is essential to ' the life of the nation, that the masses ' f should have the fullest opportunities of education, culture, and that self-develop-j ment -which will open the door to , those positions hitherto held mainly by a the dominant Swedes. Meantime, in the c Diet, both languages are spoken, an'l - newspapers, both in Swedish and Finnish, > flood a country which has an insatiable ,° appetite for news and political argu- • e ments. y In Helsingfors the Finne show with .£ pride a fine statue erected to the memory of the roan who gave them Kalevala, n - their national epic, Doctor Lannrot, who, y first in his intercourse with his patients j- in the far North, and later in his travels •c on this special mission, collected a mar<r vellous wealth of rhyme, and rune, and .r legend, the traditional wisdom of cenry turies, the songs that had been sung, the )"s stories that had been told, when on winh ter evenings the peasants gathered round ie the fire in the old farmhouses. Many of ie the songs centred round the adventurer s, of four heroes, and these, culled from 1- the rest, were with infinite labour pieced g together till they formed a coherent >c whole, and Finland suddenly discovered >n that she possessed a national epic, full o,f 111 magical beliefs, of nature worship, shown ing in a hundred vivid and beautiful pic J- tures the daily life of her ancient peoples. ,r That was in 1832, and the effect of the BS> discovery, the. impetus it gave to a study 10 of the language, and the part it has played in the awa-kening of Finland, in the a " development of a national consciousness, n can hardly be estimated. The children " learn long extracts from Kalevala at Df school; the students study its inner h meaning at the University, and so great a is the respect for the old wisdom, that in this land where women sit in Parlias " ment. the old bridal songs from Kalevala f.\ are still eung at weddings, and the guests amuse "themselves with the famous S, instruction to the bridegroom. If your . -wife should prove unruly and regardless S ' of your reproofs, he is told, yon should >c '-then instruct her wirh tie willow. Ie Use the birch rod from the mountain, ie In the closet of thy dwelling. In the attic of thy mansion: » Do not eononer her In public Lest the villagers should see thee." There was much humour in old Finland. J_ This i 3 a land of many languages. Rust siau, still necessary for those in public j. I employment, was until recently compul- . ! sory. and I fancy the unhappiest teachers ,1 in the whole world must have been B those who taught Russian to the little [J Finns. "Of course, we were taught," said one, 'Taut who was to make us learn?" They are excellent linguists, and while ~ German is most in favour, there is also n a wide knowledge of French and English. I The splendid bookshops in Helsingfors ~' are as well supplied as Lambton Quay ~ with reprints and cheap editions of Enge lish fiction, and Jack London, strange to i say, is the favourite author. During the v past six years there has been an enorma ou3 growth of interest in England, which a ie now Finland's largest customer, but I (I heard the old complaint that while Germany sends commercial travellers who c apeak all the languages of the country, a and has representatives living on the r spot, England still does her business by - correspondence, or through representa- - tiv« who speak only English. A fine - printing machine, which I was shown, 3 bare the name of a German maker. 1 "Why not an English one?" I asked. My

guide shrugged his shoulders. "1 euppose," he said, '"no one from England called."

Finland has always been well educated; the Lntheran Church saw to that, insisted on the congregations being able to read the Bibtle, one of the few books published in Finnish in those days, and where the population was too scattered to maintain regular schools, met the difficulty with ambulatory schools, so that the loneliest families had a chance to learn. Church schools still exist, Iml now the Finnish system of education is a most elaborate structure, founded on the very efficient elementary schools, and crowned by the University, which has 3.000 students. In addition, the State gives gflnerous aid to private schools, and altogether spends £750,000 a year on education, with the result that the percentage of illiteracy in Finland, 1.2, is the lowest in the world- The children, who develop rather slowly, do not go to school till they are nine o. ten, but after wards cram more into their course than English children do, and their fine schools, the pride o-f the country, aro magnificently equipped.

