CLIMATE'S INFLUENCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 229, 27 September 1930, Page 1 (Supplement)

CLIMATE'S INFLUENCE.

RACIAL DIFFERENCES.

VARIETIES IN NEW ZEALAND.

(By EILEEN DUGCJAN.)

A New Zcalander who has lived in New York was telling me recently that ho himself could not have believed that he possessed the energy that ho had expended there. "Every day was packed full of effort, ana X always seemed ready for more, it must "be the air there, I think." It reminded me of Sheehan's assertion that the very character of the Celts changed wlien they crossed the Atlantic. From dreamers tliey became doers, and their melancholy became I optimism. Of course, a new land breeds I optimism by providing numerous exI amples of self-made fortune, and a change is almost always stimulating, but he maintained that the climatic influence „wcnt deeper and that racial characteristics disappeared- under one's very eyes. He put it down to an extra supply of ozone and a drier air. It stands to reason that the Gulf Stream fogs and the prevailing rains do make for an underlying melancholy, a sense of defeat and futility as far as worldly success is concerned. We know ourselves the difference that a day's sun makes after weeks of rain. Bee and Butterfly. It is, of course, a truism that land and climate do affect character. Take the difference between Italy and Norway, between the folk of Oceania and the folk of an Arctic country like Russia. The children of the sun are like children, care-free and quick to anger. Northerners are slower in their rages and joys, more steadfast, more stubborn. Their view of life is the view of the bee and not of the butterfly. On the other hand it must be admitted that there are too many generalisations 011 natural characteristics. Not every Russian is dreamy, every Englishman cold, nor every Frenchman mercurial. 111 fact this age is making use of the tool, psychology, to change these alleged attributes. France has made a determined effort to prove that, so far from being volatile, she is scientific, calm and logical. Her youths are being taught to despise emotionalism and to shun sentiment. The change is already evident. In Italy Mussolini is trying to dispel the notion that the world has of Italians as lazy sun lovers. He desires a return to the okl Roman reputation of virility and action. Russia is doing her best to destroy a name for mysticism that certain novelists have given her. She is trying to swing to the opposite extreme and to be a prophet of materialism. America, a byword for

boastfulness, is proving by her Lindberghs and Byrds that she is determined to end that, slur of vainglory. So that, besides climate and the conformation of the land, will power, applied with intent, can change the ways of nations. It is to be remarked in passing that that electric and energising air that sparkles over America has its disadvantages. It is at times too dynamic, too compelling. The nation pays the penalty of high pressure in individual breakdowns. Rightly or wrongly the United States is said to pay for success by nerves. One authority even goes so far as to say that this prevalence of nerves is due to a preponderance of vegetables in the diet. A vegetarian diet does not appear to affect the Eastern races. 111 fact, they are noted for their imperturbability, a trait that is the result of centuries of training and of a racial ideal. There is to the East something almost indecent in the emotionalism of the West, and to the West something numbing in the repression of the East. Something deeper than a mere difference of climate lies between them. New Zealand Differences. Even in our own New Zealand, so interfused are varying national influences that it is difficult to trace to what extent climate enters.. Certainly Aucklanders differ as much from Otagans as Cornishmen from Northumbrians, but there again it is impossible to say whether this is due to nearness to the tropical belt or to a more cosmopolitan population. Otago has the characteristics of its Scottish forefathers, but much in its character assimilates to that of New England, which, too, is cold and rugged. It would bo fascinating-to know how much of the calm and poise of Christehurch is due to the influence of its wide-flowing, tranquil plains, with the climate that attends them. On the other hand there are those who attribute tlieso traits to the fact that it is predominantly an English settlement with the English ideal of restraint and order. The trees give an English look and already in places Christchurch has the dreamy, thrush-thridden atmosphere of an English cathedral close. It has been remarked by more than 0110 traveller that the Coast lias a climate like Ireland. "A-soft-day-tliank-God sort of climate that takes the rain as much for granted as the sun. Perhaps its isolation accounts for its happy-go-luckiness, for Taranaki, which can rain hard too, has not its "come-dav-go-day-God-send-Sunday" philosophy. But there a train the racial element enters in. The Coast is Irish-blent, and that as well as climate may account for the warmhearted, irresponsible gaiety and generosity that has always marked it among the provinces. That and an almost provocative loyalty in its exiles. Never have I met a Coaster who denied the Coast. Marlborough and Nelson, which have a similar climate, do not show any remarkable divergence. Nelson's name,

Sleepy Hollow, is a misnomer, for Nelson is deeply interested in world events, and especially people. Old Nelsonians can trace relationships nearly to Genesis. Botli Nelson and Marlborough arc far more thrifty than the coast, and in that they are indubitably influenced by climate and conformation for those that mako their living above ground live in dread of the seasons. A bad harvest means nothing to a miner, but it means short rations to a farmer. The miner works under such hard conditions that in his leisure hours he spends his money on compensating pleasures, and so is a child of the present rather than of the future with no land to guard and pass ou. The Easier Life. Similarly life is lived on an easier and more luxurious scale in the sheep lands of Hawke's Bay, for larger holdings make larger incomes. Hawke's Bay is jovial and sunny like its own skies. Its sunshine average is very high, and that makes for ruddiness and chuckles. Of course Hawke's Bay has its bad seasons, but on the whole it is prosperous. Taranaki is most democratic. It has won its gain by the sweat of its brow. Its rains bring lush grass, and lush grass brings cows, and cows bring work. It is as inevitable as The House that Jack Built. Cows, it is true, are a fairly sure speculation, but they are animals of routine, and in their season they are masters of the farms. Wellington and Auckland arc world ports, and overseas influences make it difficult io place (hem in their relation to climate. In (lie early days one clerical historian attributed the "factiousness" of the Wellingtonians to the high winds of Port Nicholson. Certainly they always seem to bo in a hurry as if blown along by gusts of wind. The wind, too, may have helped on a certain doggedness of purpose. Auckland must get just enough of the tropical sun to give it a sparkle for it shows 110 capricornian languor. If we could get an Esquimaux to leave his igloo for a hut in Kabaul, wc might be able to trace the influence on his character of a change of climate, but, alas, the only changc might be dissolution. We are so much the slaves of climate that 'he might die without his snows.