HIGHLY FLATTERING.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 168, 17 July 1924, Page 8

HIGHLY FLATTERING.

» THE PEOPLE OF NEW ZEALAND. AS SEEN BY GREAT AMERICAN SURGEON. It is always of interest to know how ! we appear to other eyes (says the ; 'Otago ; Daily Times"). If the eyes are those of > a particularly keen and competent critic, and if his judgment is kindly and 1 favourable, the information is doubly i acceptable. Dr. Franklin H. Martin, of , Chicago, the managing editor of "Surgery. Gynecology, and Obstetrics," the 1 official journal of the American College lof Surgeons, was a recent welcome visitor to these shores, and to the June . number of his journal he contributes 1 a description of his tour. He concludes , with a striking and highly-flattering j reference to the people of Australia and I New Zealand. Though Australia is expressly mentioned, the wording of the [ passage makes it clear that tlie refer- | ence is chiefly to our own country. t "If," writes Dr. Martin, "a Royal Commission had been selected 200 years ago to discover somewhere on earth ideal lands, with an ideal climate, with ideal topography, and with a diversity ! of resources, it could not have made a bettor selection than Australia and Kew ! Zealand to provide for a high civilisa- _ tion. These islands extend from the ; milder tropics through the temperate - to the milder frigid zone of latitude. • They have rich agricultural plains that ; will grow in abundance all sustaining i foods; they have rolling hills on which to graze their cattle and their sheep; I they have marvellous mountain ranges i that furnish all varieties o' minerals ) to the world, and that reproduce tbe i scenery of Switzerland and the beauties of our own Rockies in Canada and the . United States. They have thousands of _ miles of seashore, rugged and beautiful, with capacious harbours for commerce ■ and long stretches of pleasure beaches that reproduce the charm of Brighton and Atlantic City. The islands are large enough,,in area to house an empire of . people and to duplicate the wealth and ' culture of the United States,or England; and they are isolated enough to make ! it possible to cultivate an independence ! that will rid them of the undesirable and antiquated conditions and usages " of the older countries. "The people of Australia and New > Zealand are our kind of folk. They are ' predominantly Anglo-Saxon, and they - or their immediate forefathers had the 1 vision or independence to select these far-off islands for a future home. They - must have had in their make-up not I only a spirit of independence but as well t of initiative, of ideals, of frugality, and j of industry. This combination in any people moulds the character that will peacefully conquer tbe world. They are the survival of the fittest of a great civilisation. These people create just that impression upon the stranger visiting their shores —the survival of the fittest. The settlers of these far-off countries, after assuming the responsibility of establishing their homes there, have exercised their good judgment and have insisted upon keeping their stock pure by refusing to mongrel- - ise themselves by unwise intermixture y oi races. The people of these countries, j because of the equable climate, live in j the open; they develop physically and t mentally in the out-of-doors; they are t advocates of friendly contests and , sports which engender the spirit of fairly play; they are predominantly meat , eaters, utilising the stock of their great f grazing plains. Physically and mentally the men are veritable giants; the women are strong and self-reliant, and have 1 great charm and culture of person. These countries have a future of infinite * possibilities which will aid in balancing ' the peace and prosperity of civilisation."