New Zealanders Living Safely, Says Lecturer

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27992, 12 June 1956, Page 14

New Zealanders Living Safely, Says Lecturer

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON. June 11

New Zealanders were a "population living safely,” .said Mr J. R. McCreary, of the School of Social Science, Victoria University College, this evening Mr McCreary was speaking to the Wellington Business and Professional Women’s Club on “What kind of people are New Zealanders?”

Lack of research made it impossible to answer that question accurately, he said, but statistics showed that Nev; Zealanders seemed to be a people who wanted tn live safelv in the economic sense.

The average male marrying age of 29 and the average female marrying age of 26, when there was a fair chance of being established, and the average family consisting of a manageable two and a half children indicated this, he said.

By safety he meant economic and social safety, not physical safety. New Zealanders by and large will seek a certain amount of physical dan ger and hardship, and the seeking of this might well be a reaction to the safety, said Mr McCreary. Mountaineering and Rugby football might be considered as examples.

Need for Research There was a great need for fundamental research o New Zealanders’ characteristics and composition, but so far there had been neither the time nor resources to carry it out. If tl ere were such research it would be a good idea to import some research workers from overseas so there would be no danger of preconceived notions being included in the final result. Whether New Zealanders would oe

influenced to move from a pattern of the British way of life to the Ameri can had been a question suggested to him, said Mr McCreary. “If there is such a thing as a New Zealand way of life I think it will be ‘ways’ of life—there will be more than one pattern,” he continued. The same was true of America, and in 50 years there might be some chance that New Zealanders would have some of the characteristics of Bostonians, but he did not know if they would be like New Yorkers or people froip Chicago. It seemed, however, that New Zealanders would sift American characteristics in a way t'- suit themselves. Americans were typified as individualists, whereas .it had been suggested that New Zealanders were stronglv equalitarian and always wanted to be ‘one of the boys.”