WHAT MEANING?

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 173, 23 July 1936, Page 9

WHAT MEANING?

"VOICE OF THE CITY." NEW ZEALAND'S STORY. ILLUSTRATION FROM O. HENRY I (By E. J. HOWARD, M.P.) In one of 0. Henry's delightful short stories, "The Voice of the City," he tclla how he set out to find what was the meaning of the voice of the city. What were they asking? What was it they

•wanted? I "'First I asked Aurelia,' he says, tone | wore white"Swiss and a hat with corn-j flowers on it, and ribbons and ends ot things fluttered here and there. Tell rne,'°l said stammeringly, 'for I have no voice of my own, 'what does this big-er-enormous-er whopping city saj . must have a voice of some kind-does it ever speak to you? How do you interpret its meaning? It is a tandems mass, but it must have a key. Like Saratoga trunk?' asked Amelia. «'\'o' «aid I. 'Please do not refer to ■the lid.' I have a fancy that every city lias a voice. Each one has something to say to the one that can heal jt. What does the big city say to you.

Now what is the meaning of tlie voice of' New Zealand to you? We have only the population of a large Zealand must have a voice foi • What is it she. is asking foi and how does she expect to get it. Twenty-five years ago, &ays O. Henry, the children used to chant their lessons. I remember one beautiful and instructive little lyric that emanated from the physiology class: "The is the longest bone in the human bodj. And, says 0.H., "The other day I became confused. I needed a ray of light. I turned back to those school days foi «]&. But in all the nasal harmonies we whined forth from those hard benches I could not recall one that treated ot the voice of agglomerated mankind.

New Zealand's Position. j Is there a New Zealand voice? Could anyone say that avc arc aiming at. anything? Have we a picture in our heads of what we want New Zealand to be?Arc we like the Maoris were when the Europeans came here firsr. to colonise? There were at that time in the North Island about 37,000. Maoris, sitting down on 45,000 square miles of country. They were not living very high, but there were no unemployed. They were broken up into many tribes and they had no towns or cities. The Ngapuhi tribe was perhaps the largest and they had conglomerated on that part of the North Island north *'f where Auckland stands to-day. The climate, being good, with no frosts, naturally they went there for warmth and quick-growing food. The South Island was sparsely populated. about three thousand broken up into families rather than tribes and scattered over an immense extent of country.

It must be remembered what is now termed the science of economics had not made very great strides even in the okler countries of the world. Adam Smith had written his "Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations." but about the same time a young clergyman named Malthus had written a treatise on the population question, in which he haa advanced the theory that population could outstrip the 'food supply. Malthus was a student, of Adam Smith, and liis reading of the "Wealth of Nations" had some bearing on his essay on "The Principles of Population." William Goodwin, an j author very well known in those -days, j had written a book on "Political Jus-j j tice," in which he laid it down that j poverty, immorality and disease weiej the result of bad government. David Hume came out with his contribution to the argument, and said that if bad government made men miserable and vicious, the ignorance, of the lower classes contributed powerfully on the other hand both in forming and in maintaining such bad Governments. | Malthus then came forth wHh the first outline of bis famous essay on the ' Principles of Population, and combated I the idea that men could be made perfect ! by good government, and he also ! defended the rights of property against I the Socialistic ideas of tiuve days. MalI thus then upset all the ideas of any j Utopias, and his fundamental basis was I that man was in himself bad. From these conflicts of opinions camc the

desire of many men lo start with the raw material —man—in a ne.v environment, and see if a fairly perfect system could not be built up based on equality and fraternity. The Provinces. Hence we find Otago, for instance, hein~ built up in those southern islands on a foundation largely composed ot people from the Free Church of ocotland. This group bought 400,000 acres of land from the New Zealand Company. The New Zealand Company bad bought from the natives. That was in 1840, and these men had faith in humanity and believed that Cod had made man; in His own likeness. i In 1848 we find another group of. I churchmen who had faith founding the. i province of Canterbury. At iiist thel site was not fixed upon. It was suggested that a block of land in Waiia-, rapa and Manawatu would be most suit-! able, but the native owners of the North j Island had had a glimmering of the commercial side of land selling, and so find ourselves, in the province of Canter- ■ bury, situated in between Nelson and) Otago, and so on. ! We are not dealing with the, founda-, tion of New Zealand so much as the ( reason for the foundation. The voice of] the colony was asking for a new start; | to get away 'from the older countries, j with their poverty and disease. K. Pemberton, in his book, "The Happy Colony," j laid down his conception of how the working men of England could conic here and form a happy colony if they would avoid certain pitfalls that men had dug for themselves in older lands. His was a complete programme founded largely on the Sermon on the Mount, and with very practical suggestions for cac.h fctop of the way. His book was written in 1854, and, strange to say, it is only recently that the voiccb of the Dominion has been heard asking for the things Peinberton asked for in those days. The mills of God grind slowly, but maybe we shall be able to build the happy colony here in New Zealand even j after so many years.

Space will not permit of a longer description of some of the things that Pemberton had in mind. but. unlike Malthus, lie said that man could have all the luxuries he required if he cared to produce them. He, even used the phrase now so frequently used that it is bordering on insanity to starve in the midst of plenty. What i.s the voice of your 'Uy saying V