IS NEW ZEALAND DULL?

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 178, 31 July 1933, Page 6

IS NEW ZEALAND DULL?

People come to New Zealand from overseas for several reasons; for change, for health or for pleasure; but I think it would be safe to say that 00 per cent of those who settle here do so to earn their living. If they arc successful they, doubtless, think New Zealand a fine place indeed. If they are failures it is excusable in them, being. human, to "crab" the country as an outlet for their feelings of disappointment. In a letter recently received from a friend of Ion" standing, who "came into a little money by the death of a relative in England, I have had our country viewed from an unusual, if not a new, angle. As she was brought here at fifteen years of age, and lived in New Zealand for twenty-five years, her judgment must be regarded with some respect. A woman of forty who never allowed herself to be carried to extremes by fashion or frivolity is hardly likely to bo earned away by new surroundings to the point ot injustice', because she happens to be enjoying a life of moderate, comfort in England instead ot New Zealand. There is in her letter, besides, no hint of that superior amused tolerance which is so &<"> rnrating, and which it is so easy to fall into "when the other side has no defence except "local patriotism." , . ~ M V correspondent rather emphasises the beauties of New Zealand when seen in retrospect. She admits that, save for unusual atmospheric and "distance" effects, she did not take any particular interest in them when living here. But she. is at the fame time, sure that nobody else did either. Whether it is a defect in taste, or because scenic beautv is such a commonplace thin-here, she is quite certain that people pay little or no attention to it. Always excepting "the exceptions," of course. Her own instincts were more of the social order, and it is here that she. indirectly, proclaims her conviction that New Zealand is dull. , ... She makes it clear that the dullness she hints at. is not the dullness of stupidity, apathy, insensibility, or even stolidity. It is the dullness of monotony and of insipidity. With rare exception* due to unusual natural features rather than design, it mattered very little what was the name of the town in which one- went to sleep. One always wakened up to the same soft.of sur--1 rounding* in a greater or less state of advance Thi, is bound to affect, not the character of a 'people, but their outlook on life. If there is iSothins to stimulate, (hem to mental reactions their outlook is likely to be a joyless one. In the , c line of thought she remarks on how seldom one hears a laugh, much less a genuine hearty laujrh, in New Zealand. The people smile and look pleasant, to be sure, but a visitor, used to more magnetic surroundings, might describe such comdncencv as of the "grin and bear it type. The mind needs rest occasionally, and England, with its many by-ways stretching back up the dim centuries' that helped to fashion her provides tho necessary contrast to the bustle of cvervdav life, no matter where you travel there. ■\ nioto'r bus, the very latest "word" in comfort and cheapness, will drop you for luncheon at an inn where Cavaliers or Roundheads may have drunk their last toast. Your afternoon tea will have a new flavour after you have wandered in some old church or cathedral and touched, in their peaceful twilight, the massive pillars ot PJantagenot times. It is not New Zealand j fault that tiiere are no such contrasts here, and that what would constitute a restful change in England is a dulling monotony in this country. Her last protest is against the high cost of livin- in New Zealand. Not only, she thinks, are things too dear when .measured by money, but their value is poor compared with the charges made. This means there is small margin left for experiments in cooking apart from the fact that there is little variety to experiment on. Dull dinners are likely to make dull diners, bhc thinks New Zealande'rs are too prone to judge tho value of anything by the price they have to pay for it and 'she was astonished at the apparent reluctance of those who have obviously plenty of money to live, up to it. New Zealand seems to be neither flesh, fowl nor good red Uexrin*-, neither an aristocracy, a plutocracy nor a reaf democracy. -ADA GOODMAN.