DEVELOPMENT OF NEW ZEALAND

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21083, 7 February 1934, Page 16

DEVELOPMENT OF NEW ZEALAND

A LONDON SURVEY TRIBUTE TO SIR THOMAS WILFORD (FROM OUB OW» COKBEgPOKDIKT.) LONDON, January 2. The retirement of Sir Thomas Wilford from the office of High Commissioner provides the "Morn/ing Post" with the text for a leading article on the remarkable development of New Zealand during the last 60 years. The writer says: "To-day Sir Thomas Wilford, High Commissioner for New Zealand since 1930, lays down the office which he has filled with such ability, taking with him the heartiest good wishes of all the many friends whom he has made, both in official circles and beyond them. No better representative could be found of the character which has within the lifetime of many living people transformed a land of virgin forests into one of the most progressive and relatively prosperous countries in the world. Checks to Progress. "Until 1371 progress was checked in the North Island by expensive intermittent wars with the Maori tribes; in the South Island sheep farming and gold mining had stimulated development, but it was not till the 'sixties that external trade began expanding by leaps and bounds. "The seventieth anniversary issue of the 'New Zealand Herald' graphically describes the state of the country when the paper was founded in Auckland in 1863. The Waikato war was in full swing and, in the face of the native hostility, 'an inclination was taking shape to abandon the development of the province and to leave to bush and fern the greater part of the North Island.' A Formidable Task. "Fortunately, these counsels of despair did not succeed. Thousands of British and colonial troops, reinforced by the famous corps of Forest Rangers, led by Jackson and von Tempsky, gradually wore down the resistance of the Maori warriors. Then followed the scarcely less formidable task of opening up the country. The early settlers had no time to fell the forest; great tracks of it were burned down to make way for those farmers who have made New Zealand's name famous for meat, wool, and dairy produce. "In 60 years the dairying income of Auckland alone has increased ifrom £604 to £7,116,000. With the i improvement of communications, and the organisation of Empire markets, there should be a swift acceleration of New Zealand's devel- i opment, without, we may be sure, * any change in that deep attachment" to the Crown and the Empire which adversity has never weakened and prosperity could hardly strengthen."