PRAISE FOR NEW ZEALAND

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22240, 3 November 1937, Page 10

PRAISE FOR NEW ZEALAND

"A POCKET EDITION OF THE WORLD"

IMPRESSIONS AFTER TOUR ABROAD

AMERICA AND EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

"New Zealand is a pocket edition of the world," was the summary given by Mr R. T. Sladen who with his wife returned to Christchurch yesterday after a tour of eight and a half months abroad. Mr Sladen visited the United States of America after passing through Canada, and visited Britain and countries on the Continent.

"I met an American on a train," Mr Sladen said. "He asked me where I came from. He had not heard anyone speak as I did. I told him I was from New Zealand, and he asked what we had there. 'A . little of everything' was my reply, and that is my impression after my travels.

"I am more than ever satisfied that New Zealand is a paradise," he added. "As for machinery and fashions, I think the Dominion is as up-to-date as any other country in the world; for postage, we are, of course, the cheapest country of all; and the food is definitely cheaper and, more than that, it is fresh and not tinned or dried."

In nearly all the countries he had visited, and especially in Great Britain and Germany, he had found that any mention of New Zealand was a password to almost anything, and officers and policemen would do all in their power for the Dominion's people. The one thing New Zealand did not possess was the equivalent of the Grand Canyon, he added. American towns and buildings impressed him very favourably; however, the people of the east coast seemed too artificial and too cosmopolitan compared with the more English attitude of the westerners. The filthy negro quarters in various parts of the States compared most unfavourably with the living conditions of Maoris in the Dominion. England and Scotland, through which lie motored 4500 miles, both leit the impression of dirty cities, he said; but he did not think England would be England if it were not dirty. The signs of prosperity were obvious, and people there attributed the boom to the huge expenditure on armaments. France. Germany, and most of the European countries seemed very prosperous, with the exception of Austria. To-day, Austria was a very poor country; Vienna had lost its old glory and passed it on to Budapest. Denmark and Norway, too, were prosperous countries. In Czechoslovakia, however, he had been impressed mainly by the dirtiness, compared with other countries, of the people, and by the absence of the welcome with which New Zealand tourists were generally received. It had been noticeable that *in no country visited had there been talk of the Spanish conflict or had there been any display of inter-racial feeling.