Freedom In England And N.Z.

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30055, 13 February 1963, Page 12

Freedom In England And N.Z.

In spite of the class distinctions and definite social strata in England, there was more freedom there for the individual than in New Zealand, said the general manager of Crothall and Company, Ltd., commercial cleaners and caterers (Mr A. E. Crothall), in an address in Christchurch last night on his experiences as a company executive in London and Chicago. “I found that there was more freedom for the individual in England because the great egalitarian pressure in New Zealand leads to widespread conformity and the desire to Conform.” Mr Crothall said at the annual meeting of the Canterbury division of the New Zealand Institute of Management “It is much harder to be an individual in New Zealand with its all-pervading iressure of conformity than it is to be one in London. They respect the freedom to be individual: they have more respect for the individual, and more tolerance for individuality than we have in New Zealand,” he said.

It was true, as many New Zealanders thought, that there are definite social layers in England, but this was not as silly as it sounded to us. There were restrictions between layers, but freedoms within the layers. There was a great gulf, for instance, between the share-owning director and the general manager of a business. It was the gulf between one who owned a business and one who was an employee of it, no matter if he was the top employee. “However, I found this very useful. One knows one’s place; whereas in New Zealand one is often not sure of one’s place. _ There is a freedom in knowing one’s place, and one is respected for it “Social Orbits” “This respect extends both upwards and downwards in London. The director respects the men in the places below him, and they respect his place above. Within the different social orbits there is a great deal of freedom that is lacking here. Interference within an orbit from above or below it, is fiercely resented. Knowing one’s place gives one freedom from embarrassment’’ Mr Crothall said. He considered that New

“They also have a fierce intolerance of interference with the freedoms of individuality.”

Zealand could well reexamine the freedoms still existing in London; the freedoms for which the last war had been fought, and the freedoms set up by New Zealanders’ forbears.

“For example, when next a regulation is proposed in Christchurch or New Zealand, examine the reasons given for it very carefully. The reasons given for it will be that it is for our good. But examine it in the light that it is to be added to the weight of all the other regulations imposed on us. "The English are very suspicious from the long-term view of any and all regulations—quite rightly so. Our desire to conform leads us to accept regulations more easily than they do in England.

“I think New Zealanders could well examine presentday conditions in the light of the aims of the founders of this province—Godley, Moorhouse, Fitz Gerald and others. “In my opinion we have greatly advanced in social amenities, but we are retarded in spiritual progress. In the freedoms of mind and spirit we have lost something somewhere here. I do not know what it is. An easy acquiesence, perhaps, but it goes deeper than that.”