Finland is especially proud of her mcdi- | cal men, and will allow none but those who hold her degree to practise in thfc country. One hears complaints that the supply of doctors hardly meets the de- j mand, and r,-o wonder, for the medica'. j course takes at least eight years, and ; often ten, partly because the preliminary j science course is so thorough. Nearly all | the students go to Germany during the long vacation, to study and gain experience at the big hospitala there. Knowing that here, as in Scotland, the University draws largely on the farms and parsonages for its beet men, 1 wondered how | they could afford a course so long and ] expensive, but it seems that the wealthy ] men of Finland are very generoue ' patrons of learning, and no student who '■ shows real ability has much difficulty in j obtaining help in his career. The modern ■ patriot believes there ie no way in which ! he can better serve his distressed country, than by making her children efficient, and so opposing to the heavy ignorant force of Russia, the polished intellect of her otherwise helpless dependency. Finland has its Manchester at Tammerfors, an important town where many fac- I tories, linen, woollen, cotton, and paper- j mills derive their power from the Tarn- I merkoski Falls. In the country districts, I the people are engaged mainly in agricul- j ture and in the timber trade, first of j Finland's industries. Under the name of Danish butter, England enjoys the product of many a Finnish dairy-farm, just ac Europe depends for her Swedish tar, mainly on the supply that reaches her from the far north of Finland. There are men of great wealth in the country, but on the whole the people possess only moderate means. The leisured class is small. Nearly everyone works, now more than ever, for the cost of living has increased greatly during the past few years keeping pace with the growth of commerce. Also, I was told, the strain of living has increased. More than ever the young Swedish Finns of the upper classes, are turning their attention not only to commerce, where they have always held sway, but to finance, finding here an outlet for energies that may no longer serve in the army, and that will not serve the Russianised State. Wealth may be the desire of the Swede, but not of the Finn, who, possessed by a boundlese ambition, ha* never had the art of growing wealthy. He wants to know everything, to be abreast of the world and even a little ahead of it, to develop all his powers, and to express himself. It is not only the scholar and the shrewd business man who wants to have the newest knowledge, the latest ideas, but so do the country people in their daily life. We used to be amused to see how in the villages, where one would expect to find the girle etil] wearing their gay peasant dress, they usually had their cotton dresses made with just such high-waisted skirts as London was selling at the summer sales. A lady lived in the country, told mc that she found the women so quick to follow any new suggestion, that once when she had shown one country mother how to make an American suit for heT little son, it wae not a fortnight before every small boy in the district wore pants of a similar cut. "Their hospitality is boundlese. It leaves you with almost a feeling of shame, as of one having illegitimately imposed upon their extraordinary goodnature." Ernest Young's comment on the kindness shown him by Finlanders whom he met casually in the course of his travels, does not over-etate the position, but he might have added that, withal the people are so tactful that they make their hospitality seem the moat natural thing in the world; you forget that you are merely a paeser-by. I met with this kindnees all through, my stay in Finland, both from the people to whom we had taken introductions, and from perfect strangers, and it seemed to culminate on that enjoyable last evening in Helsingfors, when, as the guest of a lady whose acquaintance I made in the train, I was taken first for a motor drive in company with two of her English-speaking friends to the beautiful island park to which an interesting old Finnish farm from the far north hae been transferred and then to finish the evening with a typical Finnish supper at one of Helsingfors' favourite park restaurant. Before going to Finland, ome may think of it only as the Land of a Thousand Lakes, the ideal holiday land, but one must very soon realise that its real importance to Europe is as the home of a most progressive, determined, and efficient race, a race in some danger of being crushed by Russia's heavy hand, but nevertheless more intensely aware of it 3 own nationhood than ever before. To meet with the people, to understand something of fcheir great qualities and achievements, of the adverse conditions under which they are creating their prosperity, ie to be filled with an intense admiration and sympathy for them, and with an earnest hope that their ambitions may be realised. Curiously, too, it 13 to feel that this is a new young land, more akin to our over-seas Dominions than to the old European countries, for with the great awakening of the past oixtv years, Finland has indeed become a new'nation. and has emerged from an a-re-long winter into the sunshine of a summer blessed with extraordraay creative force.

The age of a-n icelVe is problematical The berg that sank the Titanic may have ■been forming on the coast of Greenland when Columbus crossed the sea, or even before that. Then, again, it may have ■been reared by the elements since Peary's first expedition to the Pole, but probably it antedated steamships by many years. Laundrymen declare that the modern servant is developing a taste for elaborate lingerie and flamboyant nightdresses. A tendency, in f*et, to put on frilk.