THE NORDIC RACE.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17296, 7 November 1921, Page 10

THE NORDIC RACE.

SUGGESTED SEASONS FOB NEW ZEALAND'S PBOGBESS.

In replying to the presentation of an illuminated address at the Lerwick Town Hall, Shetland, on September 9th„ Sir Robert Stout, Chief Justice of New Zealand, had something interesting to say regarding the Britain of the South.

He gave figures to show the development of New Zealand, and added that from that they could see what the future of Now Zealand was going to be. They had got a great country, a rich country, wlith a magnificent climate. If they went to any part of the world he did not think they would get a climate equal to that of Now Zealand. He did not mean that the sun always shone, or that they had n» rain and no wind. That climate did not amount to much. He mentioned the Bahamas, a rich, land; people had gone there, but the climate was bo fine and it lacked so much energy that, after three or four generations, the people had lost the power to work, and race degeneration had set in. They in New Zealand had got plenty of wind and rain, and plenty of energy and plenty of. work, and even already they had shown it tended to long life. The probabilities of length of life in New Zealand were 59 years, if a male—perhaps more if a female. In England the probabilities were only about 51 years. They had gained five years over England, and nine years over the United States. That showed the strength of their claim. It was said that New Zealand was the antipodes of England. That was not the case; no part of New Zealand was so far from the sun as Land's End. They were the antipodes of Prance, Spain, and Algeria. .The speaker showed that New Zealand was in the same latitude south as were these places north, remarking that Half Moon Bay, the furthest south part of New Zealand, was on the same latitude south as Paris was north, and that, strange to say, most of the population of Half Moon Bay were Shetlanders. He referred to a statement

| made by Professor Huntingdon, of Yale I University, in regard to the tempera{ture in which the Nordic race of people best flourished and showed that in New Zealand they had got a temperature suitable for the maintenance of j the Nordic race—and it was that race I which had always been the strongest,

the race with the most push and "go," The trouble in Ireland was caused by the fact that the people of the south and west were not of the Nordic race. They could roughly _ divide Western European mankind into three races—the Nordic race, the Alpine race, and the Mediterranean race. The peoplo of south and west Ireland were of the

, Mediterranean race, or, more properly, , an amalgam of that race. The people i in the north were of the Nordic race, i and were far more energetic than the , people of the south. If thoy went to the United States they found the same 1 thing—that was, in the northern States . the people were far more energetic than in the south. In the south, after some i generations, they fell off. They did *■ not produce great men like those produced in tho North. If there was to be a great country like New Zealand to be colonised, why should not Shetlanders > take a part and enjoy its climate and advantages? and why should they hin- > der Shetlanders from entering into • competition with others, and showing ■ what they could do, as they had in the . past? _^ ') The directors of a cinema and > treamatorium bid against each other ' for a stage organ at the sate by auction in London of relics of the I late Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree. The i organ was a large ornate structure de- • signed for the cathedral scene in "Much > 4.d0 About Nothing," and used in ' Henry VTIL and other plays. .It was ; bought by the Cremation Society or ' England for 270 guineas, end will be < installed at t'a» St. John's Crematonnm at Woking, Surey. Miss Viola Tree > bought for 10 guineas, on benalf of her mother, Lady Tree, a stege ring that had once belonged to the gre%t a'-tor Macready. Oliver Twists bed- ; ding brought 365. A bust of Dumas, the amusing expression of which caused : much laughter, went for £l, and curtains used in "A Perfect Gentleman" for £2 7s 6d. Practically all the Tree * portraits were bought by members of ; the family.