Contrasts Noted Between Life In France And N.Z.

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27709, 13 July 1955, Page 12

Contrasts Noted Between Life In France And N.Z.

As a Frenchman living in a hotel 18 months ago, Dr. R. F. Regnaud found New Zealand a curious country. “There was nothing to do at the weekends,” he said in Christchurch yesterday. “In France, you can at least sit somewhere and watch the people, and you don’t have to have money for that; but here there were not even people about.” Businesses closed for two days providing an equally confusing situation. “Today I love it.” Dr. Regnaud said on his arrival in Christchurch to spend the rest of the academic year attached to Canterbury University College. “A few months is not long .enough to stay in this country. I was to be here for a year, but I asked that my time be doubled. Sometimes it is pleasant to live in a country like France, which can look to her past, but it is also good to be here, where you think always of tomorrow.

“With the long week-end, you have time to rest, to develop the interests you have, and Jo enjoy your friends,” Dr. Regnaud said. “The tourist may find it dull because he lives in a hotel. Since we have had our own home here, we have learned how much New Zealand owes to its home life. There is always something to do." Dr. Regnaud and his wife spent last year in Auckland and Wellington, and they have come to Christchurch after six months in Dunedin. His doctorate is in economics, and “this is the right place to learn,” he said. Agricultural production and the many novel methods used were absorbing. But because he is only the third Frenchman to come to New Zealand under this visiting scheme. Dr. Regnaud has been asked to do much of his work in the modern languages departments of the university colleges, and in each centre he has visited all the secondary schools. “The pupils ask .me very nice questions, very funny ones, and I enjoy them,” he said. France in 1955 was a very different place from what most people in New Zealand imagined, he said. “You think of us as a people who eat frogs, have nudes in Paris, and change our Government two or three times a week. We also work hard.” Dr. Regnaud said The production of electricity, for instance, had risen from 20.000.000.000 kilowatt-hours to 42.000.000 000 kilo-watt-hours. the greater proportion from hydro works, though coal plants were used a lot in winter.

“The birth rate is increasing—by about 2.900.000 since 1946—and that is a good thinr. It is something new for France.” Dr. Regnaud said. “Some people sav it is because of the very high family allowance, but I do not think so. T think the spirit of France is changed.”

. In World War - France lost about 1.500.000 of its population—about the same proportion as New Zealand But the Dominion had immigrants afterwards and France did not. said Dr.* Regnaud. By 1939. France’s population was about 4.000.000 less than would have been normal. That explained the stagnation between the wars. Now young families were increasing; and where there were children, there must be expansion. Previously, there had been no reason to build new homes and Provide new services. It was ainerent today. France has not been so prosperous for 40 years” Dr. Regnaud said. “Eut we must do something about our changing Governments. The rest of the world does not understand.”