AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25936, 17 October 1949, Page 6

AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE

“DISTORTED IDEA OF NEW ZEALANDERS” PROFESSOR E. L. PALMER’S ADDRESS "I am certain that New Zealanders have a distorted idea about American prosperity, and I doubt if I can do much to correct the wrong impressions New Zealanders obtain from svndicated newspapers,” said Professor E. Lawrence Palmer. Professor of Rural Education at Cornell University, New York, in a national broadcast last evening. Dr. Palmer was one of the first Americans to travel to New Zealand under the Fulbright scheme, and has spent five months attached to Canterbury Agricultural College. Lincoln. Ridiculous statements had been made about the economy of New York city, said Dr. Palmer. A New Zealander had reported that he had been unable to buy a meal in New York for less than £l. “A good meal can be obtained in New York for a similar price to that paid in any well established restaurant in Auckland, Wellington, .Christchurch, or any of’the bigger cities in New Zealand,” he said. “I can buy shoes, clothing, or a suit much cheaper in my country than in yours.” The other day a New Zealander told him that a new American car had cost him the equivalent of 4000 dollars, before devaluation. “I know that 1 can buy a pimilar car in my country for less than half that price.” he said. To buy a similar car, a New Zealander would have to save the price of his fortnightly haircuts for 800 years, while an American saving his fortnightly haircuts could buy the car in 50 years. “One New Zealander had the idea that American students did little but prepare themselves for a life of leisure. That is going to be one of the best jokes that I will tell when I return. to the United States,” said Dr. Palmer. In America, he said, many more young people worked their way through college without the help of bursaries than did students in New Zealand. “In spite of that, we require a longer and more expensive period of training than you do.” he said. Dr. Palmer criticised Mr J. Hemming. 8.A., of London, research officer of the Association for Education in Citizenship, who visited New Zealand recently, for saying that “The standard of the better schools in Now Zealand was equal to the best anywhere in the world.” Mr Hemming admitted that he had not seen the schools in the United States. Dr. Palmer said that a newly-built school he saw in New Zealand had a most modern dental clinic, bu.t practically no library or library facilities. He had been disappointed to learn from a New Zealand headmaster that his most brilliant students did not continue their training to a point of maximum attainment, because there “was no need for them to do so.” Dr. Palmer said he wished to thank New Zealanders for all they had done for him and his wife and son. “My impressions about you were generally good when I first came here, but they grew better." he s:ii<!