THE MIDDLE OF THE MAP.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 180, 1 August 1925, Page 8

THE MIDDLE OF THE MAP.

Some of our readers may think that there is no need for the Education Department to be solicitous about the position of New Zealand on maps used in schools; that preference for maps with New Zealand "in the centre" may encourage an insular frame of mind. There is, however, something to be said for the Department* point of view. We take it that the maps objected to are the hemispheres in which this little country occupies a very unimportant position at the bqttom near' the edge, looking as if it was in danger of being pushed over, and what is preferred is a Mercator projection map, in which New Zealand looks larger, more important, and more secure. These hemisphere maps might well puzzle the child mind; what really is the relation of its country to the rest of the world? Nor is there any doubt that New Zealand's position on maps of the world, and especially hemispheres and globes, has helped to keep the country unknown. A Frenchman, a German, an American, or even an Englishman, looking at the map, sees a couple of small blurs in the South Pacific, in British maps coloured red, like Australia, and apparently quite near that country. He receives an impression of us as a pair of small unimportant islands in the Australian system. Small-scale maps are necessary in order to get a bird's eye view of countries and the world, but their effect should be corrected by large-scale maps. It is quite common for visitors to be surprised by the geographical facts of New Zealand. A member of the Oxford Debating Team, writing Home about his trip, says the first thing one should grasp about New Zealand is that it is about as far from Australia in time as is America from Europe. As for countries being tbe centre of the world, that is a weakness to which all nationalities are prone, and it is encouraged by the natural tendency to use large-scale maps for one's own country and small-scale maps for other parts. It is true that "God gave all men all earth to love," but since their imaginations as well as their hearts are often small, they cannot picture the immensities of sea and land at the other side of the world. It is very difficult for the Englishman to conceive something approaching the reality of Australia's size or the vastness of the Pacific, just as it is hard for the New Zealander, in judging the United States, to grasp the essential fact of its great sweep from ocean to ocean and from Great Lakes to Gulf.